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A female
journalist and her two cameramen are making a
documentary about famous serial killers. They decide
to follow the life of the infamous slasher, Leslie
Vernon, in order to get to see him in action. He gives
them all the inside details on what a good serial
killer does and how he prepares everything, but there
is just one minor detail that he's keeping from them...
I don't care what people say, a good rating on Rotten
Tomatoes does not equal a good movie! When I started
watching Behind the mask, it almost felt like I was in
for an artsy, low-budget mockumentary with no real
goal other than to make fun of the slasher genre. Why?
Because that's just what it was to begin with. After
a while however, things start to get more interesting
and everything that Leslie says actually seems to make
sense. Still, this only made it a mediocre mockumentary
with no real oomph in it.
Luckily, after an hour, the oomph finally kicks in and
from here on out, we're in for a great (if predictable)
plot turn that leads the movie in a completely different
direction. This is also where you realize why they
spent so much time on developing the story in every
minor detail before it finally kicks in, but I don't
want to say more because this really is the kind of
film that you should start watching without knowing
anything about it. In fact, if anything, I've all ready
told you too much, so I'll just try to focus the rest
on my review around less spoiling subjects.
We can begin with the cast which is a mixed bag. Most
of the actors are only average at best while Nathan
Baesel (playing Leslie) pulls of a remarkable
performance. He really manages to bring life to his
character and make us feel for him in many ways. Then
we have the directing, which is good but could have
probably been more original. There just wasn't
anything very innovative about it. Finally we have
the overall look of the movie, which is unfortunately
one of the movie's weak spots and kind of lackluster.
Due to the fact that this is a low-budget slasher
flick (more or less), the picture quality is quite
lackluster and the colours are pretty dull.
Those small things are easy to overcome though as the
story is brilliantly developed and executed in a
very interesting way. I probably wouldn't have made
the mockumentary part quite as long but in the end,
I was ultimately extremely satisfied with this movie.
It's not really so much of a comedy though as people
make it out to be, it is really a horror flick so
don't expect anything else. It's a very good one at
that though and this is strongly recommended!
Some minor blood and a dry impalement.
There wasn't a whole lot here until the end, and even
then it really wasn't all that impressive.
There are many things that could have been better
about this movie and I'm surprised that it has gotten
so many rave reviews from critics online, but at the
same time, I have to agree with them that this is a
very good horror movie. I don't quite see it as a
mainstream film, but if you're a slasher fan you might
definitely enjoy this.
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