Anchorbay Entertainment in conjunction with Glen Echo Entertainment Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon will be re-released theatrically and will be available for the theatrical requests March 7th. In addition there will be a special screening with a cast reunion and an interactive Q&A will take place coordinated by GathrFilms. There will also be a limited edition retro poster (limited to 425) that is available right now at the Behind the Mask fundraising web store http://bit.ly/zLHtpA. Be sure to check out GathrFilms on Twitter atwww.twitter.com/gathrfilms and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/gathrfilms.
In a world where supernatural killers like Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger are real, journalist Taylor Gentry (Angela Goethals) and her crew have been given the opportunity to join the next great slasher, Leslie Vernon (Nathan Baesel), as he plans to seek his revenge on the town of Glen Echo. The legend of Leslie Vernon is this... There once was a boy, spawned from a vicious rape, who murdered his parents. The angry townspeople, thinking the boy was evil, cast him over the falls and into the icy river never to be heard from again. Well sorta. Taylor and her crew film Leslie, documentary style, as he meticulously plans his murder spree. When the big night comes, things take a sinister, dark turn, and their documentary becomes much less important when the tables are turned.
Baesel's character is so well written and he does a spot on performance transitioning in and out of his dual personas. He said in an interview that he got inspiration from the Silence of the Lambs character Dr. Hannibal Lecter and I could see that. I read reviews that said he seemed too cartoonish but I didn't get that at all. To me he came off as likeable and funny and charasmatic. Goethals also brings her A game to the screen. The chemistry between their characters is solid and at times heartfelt. Even the teens gave an impressive performance
This is not the only news to come from Director Scott Glosserman. He has also announced a crowd funding project for a sequel to Behind the Mask that will be entitled Before the Mask: The Return of Leslie Vernon. The deadline for the crowd funding is June 1st 2012. The amount that needs to be raised is 500,000.00 for the films production, and all the money that is earned from the re-release of Behind The Mask will go towards this sequel as well. This should please all the fans of this great movie who have been itching for a sequel to Behind The Mask. I for one am very excited for the news of a sequel. I am a big sequel fan and I dont believe they will dissappoint on this installment.
For fans of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, the witty mockumentary that deconstructs the slasher film, this news may be a bit unbelievable. As greatly received as it was, distributors have slammed the door on this budding slasher. So what else can Scott Glosserman do? Turn to the fans of course.
“I had a very rude awakening when I called the distributor of the first film and said ‘We’re ready to go with the sequel.’ And they said not only forget about financing but that if I brought them a finished movie, if I handed a finished movie to them, they would not even distribute it for a fee. It just blew me away. I figured of anybody they must know how well Behind The Mask has been accepted. It did a great number on DVD,” says Glosserman. “We sold mid six figure units on the original DVD and if half of those people spend twenty bucks pre-ordering the second film then we’ve raised more than a million dollars. So, in theory, we could crowd fund the movie. I know that’s probably not a fully realistic possibility but, nonetheless, it’s fun to set a goal to be the first movie ever to crowd fund more than a million dollars. That’s our benchmark. At worst what we’re trying to do is demonstrate a groundswell of online community support and, in so doing, we want to demonstrate that there are several thousand people who have pre-ordered the DVD and we’ve got several thousand Facebook friends and if I can take that – with a fully baked script and a couple of cameos – to a Lionsgate, who are already making original two million dollar films, it just seems to me that it would be a no brainer that they would finance this film.”
So get out there and help this project. Glosserman has already proven that Leslie Vernon is the man but he can't bring him back without your help. I for one intend on helping where I can and I hope that my readers will do the same. Click here to find out more info and let's get this thing done!!
