The surprise announcement was made last night that Leslie Vernon will return in 20-years-later sequel Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon, with a Kickstarter campaign launching soon that will allow fans to become part of the experience. The good news? The movie is happening no matter what – the fundraiser will only serve to juice up the budget.
The stars of the 2006 movie Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon will reunite for the upcoming sequel, with Nathan Baesel, Angela Goethals and Robert Englund confirmed to return as Leslie Vernon, Taylor Gentry, and Doc Halloran, respectively. Scott Glosserman is also back to direct Behind the Mask II, with David J. Stieve back to write the film.
Glosserman previews, “For twenty years, people have asked if Leslie would ever come back. Fans kept this movie alive by sharing it, quoting it, introducing it to their friends, and treating it like something worth holding onto. This sequel is happening because of them.”
Horror legend Robert Englund played the Dr. Loomis-like Doc Halloran in the original movie back in 2006, and Glosserman promises that his role will be more substantial in the sequel.
Glosserman tells Rue Morgue in a new interview, “He has a more substantial role. He will be a more consequential character in this movie, whereas in the first one he was a cameo, albeit an important one. This time, he’s more significant. I’ll leave it at that.”
In the 2006 meta-slasher, aspiring slasher icon Leslie Vernon gives a documentary crew exclusive access to his life as he plans his reign of terror over the sleepy town of Glen Echo. What’s Leslie Vernon been up to in the past 20 years? And what’s next for the character?
“You know, in 2006, what we did was very novel,” Glosserman tells Rue Morgue. “But then the whole meta self-referential thing not only super-saturated horror, it permeated myriad other genres. So it’s not enough to just be self-referential; we have to dig a lot deeper now, while preserving that commentary about the conventions and archetypes of what we’re exploring.”
“Fortunately, we have entire cycles of horror over the last two decades to pontificate about. And also, we can reflect on our own lives, what we’ve been up to for the last 20 years and how that corresponds to our characters and what they’ve been doing,” he teases. “Was Leslie a success, and according to what benchmarks? Did he become the next Michael Myers? Well, not commercially, but he’s respected by the community in his world, as he is in the real world. So a lot of the narrative focuses on what has happened since then.”
You can learn more about the upcoming Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon by reading Rue Morgue’s full interview. The movie is expected to release sometime in 2027.
