OK, so nobody ran out to make Scott Glosserman's Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon some sort of unexpected cult hit -- but now that the fantastic little flick is now out on DVD, you have no excuse for not checking it out. OK, if you don't like horror movies, you have a fair excuse. But everyone else! You add it to your Netflix queue, you! (shakes fist indignantly)

Anyway, we're pleased to share the news that (despite his debut baby's paltry box office performance) Mr. Glosserman has been tapped by Paramount Vantage to helm a horror flick called Playing House. According to Variety, it'll be about a deserted island mansion that delivers some terror when a young couple shows up. (I assume there'll be a little more to it than that.) Glosserman will be writing the screenplay with first-timer Macy Raymond. Scotty G. (we're pals so I can call him that) also has an adaptation of Paul Fenimore Cooper's Tal in the works.

And one day, who knows? Maybe Glosserman will become the next Sam Raimi and we'll see the return of Leslie Vernon. Hey, stranger things have happened. (But yeah, definitely rent the flick and then report back with your thoughts.)

The coolest horror flick of the year that nobody went to see has claimed itself a DVD release date. After giving the critically-embraced Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon a cursory (and very limited) theatrical release, Anchor Bay will bring the slick slasher deconstruction home to DVD on June 26th. According to Bloody-disgusting.com, the platter will come complete with audio commentaries, a couple of featurettes, several deleted and extended scenes, two of the very cool trailers, thoughts from writer/director Scott Glosserman and a perfectly lovely anamorphic widescreen transfer.

For the record, Anchor Bay released Behind the Mask in 72 theaters on March 16th. (It opened opposite Dead Silence and Premonition, hardly heavy-hitters but most certainly "genre" flicks.) Over the course of its 3-week theatrical run, the movie grossed less than $70,000. I mention that rather ugly number not to draw attention to the film's fiscal failure, but to indicate how damn hard it must be to "sell" a movie like this one. It's got no stars, it's definitely an "indie" and it's tailor-made for a very specific niche audience. But this is what makes DVD so great: I predict that millions of horror fans will have a ball "discovering" Leslie Vernon on their own ... and if this movie doesn't become a cult mini-classic within five years time, then I vow to retire from the horror game forever. (Disclaimer: In actuality I promise no such thing.)

Anyway, you can see for yourself if the horror community has over-hyped Behind the Mask when the flick goes digital in June. As far as Anchor Bay's theatrical releases are concerned, they also have a full-bore September 7 release planned for Adam Green's Hatchet -- a flick that better get more than 72 screens and 70k before we hear news of a DVD release!

Scott Glosserman's crazy, cool and undeniably clever Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is many things at once: a winning mockumentary, a legitimate horror film and a very sly deconstruction of the slasher genre. It's precisely the sort of geek-friendly genre pic that 14-year-olds plan to make as they sit through a triple feature of Halloween 2, Elm Street 3 and Friday 4 -- but only a few of 'em actually grow up to do it, let alone as amusingly as Glosserman has. The gimmick is a fun one indeed: A documentary crew has been invited to spend some time with Leslie Vernon, an upstart serial slasher who aims to become as famous as Freddy, Michael and Jason. But what begins as a simple lesson in how to effectively slash, bash and dispatch a gang of hard-partying teens becomes, you guessed it, a true-blue nightmare. The documentarians forgot the golden rule of their craft -- don't get involved with your interview subjects -- and now they're going to pay for it dearly.

The cast is exactly what you'd hope for from a winking-yet-reverent mockumentary like Behind the Mask. Leading man Nathan Baesel switches from Jim Carrey-goofy to Jack Nicholson-creepy with the drop of one eyebrow, and it's his performance that perfectly nails what Glosserman is going for: sly, scary ... and maybe just a little silly. (We all love these old slasher flicks, of course, but nobody's about to label 'em as "high art," right?) Fans of the genre will ooze geek-juice all over the supporting cast. No less than Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund, Scott Wilson (The Host) and the awesome Zelda Rubenstein (Poltergeist) stop by for a few choice scenes. As the documentarian who opts to follow Leslie V. around (and lives to regret it), Angela Goethals is quite solid throughout. Sometimes funny, sometimes annoying, her character serves as an excellent foil for Mr. Vernon as well a bemused stand-in for the more seasoned audience members.

Those gore-soaked knuckleheads over at Bloody-Disgusting.com have had themselves one helluva busy day! First up is some wacky Uwe Boll news: Not only is the German goofball hoping to do a BloodRayne 3 some time soon, but it also looks like Christian Slater has signed on for Alone in the Dark 2. Ha! Take this news with a grain of salt, because Uwe is known for doling out press releases and gossipy tidbits at the drop of a hat -- but he's always good for a laugh, that Bollman.

Next up we got the brand-new trailer for Scott Glosserman's rather excellent Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, which Anchor Bay will be releasing theatrically in February. The trailer blurbs about nine different critics, but left out the guy who wrote the planet's very first BTM review: Me! :-( Ah well, the movie still rocks. Horror fans should be prepared to fall madly in love with this clever little indie.

THEN we get the very first teaser trailer for Fox Atomic's The Hills Have Eyes 2 over at IGN Movies, which is suitably short, slick and spooky. (This sequel hits on March 9.)

Closing out the horror hijinks is an all-new international poster (also courtesy of IGN) for Eli Roth's Hostel 2 -- which really has to be seen to be believed. Let's just say it's ... meaty. (Hostel 2 now has a release date of June 8, by the way.)

