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Few genre fandoms are more willing to lift up a cult film like those who love horror movies. Rumors often swirl about indie talents and hits waiting to break into the mainstream. Sometimes the whispers and hushed tones are the point, and some films rise as beloved classics because of networks of fans who will talk up their favorites forever. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon has undeniably found itself in this circle. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of a cult classic is a great time to celebrate the film’s legacy. Yet almost more exciting, it was met with an announcement of Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon, a sequel two decades in the making.
The sequel comes as a surprise but has a plan in place to embrace the fandom that surrounds the feature. Rather than go the traditional studio route, Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon will strengthen its budget with a Kickstarter campaign.
Seeing the response of the community to help movies like Iron Lung come into being, this will give the team more control over the content and mission of the film. The hope is to craft a movie for the fans of the first while reminding audiences that tropes have evolved and changed as slashers have found new audiences. Helping guide the film to theaters is Aaron B. Koontz, whose Paper Street Pictures helped Shelby Oaks far exceed its low budget to become a modest hit.
One of the gems of the 2000s horror boom, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, is the kind of movie that might not have been seen by everyone but was certainly seen by the right people. Director Scott Glosserman and writer David J. Stieve might not have come before Scream, but their love letter to the genre is every bit the horror-comedy of that film.
Drawing on dozens of influences and breaking down the tropes as part of the plot, The Rise of Leslie Vernon is the ultimate flick for horror fans because of its love for the genre. While others might point out the flaws that make people scoff at horror, Glosserman and Stieve explained these bits away.
Leading the picture were Nathan Baesel and Angela Goethals. The structure of the film follows a young reporter (Goethals) and her camera crew as they document Leslie Vernon (Baesel), a serial killer who models himself after Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, and Freddy Krueger. In the world of Behind the Mask, these are not movies, but instead the real killers who become infamous for their killing sprees. As he stalks his “Survivor Girl,” Vernon tells the reporters how he plays into each piece of the ritualistic killings. This is a service to the world, because without evil, there cannot be good.
FandomWire spoke with Glosserman, Stieve, Koontz, Baesel, and Goethals about reuniting for Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon. We spoke about the original film, its legacy, and the context in which it broke through with horror fans. With big ambitions for what they can create and a healthy awareness of the challenges they’ll face, the crew of Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon is ready to surprise audiences and fans alike.
Interview with the Crew and Cast of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon and Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon
FandomWire: Nathan and Angela, back when you first received the scripts, what made you want to be in Leslie Vernon?
Nathan Baesel: It just read so clean, man. Everything was set up, and everything paid off. It just clicked for me. I felt like I was in The Matrix, and it was all making sense. Just being able to actually get to do the thing, being able to audition for a script of that quality. It just didn’t happen that frequently for me. It was a real gift.
Angela Goethals: For me, there were two things. The dialog is so smart. The characters are very well developed, and yet there was an expansiveness. There was room to play. There was room to find the points of resonance and go deeper. Then there was the fun of the physical aspect. It was kind of the perfect storm of really smart dialogue and a really exciting opportunity for some physical challenges.
FandomWire: Scott and David, one of the things I love about your movie so much is the final act. It really hammers home how great a slasher can be in terms of scariness and pure fun. What’s the hardest part about making a comedy that has to turn into that kind of movie?
David J. Stieve: I honestly don’t know how he did that. I put some words down on paper and I am super guilty of being the melodramatic one. The comedy and the subtlety of the performances, that’s all Scott and Nathan and Angela. I am in awe as well.
Scott Glosserman: It works because we didn’t overplay the comedy. The comedy isn’t parody, right? You have to come in straight so the performances are true and authentic. It’s the context that makes it hilarious. We go from playing something straight and authentic [for the documentary] to the cinema tone, which is a different substrate of media. But the acting is still played straight. It’s not such a departure. Had we gone from an outlandish parody acting style to something completely different, then it would have probably not worked as well.
FandomWire: Aaron, when did you see Leslie Vern for the first time, and what impact did it make on you as a filmmaker?
Aaron Koontz: The reason why I make a lot of the movies I make is because of this amazing thing that they made. It was very influential in the timing for me, too. I was coming out of film school. I wrote this thing in the last few years about horror with heart. That’s what Paper Street’s motto is. It’s horror with heart. There’s nothing that epitomizes horror with heart more. Behind the Mask, Evil Dead 2, Dead Alive, and Cabin in the Woods, those movies were these pivotal moments, building blocks in my career as a filmmaker.
Scare Package is the parody version of what they were doing. I can’t do what they did, so go crazier with it, gorier with it. It’s just an unbelievably special privilege to be here with them right now. It’s honestly surreal.
FandomWire: Angela, Angela, you’ve become a cult favorite survivor girl in the horror scene. Why do you think that Gentry has continued to resonate with horror fans?
Angela Goethals: There’s the scene in the hayloft where she figures out that it’s been her all along. You watch someone who’s very unsure, very new to this world, very tentative, and then you watch that moment of realization. You see the complete sort of vulnerability breakdown moment, the, “I can’t handle this,” the “Oh my god, I thought it was one thing, and it’s something totally different,” like that intensely vulnerable moment. I hope that there’s something about that transformation from self-doubt to vulnerability to strength and badassery.
FandomWire: Nathan, you also get to be kind of like the ultimate film geek, in a way, but also be the psychopath. Tell us how hard it was to balance those two sides of Leslie Vernon.
