Behind the Mask - The Rise of Leslie Vernon Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

Flaccid

A fan-centric horror comedy (neither scary or particularly amusing, incidentally) that derives a few neat ideas and the odd witty in-joke from its premise, this cheap and deeply uncheerful, somewhat amateurish film (essentially a crude mash-up of Scream and Man Bites Dog) loses its focus way too early and never recovers.

A small documentary crew spend a number of days following a local serial killer around a small American town, as he prepares to massacre a band of hormonal teenagers in an abandoned farm house. The early sequences are by far the film's best, as Vernon selects his victims, based largely on mistakes and wisdom gained from his real-life idols Jason, Freddy and Michael. We also meet his guru, a kindly old man who's managed to preserve himself beyond his years by spending days on end lying in a flotation tank buried at the foot of his garden (Ed Gein is his suggested identity.)

Then the film stops dead. Leslie Vernon, despite his appropriately horrific (though far too brief) back story, isn't a particularly interesting character, but the film is completely obsessed with him. So for the next half hour, the audience is treated to a rather dull character study in which not a great deal happens. The crew's objectivity (or lack of it) is not explored, and when the plot, as promised, turns into a slasher movie in the final act, its one of those tension-free, virtually bloodless offerings that seems to last an eternity.

Robert Englund's cameo is very welcome (he riffs amusingly on Donald Pleasance's character from Halloween, but he is given far, far too little screen time) and some of the script's wry pops at horror movie cliches are worthy of the Scream comparison, but whilst it trusts its audience's knowledge of these movies, it frequently abuses its roots as a faux-documentary. Impossible cutaways abound, two cameras become three when it suits, and everything is always impeccably lit... you'd have to be spellbound by this flick to not notice or ignore such laziness.

The acting is deeply schizophrenic (Nathan Baesel, who plays Vernon, is borderline exceptional; the film's leading lady, however, is unconvincing on a truly supersonic level) and the film's tone is far too dry to really involve. What we're left with is a limp, gutless failure that will be of only mild interest to the previously converted.

Intelligent Horror Fan? This Is Worth Watching

There have been many low-budget slashers and post-modern takes on the slasher film but this is one of the best I've seen in a while. Yes, it is low-budget and the acting is not exactly A-list but i found this a entertaining and fairly intelligent take on the slasher genre. From a 'Man Bites Dog' take on following a potential killer this then turns into a table-turning slasher itself with a lot of nods and winks for horror fans and a decent denouement.

I must say that the folks who gave this bad reviews must have not seen the amount of dross I have as a horror film buff, 'cause this ain't half bad for a low budget production.

If you want gore, nudity and killings a plenty then this is the wrong film for you.