Sam Panico How does a slasher killer achieve his or her fame? What are the steps and rituals that must be adhered to? Why would they want to enter into a life of killing and being killed? And once you've been selected as their Final Girl, is there any way to break the cycle? These questions and more are raised and answered by this mockumentary. Taylor Gentry (Angela Goethals, Home Alone) and her two cameramen, Doug and Todd, have been allowed to document Leslie Vernon as he prepares to become a slasher killer. He already has his backstory prepared - he's based it on an urban legend of a boy who killed his family and was drowned by an angry mob.Vernon isn't even his real last name - it's Mancuso in a nod to Friday the 13th producer Frank Mancuso, Jr. He doesn't have any powers. But what he does have is a devotion to the methods, preparation and rituals needed to be a perfect killer.At first, the crew is totally behind Leslie, but as time goes on, the idea of luring teenagers to an abandoned house and killing them one by one seems morally wrong. They try to talk him out of it, but he will not be swayed. Kelly, his Final Girl, will define herself by facing him. However, she is anything but a virgin and has none of the qualities that make up this character archetype. And even more surprisingly, she quickly is killed.That's when Taylor realizes that she was the Final Girl all along and is as trapped by the plot as Leslie is. She is the last one alive and must kill him in the exact way he had planned, burning down a shed to stop him. However, throughout the film, we also learned that Leslie had been practicing playing dead and had flame-retardant gel all over his clothes. Is it a surprise when he sits up, very much alive on an autopsy table over the end credits?There are so many Easter Eggs in the film, from the car Sam Raimi uses in every one of his films to the Rabbit in Red Lounge, a Lament Configuration box, the song "Midnight, The Stars and You" from The Shining and the jump rope girls from A Nightmare on Elm Street. Genre vets Zelda Rubenstein and Kane Hodder turn up, as does Robert Englund as Doc Halloran, who is very much based on Dr. Loomis from Halloween. And Scott Wilson (The Ninth Configuration) plays Eugene, Leslie's mentor, who is really Billy from Black Christmas.It took me some time to get into this film. Leslie comes off like such a ridiculous Ryan Reynolds type at first and it seemed too goofy, but I'm glad I stuck with it, as it becomes a pretty enjoyable movie by the end.

smegbug2 I'll say this about the SPOILER, if you regularly watch slasher films, not a spoiler really. Like we all know James Bond beats the villains or their plot in every movie, we all know that most superheroes win in most films. So why does a potential genre redefining film follow the exact formula and shoehorn two unseen characters and an apparent "romance" in the end? Most likely we'll never know the answers to the question I posed. I however can tell you how the second half SHOULD have ended. The methodically planned out killing and slaughter? Should've all fallen apart hilariously yet gory and fun. The "Jock" should've been injury stricken with something like crutches and a leg cast, or pretending to be a jock but outed as a poser. Stoners should've lost their stash and turned out to be quite shockingly smart while lucid. Some of the victims should've either accidentally killed themselves or others. The car should've worked, but had missing parts, like the escaping survivors are pulled over for non functioning tail lights and arrested for the now found missing stoner stash. The "Ahab" should've been revealed as incompetent.The most unforgivable thing is obviously the chemistry and potential romance between the girl and the killer. The girl should've saved the killer from being killed by someone, or refused to finish the killer because she just couldn't. I feel that the Walking Dead's Scott Wilson should've revealed that his wife was a survivor that he just couldn't kill or fell in love with. "I set off my bear own trap, my mask fell off, she started to remove the trap, we looked into each other's eyes, and she metaphorically put me in a ball and chain. Been together ever since!" The age difference screamed that, right? You want a sequel and cult classic status? Sequel should've had the girl and Leslie together and had him continuing to "work" and the comical stresses and complications his career/hobby puts on the relationship.I mean if you put all that work into a mockumentary or comedic tone, pull the trigger and don't wuss out. Should've been the slasher version of "What We Do In The Shadows"! Spent most of the second half waiting for a better ending that never came... Watch "Miss December" instead of this. It's not a mockumentary, but definitely has a better payoff and ending!

