Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is a faux documentary about Leslie Vernon, an up-and-coming serial killer. The documentary's crew follows Leslie around as he prepares for his latest killing spree. Most of the film is shot in a hand-held documentary style, but there are a number of sections in the film that are presented in a traditional cinematic style, mostly whenever Leslie springs into action. Though Behind the Mask deconstructs a lot of slasher movie conventions and clichés, it avoids most of the pitfalls of post-Scream horror movies by placing its characters in a world where Freddy Krueger and Jason Vorhees are real-life serial killers. Clever horror movies rarely work, but Behind the Mask is an interesting, post-modern take on the slasher genre.

Rating: 79%

(Image from best-horror-movies.com)

2 comments:

DCP said...

I dunno, I don't think I can take one more faux documentary movie. It seems like such a narrative cheat.

Quammy said...

The cinematic portions balance out the movie. Plus, the documentary portions are more Cloverfield than Blair Witch. The film makers had enough sense (and budget) to make it watchable. Mostly though, the movie works because you can sense the affection for the horror genre. Robert Englund and Zelda Rubinstein have small parts and there's even a cameo from Kane Hodder.