10 Best Slasher Movies Since 2000
7. Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon
Imagine an Americanized version of Man Bites Dog and you’ve got Behind The Mask, a hip deconstruction of slasher movie conventions that never becomes twee or repetitive. Aimed squarely at the Fangoria crowd, this is the kind of film that Scream 4 should’ve been.
A killer whose motivation is that he’s batsh*t nuts, Leslie Vernon invites a documentary crew to follow him around as he stalks and kills his prey in the town of Glen Echo. What the crew soon realize is that Vernon has a deadly nemesis in the form of Robert Englund (whose character is meant to remind you of Donald Pleasance in Halloween), a psychiatrist who will stop at nothing to stop his reign of terror.
Cue lots of smart riffs on slasher movie conventions as battle commences, all of which leaves the remakes of Prom Night, Friday The 13th, Halloween et al choking on its dust. There are bigger-budgeted (and therefore “better”) slasher movies out there, but they don’t have an ounce of Behind The Mask’s wit and invention, so you need to check out this movie immediately.