In 2006 director Scott Glosserman took the horror world by storm with his debut feature, Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon. A hyper-literate deconstruction of 80s slasher films that also managed the difficult feat of being one damn fine slasher film at the same time, Behind The Mask introduced an iconic killer in Leslie Vernon (played by Nathan Baesel) and became a huge favorite on the festival circuit. Glosserman has not followed a typical road since Behind The Mask - he co-directed a documentary about Wikipedia, had a big studio project derailed by the writer's strike and just premiered a made for TV movie on MTV - but Leslie Vernon has never been far from his mind in the years since.
And now he's coming back. Or, at least he will with a bit of help from you.
There have been rumblings for a while now that Glosserman was preparing a new Leslie Vernon film and those rumors have now been confirmed with Glosserman giving us the details on what he describes as a 'spremake' - a mashup of a sequel, prequel and remake - titled Before The Mask: The Return Of Leslie Vernon.
"Everyone is back. Even people you thought were dead are back. The sequel is not going to disappoint. It's a continuation of where we were before. The main idea is that all of these guys got re-inspired by what Leslie did. All the Jasons and Freddies and Leatherfaces. They all went back and took new turns at their old material but reinvented themselves. They draw inspiration from Leslie, who became the muse for everybody. And so there's a little bit of a sense that they owe him something for reinvigorating them. And so there's a little bit more involvement from the horror titans."
Glosserman assures that the style of the first film - one that moves easily between documentary style and a more conventional narrative feature - will also be back in place and says that, yes, once again horror fans can look for an appearance by a true titan of the genre. "We're currently polishing up a featured cameo role. We're speaking with a guy - I have to keep who it is to myself for now because he's not officially attached yet - he'll be our Robert Englund equivalent for this movie."
So, when will fans get to see the new film? Well that depends to a great deal on the fans themselves. Because after hitting a wall financing Before The Mask, Glosserman has decided to take the film he is making for the fans to the fans to finance it directly.
"I wasn't surprised but I was disappointed." says Glosserman. "I had a very rude awakening when I called the distributor of the first film and said 'We're ready to go with the sequel.' And they said not only forget about financing but that if I brought them a finished movie, if I handed a finished movie to them, they would not even distribute it for a fee. It just blew me away. I figured of anybody they must know how well Behind The Mask has been accepted. It did a great number on DVD."
And so Before The Mask has set itself a lofty goal: To be the first film ever to raise over a million dollars in crowd financing. "We sold mid six figure units on the original DVD and if half of those people spend twenty bucks pre-ordering the second film then we've raised more than a million dollars. So, in theory, we could crowd fund the movie. I know that's probably not a fully realistic possibility but, nonetheless, it's fun to set a goal to be the first movie ever to crowd fund more than a million dollars. That's our benchmark. At worst what we're trying to do is demonstrate a groundswell of online community support and, in so doing, we want to demonstrate that there are several thousand people who have pre-ordered the DVD and we've got several thousand Facebook friends and if I can take that - with a fully baked script and a couple of cameos - to a Lionsgate, who are already making original two million dollar films, it just seems to me that it would be a no brainer that they would finance this film."
To hit that goal Glosserman and company have created a unique, proprietary Facebook app to allow fans to pre-order Before The Mask DVDs and other merchandise at no risk to themselves. The company has set a reserve number - the number that is required to actually make the movie - and only if that number is met, so that orders will be able to be filled, will credit cards be charged. If they fall short of that reserve mark then nobody is charged a cent. "We will allow people to buy a Supporter's Edition of the DVD, which will be limited to the number of people who actually buy it in advance this way. We're going to do all sorts of fun special features and, if I can, since I've never done a director's commentary for the first movie I'd like to put that on this disc. All sorts of special features and an uncut, director's cut version of this new film along with proprietary art. We want to make a really special collector's edition of the movie which would be only available to people who pre-order now. And we can also offer posters and signed posters and DVDs and bundles."
So there you have it. Glosserman created one of the best horror pictures of the 2000s the first time out of the gate and now he needs your help to do it again. Visit the official Before The Mask: The Return Of Leslie Vernon Facebook page to chip in.
And now he's coming back. Or, at least he will with a bit of help from you.
There have been rumblings for a while now that Glosserman was preparing a new Leslie Vernon film and those rumors have now been confirmed with Glosserman giving us the details on what he describes as a 'spremake' - a mashup of a sequel, prequel and remake - titled Before The Mask: The Return Of Leslie Vernon.
"Everyone is back. Even people you thought were dead are back. The sequel is not going to disappoint. It's a continuation of where we were before. The main idea is that all of these guys got re-inspired by what Leslie did. All the Jasons and Freddies and Leatherfaces. They all went back and took new turns at their old material but reinvented themselves. They draw inspiration from Leslie, who became the muse for everybody. And so there's a little bit of a sense that they owe him something for reinvigorating them. And so there's a little bit more involvement from the horror titans."
Glosserman assures that the style of the first film - one that moves easily between documentary style and a more conventional narrative feature - will also be back in place and says that, yes, once again horror fans can look for an appearance by a true titan of the genre. "We're currently polishing up a featured cameo role. We're speaking with a guy - I have to keep who it is to myself for now because he's not officially attached yet - he'll be our Robert Englund equivalent for this movie."
So, when will fans get to see the new film? Well that depends to a great deal on the fans themselves. Because after hitting a wall financing Before The Mask, Glosserman has decided to take the film he is making for the fans to the fans to finance it directly.
"I wasn't surprised but I was disappointed." says Glosserman. "I had a very rude awakening when I called the distributor of the first film and said 'We're ready to go with the sequel.' And they said not only forget about financing but that if I brought them a finished movie, if I handed a finished movie to them, they would not even distribute it for a fee. It just blew me away. I figured of anybody they must know how well Behind The Mask has been accepted. It did a great number on DVD."
And so Before The Mask has set itself a lofty goal: To be the first film ever to raise over a million dollars in crowd financing. "We sold mid six figure units on the original DVD and if half of those people spend twenty bucks pre-ordering the second film then we've raised more than a million dollars. So, in theory, we could crowd fund the movie. I know that's probably not a fully realistic possibility but, nonetheless, it's fun to set a goal to be the first movie ever to crowd fund more than a million dollars. That's our benchmark. At worst what we're trying to do is demonstrate a groundswell of online community support and, in so doing, we want to demonstrate that there are several thousand people who have pre-ordered the DVD and we've got several thousand Facebook friends and if I can take that - with a fully baked script and a couple of cameos - to a Lionsgate, who are already making original two million dollar films, it just seems to me that it would be a no brainer that they would finance this film."
To hit that goal Glosserman and company have created a unique, proprietary Facebook app to allow fans to pre-order Before The Mask DVDs and other merchandise at no risk to themselves. The company has set a reserve number - the number that is required to actually make the movie - and only if that number is met, so that orders will be able to be filled, will credit cards be charged. If they fall short of that reserve mark then nobody is charged a cent. "We will allow people to buy a Supporter's Edition of the DVD, which will be limited to the number of people who actually buy it in advance this way. We're going to do all sorts of fun special features and, if I can, since I've never done a director's commentary for the first movie I'd like to put that on this disc. All sorts of special features and an uncut, director's cut version of this new film along with proprietary art. We want to make a really special collector's edition of the movie which would be only available to people who pre-order now. And we can also offer posters and signed posters and DVDs and bundles."
So there you have it. Glosserman created one of the best horror pictures of the 2000s the first time out of the gate and now he needs your help to do it again. Visit the official Before The Mask: The Return Of Leslie Vernon Facebook page to chip in.