thiszizlife The outfits in this film don't match a college documentary looking stereotype wardrobe. And, yes, I'm aware they made this on a shoestring budget, and they weren't thinking about that. For instance, the red trim of the windows, that makes my point look obvious. What were these actors and actresses told by the director, that's what I want to know. Where they told to scream and act nuts, or was some of that improv. Pointless subplots hang around every corner in a film like this, and this is no exception. For example, the batteries ... who cares? Why put dead batteries in the flashlights in the first place, and not just remove them completely? This is truly behind the scenes to the making of "Behind The Mask." I don't know a lot about this film, as far as where they filmed it, but it already makes me what to say, C' on dude, a farmhouse setting, really? It's been done a thousand times before. What were these guys thinking? We are going to make some cool art and turn it in for an A. Essentially, all it is is a tour of a horror set, at least, in the beginning, and then tips on what goes into, and how to make a horror slasher film. This holds back from an absence of horror, and we see the masked scythe welding lunatic a lot throughout the film, gracing us with his pleasures. Like a reoccurring nightmare ride, you can't get rid of Leslie Vernon. This film directed by Scott Glosserman has something for everybody. The idea is good, and the cast is fun to hangout with. And after a certain period the film takes a turn from an actual student project to the real deal. This creates the much needed tension, the spice to the food, if you will. A different mood surfaces in us, a suspension of disbelief is born, not only in  viewers, but as well as in the people on screen. So there you have it. A film complete with melodrama, tension and suspense, perfectly placed, in some places by Glosserman, as if he was laying out objects for a still-life painting. Also, I should mention the custom design of Leslie Vernon worked, but had we not learned who he was and what his aim was, it would have been all the more macabre. Okay, I took that last bit from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I particularly enjoyed the effort of the crew. There references to Halloween, etc, that made the movie less serious, and gave good chuckle. This one was a little more hard core to handle though, opposed to Beetlejuice, or say A Werewolf in London, but I'm sure horror comedy fans would love it.

GL84 Hoping for an exclusive look at serial killers, a film crew follows a fanatical killer as he prepares to slaughter a group of small-town teens before getting caught up in their ethics and try to stop his rampage.This was an utterly enjoyable slasher effort. One of the more impressive aspects of this one is the fact that there's plenty of utterly clever send-ups of what's at stake in a slasher film that aren't all that obvious which gets spelled out here. From the pointing out the clique that gets targeted to all the pre-attack tormenting that takes place around the town, training and working out for the chase as well as the behind-the-scenes planning for the whole event at the location and how to plan out a typical slasher-film style battle is all unique and quite original in concept and execution. Both of those areas are explored fully in here as the attempt to explain the thinking behind what is obviously a heat-of-the-moment type of situation that doesn't really inspire a lot of thinking when it really comes down to it makes for a rather engaging series of events throughout here as he goes about his plans. The actual execution of the plan, both in the early attack scene at the library as well as the ambushes at the diner make for some rather great stuff, while the big moment here is the actual final stalking of the group in the house as the crew attempts to help them deconstruct the evening before it happens as they try to stop him from going after the group and killing them which is all done in fine fashion with a lot to like here throughout this with a lot of explosive stalking, fantastic action and plenty of wonderful deconstructions of the slasher film norms that allows for a frenetic sequence that's tense, chilling and quite fun. While some of the stuff doesn't work here, namely the fact that this is supposed to be funny when it clearly isn't as the comedy instead comes from the absurdity of the situation rather than anything really done in the film itself so it can get rather annoying thinking this is funny when it really isn't, and as well the fact that the majority of the gore comes off-screen does get old a little fast. Otherwise, this was a rather impressive and enjoyable outing.Rated R: Language, Violence, Brief Nudity, a mild sex scene and drug use.