Monday, September 14, 2009

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon The movie starts as a documentary where we get to follow Leslie Vernon who’s preparing himself to début as the new psycho killer in a world where the likes of Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers are real people and events. The film crew with Taylor Gentry in the lead tags along Leslie in his daily life and the preparations for the event that will make him a legend.

Maybe Jason Voorhees brings a crossword with him to the bathroom, maybe he has dinner in front of the TV watching The Simpsons but we don’t want to see that, we want to see what he does best, chasing and killing people with his machete while wearing his stylish mask. But in this movie we get to see the mass murderer in the makings life and it is a sad life with cardio exercise and living with his pet turtles. He makes lame jokes with the film crew and it reminds me of a sad interview with Ron Jeremy (who also has a pet turtle) and his attempt to be a standup comedian except then I felt for poor Ron but here the actor is not good enough for me to feel any kind of pity for him.

The movie makes a sudden turn at the end, from lame comedy to what seems to be an attempt to be an action/horror but it’s impossible to take it serious when we know that the “monster” lives with his pet turtles Church and Zoe. More of one genre and less of the other would have been nice because the mixture of the two is a complete failure.

There are a few interesting events when there’s a hint of chemistry between Leslie and Taylor similar to that of Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter but unfortunately they remain only hints and perhaps I was the only one that felt them. I liked the idea of the journalist getting to close to her subject and have a hard time to stay neutral but…

If you listen to the dialog and have seen at least one horror movie before I doubt there will be any surprises in this movie. Apparently it’s supposed to be a fun satire of the genre but I didn’t get it.

Checklist

· Spooky abandoned house
· Stoned teenagers
· Blonde virgin
· Cars that doesn’t start
· Creepy mask
· Things we’ve seen before

The best thing in the movie: Leslies mask and Zelda Rubinstein

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