Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)

You know I couldn't resist featuring a picture of Zelda Rubinstein here.  She's my fave.  I've been hearing about this movie forever and tonight I decided it was time to check it out.  When my husband is on the couch with me, I attempt to watch at least a 3 star horror movie. 

Behind the Mask is one of those mockumentary deals.  A cutesy, hipsterish film crew is following around a guy who desperately wants to be a serial killer.  In this movie, Freddy, Jason, and Michael are all real, and Leslie Vernon aspires to be like, if not better, than them.  Leslie has created a sort of legend for himself, which includes a house that he supposedly haunts.  As stupid teenagers plan on spending the night there for some sort of made up anniversary, Leslie plans on going on a killing spree.

Leslie has his dream girl in mind, a cute virgin waitress that he plans on making the "final girl" of his whole scheme.  In order to prepare for the night of blood and gore, Leslie gets in incredible shape to "walk" after victims as they run, sabotages "weapons" in the house, and basically pre-plans all the cliches you've ever seen in a slasher flick.  He describes these calmly and without inflection, which actually comes off as comical, which I'm sure they intended. 

Leslie poignantly relates all of the points of a murder to birth and death, as well as phallic and vaginal symbols.  Sounds crazy, but makes sense in the context.  Leslie also has a former serial killer friend, who is Herschel from The Walking Dead!  Big difference between the two?  He says motherfucker, and actually kills people in this movie.  You know, not like letting zombies live in your barn.

If you're looking for a lot of Robert Englund in this flick, look elsewhere.  Freddy himself has a very small part, maybe based on the small production budget?  Or it may have been more of a play on Dr. Loomis from the original Halloween, which was in the movie so little because it's all that they could afford.  According to IMDB, there's a few other little homages I didn't catch, such as the Red Rabbit, a Hellraiser puzzle, and Kane Hodder walking into Nancy's house on Elm Street!  Note to pay explicit attention to detail in the future.

I've been told by so many people I should watch this movie, so I had super high hopes.  I started out kinda meh, and then I really liked this movie.  It had a fun little twist and was vaguely Scream-like, which more humor, but not as overall good.  It was a good flick though!