Here’s a funny story. Several years ago TD kept hounding me
to watch this movie called Behind the
Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. I don’t know why, but I kept putting him
off. I was coming off an era where I had been burned by his suggestions before
and so I stubbornly refused time and time again. But he wasn’t having any of
it. One day he put the disc in the DVD and player and said, “You are going to
watch this flick, Boo. Because there is no way you will not love it.”
Hijacked, and a little annoyed about it, I relented. And,
I’ll admit it, I pouted a little bit, too. But the pout didn’t last for long,
because within the first ten minutes of the film, I was laughing my stubborn
little ass off! At the end of the flick, I had to look at TD and say, “Okay, I
will eat some major crow on that one.” As a result of that forced viewing, this
movie has become one of my top ten horror flicks of all time.
Behind the Mask,
directed by Scott Glosserman, is one of the most inventive horror movies I have
ever seen. Filmed in mockumentary style, it is set in a world where all our
favorite horror movie slashers are very alive and real. A journalist and her
two man film crew travel to an unassuming small town called Glen Echo, to
follow aspiring slasher, Leslie Vernon, as he meticulously prepares for his
night of terror that will catapult him into the ranks of horror infamy, right
alongside Jason Voorhees, Michael Meyers, and the like.
I won’t say much more, because I don’t want to inadvertently
spoil the flick, but I will say this movie has been hailed as the ultimate love
letter to horror fans. Quite honestly, I’m always surprised that this movie has
not gotten more attention from the horror community. The camera work is good,
the script is amazing, and the actors are first class performers.
There are cameos from horror greats like Robert Englund,
Kane Hodder, and Zelda Rubenstein. Also in the flick is Scott Wilson, who is
probably most known for his role as Hershel Green in The Walking Dead. But the true star of this film is the relatively
unknown Nathan Baesel, who plays Leslie Vernon. Baesel has an incredible
ability to charm you in one second and scare the shit out of you in the next,
and all with nothing more than a shift in his facial expression, effortlessly going
from jovial to psycho. It is truly a shame that the Academy Awards refuses to
recognize horror, because Baesel would easily be one of my picks to win an
Oscar. He seriously is that good. Admittedly, I haven’t seen anything else he’s
in, so maybe he is a one trick pony, but I don’t care. As Leslie Vernon, he is
an absolute rock star.
I am revisiting this movie and putting my glowing review out
there, because it is a movie that every horror fan needs to see. And while it
has done solid sales in DVD’s, it should still be getting more attention. But
it’s a small, independent horror flick and therefore doesn’t get the promotion
it deserves. So I’m doing my part to spread the word.
I’m also revisiting this movie because Glosserman is set to
make a sequel called Before The Mask: The
Return of Leslie Vernon. But in a surprising turn of events, the
distributor of the first film refused Glosserman, not only in financing, but in
distribution for Leslie Vernon’s sequel. As a result, Glosserman is not only
adding ingenuity to the horror franchise in the kind of movie he makes, but
also in how the movie will be financed. Glosserman is setting out to have the
first film to be funded by fans, horror movie lovers like you and me.
Glosserman gives several options for this venture, which can
be found at the Before The Mask
Kickstarter website. You can contribute as little as $5, or pre-order a special
edition DVD/blu-ray of Before The Mask.
Pledge enough and you get to be one of Leslie Vernon’s movie kills, or could even
become an executive producer! I, for one, think this is a brilliant way to
approach financing a film. In a time when movies are spinning out of control,
studios making loads of garbage without any accountability to the fans,
Glosserman has found a solution where he gets to make the movie he wants and
fans get to intimately and directly support the movie they want – everybody
wins! And I have put my money where my mouth is. When this film gets made, my
name will be in the special thanks of the credits and I’ll get to watch those
credits roll on my special edition blu-ray!
While it is a massive undertaking, Glosserman has reason to
believe it’s workable. In an interview on twitchfilm.com he stated, “We sold
mid six figure units on the original DVD and if half of those people spend
twenty bucks pre-ordering the second film, then we’ve raised more than a
million dollars.”
But, it must be done
by August 9th!
So, step one folks, get on Netflix or Amazon or whatever and
watch Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie
Vernon. I promise you guys, you will love it so much you’ll have no problem
plunking down the $20 or $30 to pre-order the DVD or blu-ray for Before The Mask. This brings me to step
two: Go to the Before the Mask Kickstarter website to learn more about how to
preorder the DVD/blu-ray, or to explore other options on how to support this
new and wonderfully inventive horror franchise.
And get on Twitter and tell Leslie Vernon he’s your favorite
serial killer and you want to have his baby. Erm, or not. That might be kind of
weird. But you can still tell him he’s your favorite serial killer.
