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Official Site: Anchor Bay Entertainment

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is a 2006 mockumentary directed by Scott Glosserman. It stars Nathan Baesel, Angela Goethals and Robert Englund. The film is an homage to the slasher film genre. It follows a film crew that documents an aspiring serial killer who models himself according to slasher film conventions. It was released in theaters on March 16, 2007.

The movie is shot as a documentary set in a world where the killer depicted in famous slasher film are real. A female journalist named Taylor Gentry and her two cameramen, Doug and Todd, document the preparations of Leslie Vernon as he prepares to join the ranks of other slasher villains. Leslie takes his identity from an urban legend about a boy who killed his family and was cast into a river by angry townsfolk. He initially claims to be the vengeful spirit of the slain boy, but soon admits that he is an ordinary man named Leslie Mancuso who must rely on conventional tactics rather than supernatural powers.

Taylor and her crew film Leslie's meticulous preparations to slaughter a number of teenagers in an abandoned house and then be confronted by a virgin "survivor girl", Kelly. Leslie plans his crime down to the smallest detail, cheerfully explaining the many tricks and "trade secrets" he utilizes to engineer what will only appear to be a spontaneous night of horror. His preparations include modifications to the house and careful manipulation of his future victims. While stalking Kelly, Leslie is overjoyed when a man named Doc Halloran arrives to serve as his nemesis; he terms him his "Ahab". Leslie also introduces the crew to his mentor, Eugene, a retired killer from a time before killers like Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees became popular.

Taylor and her crew come to share Leslie's enthusiasm for his project, but their consciences catch up with them on the night of the murders. They beg Leslie to call off his killing spree, but Leslie is adamant, believing that his survivor girl will define herself by facing him. Taylor and her crew abandon their documentary, and at this point the film itself shifts from a documentary style to a traditional horror movie presentation. Taylor attempts to warn and rally the remaining teens together to fight Leslie, but Leslie's preparations repeatedly give him the upper hand. The group looks to Kelly for leadership, but she unexpectedly dies. Taylor quickly realizes that, as a virgin herself, she was Leslie's true survivor girl all along. Leslie continues picking off the group one-by-one until only Taylor remains. She faces Leslie and defeats him in the exact manner he had laid out for her, then burns down the shed in which he was defeated. She then runs into Doug and Doc Halloran who survived their encounters with Leslie.

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