Behind the mask is the exact opposite
of Wes Craven's Scream. Scream had a brilliant opening scene, one
that was genuinely scary and innovative. It was a tour de force. What
followed was an absolutely awful film, a lazy whodunit mixed with a
lazy comedy prancing around pretending to still be scary. It was a
great disappointment. In Behind the Mask, the main character comes
out and says five minutes in that he is the serial killer. What
follows is a genuinely clever comedy that pokes fun at horror films
while still giving them the respect they deserve. The only low point
in the film was the final act, in which the film devolves into a
somewhat lazy slasher film.
Behind the Mask is a mockuemntary,
following a group of college students producing a film about Leslie
Vernon (Nathan Baesal), a man who intends to go on a supernatural
killing spree to avenge his wrongful death 20 years ago. Rather than
being dark and brooding like you would expect a serial killer to be,
he is full of energy. He is ecstatic to show off his hard work to the
film crew, and his joy infects the rest of us. The film really only
works because of Nathan Baesal's performance. He is the kind of guy
you would want to sit down and have a drink with. Even when he goes
out to murder people, you're still on his side.
The film's most hilarious sections are
when he explains his preparations for the big night. He goes through
the house where the killings will happen, making sure all the
flashlights have dead batteries and rigging the fuse box up to a kill
switch. He sleeps in a hyperbaric chamber to practice slowing his
breathing and heart rate in case he needs to pretend to be dead. And
on his off days he reads David Copperfield and Houdini (and a bit of
Gray's Anatomy as well.) The film treats his serial killer ambition
as something completely mundane. His best friends are a retired
serial killer and his wife, who used to be his final girl. They
worked back in the 70's, before the big names like Freddy and Jason
“changed the industry,” into the franchise-based murder spree
system we have today.
The film's only real problem comes in
the final act, when Leslie actually goes on this killing spree. The
problem is that the film tries to pull in too many different
directions. It tries to deliver on the promise of murdering all of
the teenagers he spent the movie stalking, while trying to wave its
finger admonishingly at the audience for enjoying the carnage the
film had been setting up for, while trying to be genuinely scary. And
it does all of this while still trying to remain a mostly comedic
film. In the end, it doesn't really work. But it is a fun ride. If
you didn't like Scream, maybe you can give one last chance to a
snarky slasher comedy. And if you did like Scream, this film
will blow your mind.
(As a side note, this film might have
the greatest one-liner in horror comedy history. I don't want to
spoil it, but you'll know it when you hear it. My friends and I
almost died laughing.)
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