A new take on an old wound: Behind the Mask review

I love the 80's slasher flick. Out of all of the horror villains from the area, Jason Voorhees is a personal favorite. He is both murderer and righteous hand of God all in one (eventually I'll do a post explaining that idea).

So when I started hearing about this new take on the 80's standard I was interested and then when I heard it was mixed with Blair Witch style "documentary" footage...I was a little less interested.

Now don't get me wrong. The original Blair Witch film was good and somewhat original (unless you've seen Cannibal Holocaust but much like that first Sex Pistols gig, more people have said they've seen it then actually have) and if you saw it like I did opening night before the huge hype, it was an amazing theatrical feat made with no money.

I just hate all of the rip offs that came after.

Which meant I did not further explore the movie I had heard bits about...until I went and rented it on dvd.

Which brings our long winded journey to my review of Behind the mask: The Ride of Leslie Vernon.

And I am impressed. Simple version, not amazing but definitely worth seeing because it is something special.

The film follows a bunch of college interns who are following Leslie Vernon as he prepares for his first appearance as a Jason style bogeyman in the town of Glen Echo. It is fairly comedic as we see him train (apparently cardio is very important so you can keep up with your victim) , visit his mentor Eugene (a retired killer played by Scott Wilson, great character actor) and set the house up where he's going to murder a bunch of teenagers just the way he likes it. I particularly like the parts with Eugene, especially when you figure out that his wife is a survivor.

This part is very witty and well written. It's similar to the explaining of horror conventions from Scream but not nearly as snarky. This part is also shot differently, half in documentary style and then switching occasionally to full panovision film. Surprisingly it is cut incredibly well so these interchanges are not jarring.

And then we get to the second half of the movie which becomes a slasher flick with a twist.

Won't give any spoilers away but it was a twist that was well played (maybe a little predictable but maybe I've seen too many horror movies).

I am really interested to see where filmmaker Scott Glosserman goes from here. Underneath is the trailer, I highly recommend giving it a rent.