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Documentary Crew Murdered by Subject
By John Marrone
Mar 22, 2006, 11:35

Tell me if this plot doesn't catch your interest...  Recently world premeiring at Austin's SXSW Film Festival was director Scott Glosserman's new horror moc-umentary, "Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon".  Shot in documentary style, this film mocks horror films as the Scary Movie franchise has done for several sequels - only this film is shot in more of a "Blair-Witch" style.  Leslie Vernon believes he is heir to the throne of terror once held by Voorhees, Myers and Krueger.  Before long, the documentary aspect of the film ends and the crew members find themselves right in the middle of Leslie's night of terror.  According to the article, Robert England plays a part.  We'll see if this goes anywhere.  For more, here's the rest of the article as printed in The Daily Texan... 

Behind the Mask takes place in a world in which legendary psychos Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger are real.  Leslie Vernon, the great psycho-slasher upstart, has given a documentary crew exclusive access to his life as he plans his reign of terror over the next unfortunate little town.

The film follows an aspiring college documentary filmmaker Angela Goethals and her crew as they travel to the small town of Glen Echo after being contacted by Leslie Vernon (Nathan Baesel), who is willing to go on record to talk about his mysterious past and his step-by-step plan to terrorize a group of teenagers. At first, Vernon, who believes he is heir to the throne of terror once held by Voorhees, Myers and Krueger, seems like a normal friendly boy. The town paper refers to him as "a guy who reads philosophy, has pet turtles, drives a hybrid and likes hugs." Vernon takes the crew around town, showing them his potential victims, the apple orchard on his family's old farm (where he supposedly murdered his mother) and to his friend and mentor Eugene's house (who just happens to be a retired mass murderer). Amid all this, Vernon is nonchalantly working out the details of his ultimate plan.

Along the way, the crew has multiple run-ins with Doc Halloran (Robert Englund aka Freddy Krueger) a mysterious character hell-bent on stopping Vernon for good. Vernon happily refers to Halloran as his "Ahab."

Vernon befriends the film crew, who think his plans for mayhem are one big joke and manages to convince them to help him rig the farmhouse to help him when his "guests" arrive.

As the days progress, the crew learns Vernon is actually Leslie Mancuso from Reno, Nev., who fabricated his whole story to add to the drama. Once confronted, Mancuso suggests they leave, but the crew finds the story too juicy to quit. However, once the big night comes and the killings begin, they feel compelled to stop Mancuso. Following the film's unique style, the documentary aspect of the film ends and the crew members find themselves right in the middle of Leslie's night of terror.

Check out the trailer (in Quicktime or Mpeg-4 ipod - bottom of page)...

Check out the results of 2006's SXSW Film Festival from Austin, TX