In 1996, Wes Craven's Scream introduced audiences to a refreshing slasher movie concept: characters who actually knew they were in a slasher movie and used the rules of the genre in their fight for survival. The low-budget shocker Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon takes the same approach, but with a different twist, exuding a satirical charm and amusing sense of self-awareness that makes the film the best of its breed since Craven's modern horror classic graced the big screen.

Behind the Mask takes place in a world where the massacres conducted by Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers really happened. Slashers are commonplace in this universe, and the latest contender to step up to the bat (or, in this case, sickle) is Leslie Vernon (Nathan Baesel). A man returning to his hometown after being hurled toward certain death as a child, Leslie is determined to exact his revenge in the blood-soaked tradition of his predecessors.

To chronicle his preparations, Leslie hires a documentary crew headed by Taylor (Angela Goethals), a young woman who slowly comes to realize she might've made a mistake in agreeing to follow around a mass murderer-in-training. As Leslie shows how slasher bad guys get away with what they do, in addition to making an enemy out of a psychiatrist (Robert Englund), the crew members begin to doubt their decision. Getting closer to a point of no return, they must decide whether to keep following Leslie's homicidal odyssey or prevent it from happening. 

You don't need to be a horror buff to get a kick out of Behind the Mask, but it certainly helps if you're more than familiar with the various slasher cliches the story explains away. How do these villains move from victim to victim so quickly and quietly? Lots and lots of cardio exercises, according to Leslie. How can they cut the power at will to maximize the fear factor? A handy remote control does the trick. Behind the Mask gets a surprising amount of mileage out of lightly lampooning these slasher traits, letting the laughs come naturally and playing the premise completely straight; Leslie comes across as an eccentric but all-around pretty nice guy to hang out with -- if he didn't want to slice your guts out, that is. Although a good part of the credit goes to some surprisingly sharp writing, in the end, the movie's success would not have been possible without Nathan Baesel and his committed, focused, and diabolical performance. Baesel plays Leslie as a regular sort of dude who wants to be a serial killer in the same way some kids want to be astronauts when they grow up.

However, it's in this area only where Behind the Mask meets real success. Unfortunately, there are a few moments that remove the flick from its mostly mockumentary atmosphere by playing events out and filming them in standard slasher fashion. These parts are scattered throughout the first couple of acts and don't drag too much, but things derail during the flick's last half-hour -- and that's when Behind the Mask becomes the very movie it's poking fun at, almost instantly losing its spark and imagination. Perhaps it was logical to end the story in such a fashion, but even the Columbine-esque faux-documentary Zero Day found a creative and particularly chilling way to end. 

The supporting cast isn't much either, especially with Angela Goethals' character serving as a whiny and indecisive counterbalance to Leslie. Still, I have to give props to Robert Englund, who plays against his unforgettable Freddy Krueger image as the film's equivalent to Donald Pleasance's character from Halloween, and Scott Wilson as Leslie's mentor, a retired killer from the '60s.

Scanning it on the video store shelves, one might be quick to dismiss Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon as just another slasher flick not worthy of  attention. While that may be true about the movie's third act, the first two are worth their weight in cinematic gold. They prove that a genre noted for bathing itself in death still has a little bit of life left in it.

MY RATING: *** (out of ****)

(Released by Anchor Bay and rated "R" for horror violence, language, some sexual content and brief drug use.)