Last month, Bloody Disgusting had the immense pleasure of announcing that Scott Glosserman’s long-gestating sequel to Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon blasted through its $20,000 Kickstarter goal in a mere 10 minutes. In fact, by the end of the campaign this past week, the project ended up earning a whopping $400,000 meant to expand the film’s scope and even pay for a few extra cameos. And though the sequel was already set to be produced regardless of fan contribution, this crowdfunding success story serves as further proof that there is now a massive audience for intelligent deconstructions of our favorite genre stories.
I, for one, had been waiting for this announcement ever since experiencing that Psycho Killer needle-drop during the closing credits of the original film back when I was a teenager, but now that the dust has settled and we eagerly await further news about the follow-up that felt like it would never come, I’d argue that this is the perfect time to think about what a sequel to Behind The Mask actually means. The original movie was a love-letter to the Slasher genre and its complicated position in the mid-2000s media landscape, so it’s fair to assume that Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon will have a lot to say after two decades of cinematic silence.
After all, the 2006 production released during a divisive period in film history where it was generally accepted that the industry had become oversaturated with Americanized J-Horror, so-called “Torture Porn” and excessive remakes. This situation led to many fans becoming nostalgic for the horror titans of yesteryear. While the truth is that the 2000s actually had plenty of original genre filmmaking going on, the lack of easily accessible online distribution meant that genuinely memorable flicks like Laid to Rest and The Hills Run Red would only find their audiences years down the line.
Leslie Vernon was created as both an homage to our favorite Slashers and this new wave of underappreciated killers created by indie filmmakers attempting to carve out their own niche during a period when the best they could hope for was a straight-to-video release. By the end of Behind the Mask, however, Vernon had more or less ascended to legendary status, carrying out his first massacre and earning a spot among his murderous heroes (including Eugene, the mentor figure played by Scott Wilson who is heavily implied to be Billy from the 1974’s Black Christmas).
Back when a sequel was first announced, Glosserman and co-writer David J. Stieve explained that they wanted to continue analyzing recurring trends in 2000s genre productions. The follow-up was initially planned to poke fun at the Found Footage technique itself while also exploring the appeal of Torture Porn among then-modern audiences. Unfortunately, as time went on and the team failed to secure funding for their idea, this script became more and more dated. And with the filmmakers’ first attempt at crowdfunding ultimately turning into a flop (which makes their latest success that much more impressive), they ultimately decided to release this story as a comic-book.
Feeling like a comic adaptation of a movie from an alternate universe, Before the Mask: The Return of Leslie Vernon was conceived as a “Spreemake” – a simultaneous sequel, prequel and remake explaining how Leslie planned his initial massacre while also following up on the aftermath of his crimes when a movie studio attempts to adapt his bloody moment of glory to the big screen.
While this comic is an undeniably fun time and a must-read for fans of the original movie, it’s already been confirmed that the new sequel is completely ignoring this story in favor of a new script more in line with current horror trends. With indie Slashers having a much more prominent role in modern-day Hollywood (just look at the Terrifier franchise or even the absurd Poohniverse films), it would make sense for a sequel to reevaluate Leslie’s position as an icon.
Glosserman and Stieve have already explained that they imagine Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon taking place in a tongue-in-cheek reflection of the real world where Leslie is respected by fans after the orchard killings despite not being quite as feared as more popular criminals like Michael Myers. The idea here wouldn’t be to merely comment on the current state of Slashers, however, (though I imagine we’ll be seeing plenty of references to modern titans like Art the Clown), but also to explore how familiar archetypes have evolved into new forms that say more about how society views who is and isn’t expendable.
It’s easy to imagine the upcoming flick discussing the rise of the hardened Final Girl (like Jamie Lee Curtis in the recent Halloween trilogy) or even the complicated victim selection process now that hard labels like “jock,” “virgin” and “stoner” are no longer as useful as they once were. Of course, what I’m most excited to see is more screen-time by Robert Englund as our vengeful “Ahab,” Doc Hallorann – an underutilized part of the original movie that makes Leslie’s mythos that much more fascinating.
Of course, only time will tell exactly what kind of story the filmmakers have in store for us when The Return of Leslie Vernon finally comes out (hopefully in the next year or so). But, regardless of any meta genre analysis or potential cameos, I think the main takeaway here is that Glosserman and company have managed to create characters so memorable that we’re still dying to see them again two decades later. And if you ask me, that’s what really makes Leslie unkillable.
