Day 87: Behind the Mask- The Rise of Leslie Vernon

I was going to write about The Omen or Suspiria but neither of them really move much in me to write about. I think both are dreadfully overrated (although Suspiria is pretty to look at). So instead, I am going to write about this little indie horror that tried to bring a fresh approach to the psycho killer genre. It begins as a documentary with a camera crew following "Leslie Vernon" as he makes meticulous preparations for stalking and killing a group of teenagers. He is a fan of Jason, Myers, Krueger, Leatherface but he doesn't have any supernatural abilities like being hard to kill or magically appearing where you least suspect. So, he booby-traps a house so he can outwit his prey.

There are appearances by Robert Englund (Freddy) and Kane Hodder (Jason) as well as other horror regulars. Everything seems very post-modern, with tongue planted firmly in cheek until the end of the second act. When the camera crew gets overwhelmed with guilt over filming this killer, the movie switches to regular third person omniscient and suddenly, the crew is part of their own horror movie. It is the kind of clever development that I was honestly expecting in Scream when I heard it was so "meta." There is a nice twist involving the final girl and lots of straight horror action in the third act as all of Vernon's traps get activated.

All in all, I found this surprisingly entertaining if not especially well made. If you want something different, check this out.