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| Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon |
This is a guest post from Libby White
I’m going to be honest, I chose Behind the Mask because of an instant love that came from my first viewing of it two years ago. As an admitted horror movie junkie, I mourned the end of the reigns of Michael and Jason, Chucky and Pinhead. The old days of seemingly immortal killers with a penchant for hacking up horny teens were long gone, and in their place, we had “torture porn” like Saw, Hostel, and The Devil’s Rejects. But then came Leslie Vernon into my life.
Warning: This review contains spoilers. If you have not seen the film, I suggest watching it before I ruin the plot for you. It’s so much better when experienced firsthand.
The plot of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon takes place over two very distinct parts. For the first half of the film, we have a comedic documentary which gives tribute the infamous killers we love and know, revealing their “secrets” and all the work it takes behind the scenes to be an apt killer. Led by a naïve young intern, a local TV news crew is sent to document the activities of a budding serial killer, Leslie Vernon. In a world where Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger are living legends; serial killing has become a well honed art form. And under the guidance of Eugene, a former serial killer himself, Leslie adopts a macabre back-story for himself, and begins to meticulously arrange every little detail of his future killing spree. From picking the perfect location for a massacre, to his final “survivor girl,” we are able to get a sense of how difficult it is to do a serial killer’s work.
During the second part of the film, we get our real horror film.
In a somewhat surprising twist, it is revealed that Leslie’s real target was Taylor, the intern, and her crew all along. Knowing that she would not be able to stand by and watch as a group of teens was cut down, Leslie counted on her interference with the original plan to set in motion his real motive. Sweet and virginal, Taylor is the epitome of the horror movie heroine. And when it comes time to fight for her life, she doesn’t disappoint. One by one the characters are hacked off, leaving Taylor to battle it out with the gone psychotic Leslie Vernon.
And while my confession at the start of this remains the same, upon closer inspection, I realized that Leslie Vernon’s treatment of women is left to be desired. While there is a lot of discussion about empowering the survivor girl to become a strong woman, it is described from a mocking male’s perspective. One scene in particular especially rubbing me the wrong way, in which Leslie discusses with Taylor how the faux survivor girl, Kelly, will imminently end up at an old shed to find a weapon. He describes her choice of weapon as “empowering herself with cock.” The axes, sledgehammers, and other long handled devices purposely phallic.
Leslie: “She’ll be taking my manhood, and empowering herself with it.”
Taylor is visibly uncomfortable with the conversation, but Leslie persists, going full out monologue on the relation of women to horror.
While a lot of this ongoing discussion provides interesting insight into the symbolism in horror films, Leslie’s narrative can’t help but seem like total BS. And that’s the point. The first 2/3 of the film is treated as a joke by the interviewers, (minus one or two emotionally intense moments), until the cold reality of what they are participating in hits them. While Taylor, Todd, and Doug are somewhat uncomfortable by all this talk of murder, they are obviously detached from the real truth of the matter. Only when they realize that they have been the targets all along do the crew truly become invested in the outcome of Leslie Vernon’s plan for infamy. But Leslie’s wording doesn’t help either.
Leslie: “Yonic imagery is extremely important in our work.”
Taylor: “Yonic?”
Leslie: “The opposite of phallic. Bit girl parts.”
There is also a lot of mention of virginity, and why it is all final horror movie girls are “obviously” virgins. The word “pure,” and “good” thrown around quite a bit. Leslie justifies what he is doing as a way of balancing out the good and evil in the world; that he, Eugene, and the other serial killers have chosen to fulfill a role that society doesn’t like to acknowledge needs filling. The need for a virgin for the incident to revolve around is supposedly their way of pitting good against evil. And believe it or not, the serial killers are rooting for this girl. Leslie repeatedly states throughout the movie that he has high hopes for “Kelly,” and feels he is watching a glorious thing as she makes her transition from frightened girl to “empowered woman.” But in other scenes, virginity is treated as a joke, the wife of Eugene telling the crew to “get someone in her pants,” or “get the hell away from her,” if they ever want to survive a massacre.
This perpetuation of the idea that women are only “pure”, or good, when they are virgins is incredibly harmful. But even more so given the context of the film. After all, it is only virgins who get to live. So now a woman’s sex life is determining whether or not she is worthy to live? And pity the male characters, who are doomed to die no matter what.
And while I know that the film is merely mocking its famous predecessors, it felt as if the writers of Leslie Vernon wanted to have an honest discussion on the matter, but got scared away, and decided to fill in the blanks with a less-serious male narrated version.
Still, I do give the film some props for trying. In their attempts to explore the female focus of horror movies, they unintentionally misstep. With a background character that constantly cracks smart-ass remarks at Taylor, and a gratuitous close up of breasts being fondled; Leslie Vernon’s feminism isn’t all it appears to be.
Taylor, the film’s heroine, and true “survivor girl,” is an excellent female character, however. She is neither purely innocent, nor totally timid. She is given more than one chance to wash her hands of the matter or turn Leslie in, but doesn’t. But as per Leslie’s expectations, she continuously grows throughout the film, eventually fulfilling the destiny of “empowered woman.”
From the very start of the film, you can feel her discomfort with the plan and her own inner insecurity. She constantly questions Leslie’s justification for murder, eventually working up the courage to get into a full blown battle with him about it. On the night of the planned killings, you can see that Taylor has just about had enough. By the time she interferes, and later battles for her life, she hardly resembles the girl we started with.
Pushed to the edge, Taylor fearlessly takes on Leslie alone, and (seemingly) wins.
Outside of Taylor, there are very few other female characters. We have the wife of Leslie’s mentor, a murdered librarian, (played by the lovely Zelda Rubinstein), and Kelly. Unfortunately, none of these women qualify as more than background characters; Kelly, the supposed lead, killed off mid-coatis at the start of the slaughter.
In the end, I still like Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. While it will never be a great feminist work, the plot, characters, and twists make it a fun watch. Anyone who grew up on the classic 70’s and 80’s slashers will be able to watch the cameos and obscure references with glee, and imagine a world in which the most well-known movie serial killers of all time actually make a living off their killings.
Happy Halloween!
Libby White is a senior at the University of Tennessee, studying Marketing and Spanish full-time. Her parents were in the Navy for most of her life, so she got to see the world at a young age, and learn about cultures outside her own. Her mother in particular has had a huge influence on her, as she was a woman in the military at a time when men dominated the field. Her determination and hard-work to survive in an environment where she was not welcomed has made Libby respect the constant struggle of women today.
Eugene and Jamie are held up as a rather bizarre mirror to Leslie and Taylor. When coupled with Taylor asking Leslie if he loves his Survivor Girl and Leslie’s emotional response, the whole thing takes on the appearance of a rather violent, bizarre courtship.
This is another point against it ever being hailed as a feminist film, of course…it syncs up too closely with what we know about abusive relationships, in which one partner isolates the other so that they must cling to and depend only on the abuser. In this instance, Leslie doesn’t just isolate Taylor, he kills anyone else around her. In the end, all she’ll have left is him.
Love the movie, and I’m looking forward to the second one coming out. Here’s hoping Taylor doesn’t get killed off straight away and we get to see their interactions more. How exactly does a person come to terms with the fact that they were attracted to and avidly watched the preparations of a serial killer…who then killed their friends and came after them?