Behind The Mask / The Rise of Leslie Vernon is an exceptionally well written horror-/ slasher-film / mockumentary. I did not expect very much, because I was watching a lot of movies lately and 50% of the movies that get a high rating on IMDb actually are crap (seems as if a lot of people have bad taste, ungh...). BtM/TRoLV is low budget and for sure you can see it when watching it. Also the actors are not totally on top, but all play at least acceptable. The one thing that really kicks it for me is the story-line, although it is very reminiscent of Rémy Belvaux's "Man Bites Dog" from '92. It's been some years that I've seen Man Bites Dog (omg! 15 years!!??) but I remember MBD being much more cynical and dark, so: Leslie Vernon actually is a little bit more moderate; nevertheless it has some really good twists and subtle humor. Please note that I wrote "subtle". This is not "Scary Movie", so you will not laugh until the beer you've just sipped squirts out of your nose because you can not hold yourself laughing. It's also not a real "slasher" film, because you do not see much slashing around, there are not many horrifying close-ups (besides some ripped out larynx that looked rather artificial) ... it's generally not very gory, it's not laugh-out-loud-funny, but all in all I highly enjoyed watching it.

Don't ask me how I came to my (relatively high) rating, because there was no real highlight beside the well-written script, actors were good (not more), camera-work was really good (nothing special though), editing was fine (but nothing special), sound was fine (but nothing special), but nevertheless I would highly recommend watching it together with a girl, a big bag of popcorn and a beer. Not perfect but great to watch! 7/10.

SPOILERS PS: I hope Leslie will rise again from the death for a second part x_0 PPS: If you are disappointed by this film then go and rent Man Bites Dog... it's much more dark and cynical as I mentioned before. This movie is more a bastard of Man Bites Dog + Scream