Keep up the great work, o bloody & disgusting ones!

One of the most disarmingly clever genre deconstructions I've ever seen is Scott Glosserman's Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon -- which is just another way of saying "It's a horror mockumentary created by folks who definitely know their old-school slasher flicks, and aren't afraid of being a little irreverent while paying homage to the genre that Jason (and Michael and Freddy) built." I saw the movie with a very enthusiastic crowd back at last March's SXSW Film Festival -- and then once again at the Alamo Drafthouse on Halloween Night when I happened to be back in Austin for reasons of a more personal (to say nothing of curvier) nature.

And after two sessions with Leslie I can tell you: This flick really works, but only if, as a child, you used to love sneaking HBO peeks at Friday the 13th Part 4, Halloween Part 5 and Freddy Part 6 while your parents were off doing more, ahem, parental things. Bolstered immeasurably by the fantastic lead performance of Nathan Baesel (and kept consistently afloat by Glosserman's witty screenplay), Behind the Mask is a certifiable hoot for the horror crowd. If the "meet the hot young slasher" mockumentary idea doesn't sell you at first, I'd also remind you that Behind the Mask delivers genre veterans like Robert Englund, Scott Wilson and Zelda Rubinstein. And if you're still not curious, then fine: You're officially off my list of true-blue horror geeks.

So here's some good news: Not only has Anchor Bay purchased Behind the Mask for distribution, but they'll be doing it in a theatrical capacity! Yep, Anchor Bay is gonna bang out some prints and distribute the flick on January 5 -- although obviously it's going to be a fairly limited-style release pattern. But don't worry; I hear those Anchor Bay guys do some pretty fine horror-work on the DVD front as well.

Ever notice how you'll often see articles about how "horror is making a comeback!" -- yet you never really see many pieces entitled "Boy, horror is quite unpopular these days!"? That's because there will always be a market for high-end kick-ass horror movies ... at least until something like I Know What You Did Last Summer Part 7: Still Somewhat Aware or a lame-o remake of Prom Night comes along and tosses a bucket of water onto the campfire for a few months.

Every year or two yields a "breakout" hit, be it an indie like Saw or The Blair Witch Project or a teen-friendly multiplexer like The Ring, The Grudge, or ... The Brush. But it seems that the popularity of horror flicks has comes as big shock to the people over at the Cannes Film Festival. The fest itself offers only a small sampling of horror flicks (the Pang Brothers' Re-Cycle is one of 'em), but the surrounding film markets are absolutely crammed with slasher tales, ghost stories, and monster mashes.

This particular Hollywood Reporter piece should make for a fun read if you're a horror geek. The appeal of the genre is, once again, given a fresh spotlight, plus it has some solid interview bites from William (The Exorcist) Friedkin and David (The Fly) Cronenberg. Plus if you act now you just might get the early word on titles like The Living Hell, The Quick and the Undead, and Poultrygeist.

You want the scoop on upcoming horror flicks that deserve some love? Remember these titles: Isolation, Evil Aliens, Reeker, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, and the unbelievable ass-kickage known as The Descent.

While trying to decide which movie to go see this past weekend, my father called me up and asked my opinion on the latest flicks. Seeing as I've been knee-deep in Gen Art festival screenings (Behind the Mask was awesome!) and the last mainstream film I saw in the theater was Inside Man, I recommended that one.

However, when I told him to go read some critic reviews to help nudge him toward a decision, he scoffed, "Bah, what do they know -- they're always wrong anyway." After I hung up the phone, I decided to take a sample poll and call some of my friends to ask them if they ever look to a movie critic to help choose a film. I spoke with six people (I know, I didn't think I had that many friends either), all of whom consider themselves rather "artsy" and not one seeks out the critic's guidance. But why?

The consensus was that the critic gives too much of the film away. Oh, and the trailer doesn't? One of my friends felt that most critics remind him of that annoying kid from school who walked around with a very "I know everything and you know nothing" kind of attitude. He followed that up with, "Hey, at least I don't need a dictionary to watch a trailer." Seriously, why are we making a whole what-to-do over the fact that studios aren't screening certain films for critics when no one bothers to read their reviews anyway?

So, I ask: Do you read reviews? If not, why? Should movie critics dumb down their reviews, just like Hollywood dumbs down its films, in order to attract more people? Is that the answer?

 

While all the buzz right now in New York City surrounds the Tribeca Film Festival, the 11th annual Gen Art Film Festival begins tonight at the famed Ziegfeld theater and is defintely perfect for us lazy folks who don't really feel like choosing among hundreds of films, fighting crowds and being denied access to the cool after parties.

Gen Art isn't your typical film festival, mainly because there are only seven feature films screened alongside seven shorts -- all of which are New York premieres. In addition to seven films and seven shorts, there are seven parties which feature, most notably, seven open bars. At two hours per night, that's roughly 14 hours of free alcohol. Need I say more?

This year's slate is a bit more high profile than previous festivals, in that it includes some of the top films from Sundance and SXSW. Tickets are $25 dollars per night and that gets you theater admission as well as access to the hot after party. Wow, did I just use the word hot? Is someone like me allowed to do that? Personally, I'm looking the most forward to Saturday night when Behind the Mask, the first ever horror film to play Gen Art, is screened. From what I hear, it's supposed to be one kick-ass good time. See a complete list of this year's films after the jump...