Presents

Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon

Most of the time, when you hear about a movie that's a mock-u-mentary, you think of something like Spinal Tap, something that's purely funny and a send up of the genre.  Well, when I heard that term applied to Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon, I got those chills down my spine!  No!  Not another movie poking fun at the horror genre!  It seems that everyone thinks that horror is 'ripe for satire' and, I have to tell you, it's been done to death, so with that little nugget, I sat down to watch Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon.

  Within just a minute or two of viewing, it becomes apparent that Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon is quite a bit more that a 'mock-u-mentary'.  The movie is set in a universe where the Jason Voorhees', the Michael Myers' and the Freddy Krueger's are real and not mystical beings, but men doing a job...even though that job is killing and terrifying people.  Well, young Leslie Vernon is hoping to join their legendary ranks by studying and planning out his first historic night of terror!  He's even so sure that he's going to succeed that he's invited some people from a collegiate film department to make a documentary about his planning and the eventual massacre.  We see Leslie explain who he needs to kill and why, we have the jock, the nerds, the stoners, all the stereotypes are there and explained, there's even the careful selection of the 'final girl' that is so essential to a proper mass murder.  Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon isn't really a comedy, it has it comedic moments, but at it's core, it's a horror movie, a tribute to the slasher genre of the 80s, and it's just a great movie!

Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon is a movie that's unlike anything I've seen before, it's a horror movie that doesn't take itself so seriously, and because of the semi-light hearted beginning lulls the viewer into the false sense that this isn't a horror movie, so when the horror begins, it's just that much more scary, it's a movie that really deserved a wider release than it originally got and it's probably one of the best horror movies I've seen in quite some time, it's original without discarding the past, it's scary without taking itself too seriously and it's a movie that I'd love to see a sequel to!  I'm giving Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon four out of four cigars, because I don't have a five cigar rating!  Yes, it's that good!  This is one of those movies that you'll rent and then you'll run out to buy, because you have to own it.  So, until next time, when I'll take off my own Bad Movie Guy mask to reveal my true face...or as it's called 'the face that no one would ever date!', remember that the best movies are bad movies!