Starring: Robert Englund, Nathan Baesel, Angela Goethals.
Directed by: Scott Glosserman
Review Written By: Joey D
The 'Black Comedy' genre has been extremely popular over the last few years and we are not talking about movies starring Queen Latifah or Ice Cube! The comedy stylings of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright in both Shawn of the Dead and Hot Fuzz provide the perfect description of a well-balanced concoction of giggles and guts. Although this guaranteed money-making formula can be extremely hard to achieve and films such as Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon show how NOT to make a dark-sided comedy.
Set in a world where fictional killers such as Jason Vorhees and Freddy Krueger were actually once dicing up real teenagers, the story follows Taylor (Angela Goethals) and her video crew as they make a documentary detailing the life of Leslie Vernon (Nathan Baesel), a serial killer in training. What begins as a simple film showing the delusions of a man with an abusive past quickly becomes video evidence of Vernon's killing spree.The film isn't the worst thing you are likely to see as it does have some very interesting scenes and the cutting between documentary-style shooting and cheesy, choreographed horror shots is a unique concept. Although this does not make up for the movies short-comings and ultimately does not make Behind The Mask a film worthy of the DVD collection. It starts off with a lot of promise and the legendary movie killers referencing would make the common horror junky hot under the collar but after this initial pleasant surprise, it becomes barely entertaining.
The acting is below par from the entire cast, including the legendary Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Wishmaster) who is in the film for a total of around three minutes. Angela Goethals destroys the atmosphere of the supposed documentary by making it very obvious that she is acting and in several instances it was clear that she was aiming to win an Oscar due to her 'look at me, i am in a movie' kind of attitude. Nathan Baesel who plays Leslie Vernon is tolerable at first, then completely destroys his performance by over-emphasizing the fact that he is a psychopath through annoying ticks and quirks such as his inappropriate desire to constantly hug Taylor - is he a psychopath or a teddy bear?!
The writing and direction is actually the finer material that runs through this average movie. The dialogue between characters is very naturalistic and is unfortunately butchered by the actors which makes it all the more unbelievable in a situation where the audience is supposed to believe that they are watching a documentary. The original storyline and direction from Scott Glosserman is a unique addition to the genre and with a bit more care and some better casting, this review could have been praising this as one of the most original horror plots ever committed to celluloid.
Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is by no means the worst horror comedy to ever grace the DVD market but it is in no way worth the price attached to it. Sure it has a very unique and interesting approach to its target audience by using cultural references from the past such as the popular horror movie killers in order to make people take notice, yet the substance it provides from its own perspective lacks what made the predecessors of the genre legendary.
Not funny...Not scary...Not a black comedy...Not very impressive!
MOVIE MAESTRO RATING:
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