Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, is the take of an up-and-coming young man who see himself as a possible successor to the throne of Jason Vorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Michael Myers. It begins as a small group of grad students film & interview this young man as he lays out the groundwork for his rise to notoriety. But somewhere along the way, the grad students realize that this is perhaps a little more than they bargained for and they have second thoughts about their complicity in Leslie's schemes.<br /><br />Now Leslie has staked out his prey, and he's divided the potential victims into categories, including the lone girl that has the distinction of being the "survivor". She's a good girl, she's a virgin, and she keeps away from the alcohol & drugs. Of course, Leslie has made one mistake in his assumptions but you'll have to see the film to find out why.<br /><br />Leslie has also set up the location for the spree he's planning, and it's the old farmhouse where the young boy, who he is stealing the identity of, was dragged out & thrown over a waterfall many years ago, and now he's poised to "come back" for vengeance.<br /><br />Leslie has made a lot of preparation for his rise to infamy, including plenty of cardio and training, for all those long chases through the woods. Leslie is also a former mental patient but he does play that down a bit.<br /><br />There's also an "Ahab", a rescuer, a sort of adversary, in a character played by Robert Englund, of all people, who knows (or seems to) what's going on and is bound to stop it.<br /><br />This is a very clever film and comes off as sort of a cross between "Man Bites Dog" and your basic clichéd horror flick. But it makes use of those clichés as though they were some kind of training course for the demented killer.<br /><br />A fun, clever, and twisted little horror romp & some of it's genuinely funny. Well worth seeing, 7 out of 10.