Today's Pick: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)
As the years go by, I find myself disliking Wes Craven's Scream more and more. It's a decent slasher/whodunit picture, but its lasting legacy has been its commentary on the genre it inhabits. It's that commentary that has grown sour for me. While it acknowledges and parodies the conventions of the horror film, it never bothers to delve into the "why" of the conventions. They exist because they are supposed to exist and that's all there is to it. It doesn't help that there's a snobby attitude to the way the film dissects all the trappings of horror movies. Behind the Mask is the film Scream ought to be: a charmingly funny but completely earnest examination of slasher films and why they follow the formulas they do.
As the years go by, I find myself disliking Wes Craven's Scream more and more. It's a decent slasher/whodunit picture, but its lasting legacy has been its commentary on the genre it inhabits. It's that commentary that has grown sour for me. While it acknowledges and parodies the conventions of the horror film, it never bothers to delve into the "why" of the conventions. They exist because they are supposed to exist and that's all there is to it. It doesn't help that there's a snobby attitude to the way the film dissects all the trappings of horror movies. Behind the Mask is the film Scream ought to be: a charmingly funny but completely earnest examination of slasher films and why they follow the formulas they do.