Nathan Baesel: It felt realistic, like it was kind of already built into the script. In some of the documentary parts, you get a little window into the darkness. But for the most part, that stuff doesn’t happen until the mask goes on and I get to work. That was actually something that I had to find when we were on location. The documentary stuff was like two or three weeks of the shoot, and then we transitioned over to shoot all the film stuff.
That was an exploration, for sure. That required me to believe all of the shit that I’ve been saying in the documentary. Just really buying in. It’s to be celebrated, and I’m about to enter the Pantheon tonight. This is my Christmas! It’s really easy to do what you’ve got to do, because nothing’s going to stand in my way.
FandomWire: The screenplay is one of my favorite things about Behind the Mask, but I do love when the lexicon sneaks out. Like when I catch somebody saying “survivor girl” instead of a “final girl.” Or if you hear someone call out an “Ahab” in a movie. I’m like, “Oh, my God, I know what this is coming from.”
David J. Stieve: Well, I don’t know if I want to admit this. I knew that Carol Clover had written Men, Women, and Chainsaws. I knew that work was out, and she had called that archetype “the Final Girl.” I thought, okay, that’s perfect. Sat down, wrote the script, and somehow just typed out “Survivor Girl.” Completely messed it up. In the subsequent years, I have found cover by saying in Leslie’s universe, Carol Clover didn’t write that book because it’s about movies. So the “final girl” isn’t really a thing. In Leslie’s world, “survivor girl” is the industry term.
Scott Glosserman: I had no idea. I was a little nonplussed when I heard “final girl,” and I thought, “We’re in the zeitgeist. Surely ‘survivor girl’ will pick up steam.” Yeah, she beat us to it, especially when the movie Final Girls came out. That was the nail in the coffin. But I still think survivor girl, I just like the ring to it.
Aaron Koontz: Yeah, I was today years old… I think they tapped into something that was really special. Where horror is at now is such an interesting place. In a Violent Nature, Terrifier, and how the slasher has evolved, I want to know what Leslie thinks of this.
That question became a question that I was posing to them, and we’ve been working for the past few years on some really interesting answers that I think are going to really pay off. The expectations are high because we want them to be high. We know that Leslie was doing something different, and we have to be able to still comment on that. I think we’re doing it well.
FandomWire: Angela, Nathan, what about a Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon project made you want to come back?
Angela Goethals: (points to Nathan’s face) Look at this! Look at this! (laughs) Behind the Mask is one of the best creative experiences I’ve ever had. It’s one of the best collaborations I’ve ever been lucky enough to be a part of. It is seminal in the sense that we came to this with such an openness. Every single one of us. It was Nathan’s first movie, if you guys can believe it!
Nathan Baesel: Well, just blame it on me. I had no idea what I was doing.
Angela Goethals: But it was Scott’s first movie, too!
Nathan Baesel: Take the keys from their hands, because they should not be behind the wheel.
Angela Goethals: There is no one babysitting these kids.
Nathan Baesel: Who’s responsible, right? Who can? Who is going to speak for this?
Angela Goethals: Obviously, we don’t like each other. I wanted to give myself this gift again. I wanted to experience this character again, with the lived experience of 20 years of like real life that has happened for all of us, and to come back to something that’s simultaneously familiar and completely not what it was before. And as Nate said to me not too long ago, “It’s a thing that doesn’t happen very often. You don’t get to jump back into the skin of someone that you lived in 20 years ago and bring all of yourself to that place again.
Nathan Baesel: Yeah, that was the right answer.
FandomWire: Scott and David, one of the things that I’m very excited to see you do is bring out some of the new icons of recent years and add them to the horror lexicon. You had Kane Hodder, Robert Englund, and Zelda Rubinstein in the original film. Who would be your dream person to sneak into your movie, either for a cameo or a larger role?
Scott Glosserman: We can’t fully talk about it.
Aaron Koonz: [Laughs] We know the list. We’re gonna take swings either way. The movie’s happening regardless of the fundraiser. But we have some really fun ideas around that, and we’ll see if that could pay off or not.
David J. Stieve: I think Scott can speak to this, but going out to the people you’re talking about has been very interesting this time. There’s the legwork and the track record of Leslie Vernon. It’s easier to get people to consider it. We’ll see.
Scott Glosserman: There are also certain ideas that we have with intention, and it would be somewhat devastating if those things didn’t come to fruition. We’ve had our minds set on them for quite a long time. They’re more intentional than the ones of the past, and they’re more consequential to the actual narrative.
Aaron Koontz: What we can say is this is very much a world-building sequel. The horror sequel itself is its own trope, right? What does that mean, and within that trope, rules exist, right? We think about the Scream lexicon, Halloween, Friday, all of these things help us understand what the horror sequel is. Whether or not it’s a cameo or it’s just an underlying understanding of the evolution of horror, all of those things are in play in our sequel.
FandomWire: With meta-humor far more prevalent across all genres now, like Scream and Deadpool, what is the thing that you are most cognizant of as you guys embark on this new adventure about making it still feel real and grounded?
Scott Glosserman: Go back to 2006, when Eli and Aja were making dark, hard torture porn. At the same time, they were resisting the horror comedy as a counterbalance. But we had Shaun of the Dead, we had Slither the year before us at SXSW. Before that, there was American Werewolf in London, and that was it. Maybe Tremors and Evil Dead II.
To now see where horror comedy, where meta-humor has come as a genre, it’s pretty gratifying. It’s incredibly challenging to then one-up that, because it’s just been totally mined and super-saturated. It’s one of the reasons why it’s taken 20 years. We have continued to iterate, to figure out the original point of view. But I think we’ve nailed it.
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is now available on VOD platforms.
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