‘Behind the Mask’ Star Robert Englund on New Movie: “It Was a True Sequel”
Dread Central was excited to learn yesterday that a sequel to the cult favorite meta-slasher Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is officially announced. The follow-up has been in the works for a long time, but Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon is now really happening. While there’s no firm sense of what to expect plot wise, we may have some guesses, if previous iterations of the long-gestating project give any clues.
We’ve reported that the next film is set to reunite writer/director Scott Glosserman and co-writer David J. Stieve with original stars Nathan Baesel, Angela Goethals, and Robert Englund, as Leslie Vernon, Taylor Gentry, and Doc Halloran, respectively.
This past October, I had the opportunity to interview Englund about the A Nightmare on Elm Street 4K Blu-ray box set. When the conversation turns to other beloved franchises in his filmography that deserve a second life, of course, I had to ask about Leslie.
“You mentioned Urban Legend and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon,” he said, then adding, “and that last one, I’ll tell you, there is a great script out there for a sequel.”
“It wasn’t a remake … it was a true sequel,” he explained. “The idea was that they’re making a movie about Leslie Vernon, and HBO is producing a documentary about the making of that movie, like Hearts of Darkness. In the story, there’s an actor playing Leslie … a method actor who never takes off the mask. The female lead and I are brought in as technical advisors. Then people on the crew start dying … the gaffer gets electrocuted, the seamstress is literally stitched to death … and it turns out Leslie’s really back.”
At the time, Englund’s outlook and enthusiasm seemed bittersweet. “It was such a clever, self-aware concept … scary but satirical, too. I read the script and it was terrific. I was all in. But between COVID delays, financing falling apart, and the passing of Scott Wilson … who was going to play a major role … it just fell through. They were so close. It really would’ve been something special.”
And while Englund’s account of one of the many unmade Behind the Mask follow-ups is in no means any real indication of where the new movie is headed, I can’t help but wonder if any of those threads might still connect to what we eventually get to see.
For more insight into what other versions of Behind the Mask II could have looked like, check out Dread Central’s Development Hell podcast episode all about the subject:
More good news! To bolster their resources, the Behind the Mask II filmmaking team has launching a Kickstarter campaign that invites fans to participate directly in the making of the film. The movie is already moving forward, but this campaign opens the doors for the community that kept Leslie Vernon alive for twenty years to join the journey early.
The sequel is being produced by Paper Street Pictures, the filmmaker-first genre company led by Aaron B. Koontz and Cameron Burns, whose passion for the original film helped keep the possibility of a sequel alive over the years.
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