Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

R

Released Mar 16, 2007

1 hr. 32 min.

Comedy

Horror

Mystery & Thriller

List

76%

42 Reviews

Tomatometer

75%

10,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Nice, normal-looking Leslie Vernon (Nathan Baesel) has an obsession with movie-style slashers like Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. Leslie decides to follow in the footsteps of his heroes, and, ever the self-promoter, invites a documentary filmmaker (Angela Goethals) and her crew to follow him around as he constructs his own grisly legacy.

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Critics Consensus

A smart mockumentary that presents a gory, funny, and obviously affectionate skewering of the slasher genre.

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Grimm R

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is an incredible mockumentary horror/comedy that follows a normal looking guy, Leslie Vernon who has an obsession with movie-style slashers like Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger and decides to follow in their footsteps and invites a documentary filmmaker and her crew to follow him around as he constructs his own grisly legacy. Nathan Baesal as Leslie Vernon truly captures how I feel a serial killer would be like when preparing to kill someone. I can truly see Norman Bates in his appearance and his personality is like Billy & Stu from Scream but in one person and the performance from Baesal was just perfect. Angela Goethals in this movie is also amazing as she is the documentary host, Taylor and is the person following Leslie around for the whole movie and I feel like is underrated in the slasher fandom. The humor in this movie is sort of what you'd expect as its satire and is similar to Scream but a bit more satire and comedy which I felt like the balance in this movie was perfect, especially when it came to the raunchy horror slasher tropes. It was also interesting following Leslie through the documentary and seeing how he'd prepare to kill, his brain process, and just how committed he was to this. The satire tropes in this movie like switching from the documentary camera style to the horror slasher style I think was pretty great and also the twist towards the end which I find genius and well thought out as it had been built up since the beginning and the fakeout truly threw me off. I honestly didn't find anything in this movie that bothered me or anything like that because this movie was just a lot of fun, charming, has some gore, and just executes its premise and tone so perfectly. Behind the Mask gets an A++.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/07/24

Full Review

Emilliano Jr S

The concept is not entertaining. I only watched this because of Robert Englund & the spirit medium from Poltergeist.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

08/30/23

Full Review

Poverty M

I watched this annually for a good while and it is my go-to "you haven't seen...!?" film to show people after Cabin in the Woods and before Tucker and Dale VS Evil. This is one of the greatest love letters to horror films that I have managed to find, from cameos to being completely saturated in nods to genre past it is an easter egg wonderland. This is the finest version of the 'documentary crew gets in over their head', and ticks every major horror movie trope box and any that didn't fit the theme of the piece were excused away quite cleverly. The entire cast did fantastic and this WAS the final role of Zelda Rubinstein and her expository role was HAUNTING, and likely the only way to handle THAT much happening in so short a time. After all the time that has passed I am not particularly hopeful that a sequel in this universe would take place - but I would watch it in a heartbeat.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/11/23

Full Review

graham j

Slasher meh, meta-comedy about slashers meh. Nothing to see here that you haven't already seen many times in better films.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

04/06/23

Full Review

Shayla S

Such a fun and fresh take on the slasher and found footage genre.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/15/22

Full Review

Taylor L

Though a few meta horror-comedies (Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, Scream, Shaun of the Dead) have carved out their own considerable places in pop culture, Behind the Mask is one of the less well-remembered ones despite solid structure and fun design. Ostensibly following a classic slasher in mockumentary format as he designs and builds up to the kill, the film takes a bit of a meta approach as it begins to incorporate its 'filmmakers' into the violence as more and more of the details come to light, sort of a more traditionally comedic version of Man Bites Dog. Thanks to its deadpan delivery and earnest performances, particularly from Nathan Baesel as the less-than-famous killer, Behind the Mask pokes loving fun at the slew of '80s horror icons that often placed formula over originality but that became treasured nonetheless. It also puts a bit of a twist on what could have been a pretty simplistic style, delivering a legitimate rendition of the horror designs that it lampoons towards the end. Fun film overall, sort of disappointing that it's so often forgotten even though it came out during a golden age for the horror-comedy. (3.5/5)

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

09/30/22

Full Review

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Scott Glosserman

Director

Nathan Baesel

Leslie Vernon

Angela Goethals

Taylor Gentry

Robert Englund

Doc Halloran

Scott Wilson

Eugene

Zelda Rubinstein

Mrs. Collingwood

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Rated: 3/4

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Mark Holcomb

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Rated: 3/6

Sep 22, 2007

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Nick Schager

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Other than displaying a textbook awareness of its ancestors, Behind the Mask offers next to nothing

Rated: C

Aug 9, 2007

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Alan French

Sunshine State Cineplex

Behind the Mask strikes surprising thematic gold, while also worshipping the genre. Glosserman’s shell game approach leaves the audience with clear messages, all while providing enough easter eggs and homages to satisfy the hardcore genre fans.

Rated: 8/10

Oct 2, 2022

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Jason Adams

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The film is more a comedy than a horror film, and a very very funny one at that

Jul 2, 2021

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Patrick King

Cultured Vultures

It's cool to see that he didn't chain himself to the limitations of the mockumentary format. I've actually never seen a film shot like this, so that's pretty cool.

Oct 29, 2019

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Read all reviews

Synopsis

Nice, normal-looking Leslie Vernon (Nathan Baesel) has an obsession with movie-style slashers like Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. Leslie decides to follow in the footsteps of his heroes, and, ever the self-promoter, invites a documentary filmmaker (Angela Goethals) and her crew to follow him around as he constructs his own grisly legacy.

Director: Scott Glosserman
Executive Producer: Al Corley, Andrew Lewis, Eugene Musso, Bart Rosenblatt
Screenwriter: Scott Glosserman, David J. Stieve
Distributor: Anchor Bay
Production Co: Code Entertainment
Rating: R (Language|Horror Violence|Brief Drug Use|Some Sexual Content)
Genre: Comedy, Horror, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 16, 2007, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): May 21, 2017

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