I Am Link

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--- Hulk Out - I was supposed to see Thor Ragnarok last night but I had to abandon my ticket for a work event, boo hoo me. I have it so hard, you guys. But I'm not sure when I'll see it now - this weekend's looking pretty nuts. (See this tweet for confirmation of that.) That said Thor shuffled back up the To-Do list first when I read Chris Hemsworth talk about how many shirtless scenes he's got (apparently Taika really enjoyed getting Chris out of his clothes; use that sentence as you will) and then even more when I read Vulture's Big Breaking Important News Story that this one has Marvel's first nude scene - we get Hulk Butt! Sidenote: I love how furry they've made the Hulk's chest, in keeping with Original Ruffalo. But is Hulk's butt furry? Stay tuned!
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--- Full Cone - The early retrospective of the career of director Stephen Cone so far, which we told you about previously, kicks off today at the Museum of the Moving Image out in Queens with his terrific and lovely latest film Princess Cyd, which we've been telling you to see for several months now. We are on it! Seriously if you're in town you'd be a top shelf fool not to make it out there to something. Anyway The Film Stage chatted with Cone about... well lots of stuff, it's a great peek into a great mind, go read it.
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--- Great Gerwig - I should have linked to this when I posted that clip from Lady Bird earlier today but I spaced on it - anyway you can literally never get too much Greta Gerwig, literally - this profile on her for New York Magazine is top tier stuff, read the shit out of it. She's every ounce the delight we've come to love. In related news The Quad, which is doing that series on Lady Bird's influences that I told you about, just announced that GG will be there in person for the screenings of Mike Leigh's Secrets & Lies and (wait for it) Brian DePalma's Carrie! Ahhh! Oh and I haven't read this one yet but here's Greta & Patty Jenkins talking about What Makes Female Directors Great, according to the headline. (thx Mac)
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--- We're All Queer Creeps - I found this personal essay right here about discovering and interpreting one's gayness through the lens of Michael Myers and the original Halloween film really moving and interesting, go read it. Y'all know I'm a proponent of owning the gay villain or as I've dubbed them the Queer Creep, so this fits right in our wheelhouse.
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--- Dancing Boys - First things first I've had that behind-the-scenes video of Armie Hammer (and Timothee & Esther Garrel & Victoire Du Bois, but obviously Armie's the dancing star here) practicing their dancing on the set of Call Me By Your Name for an entire week, maybe longer, and somehow managed to forget to post it - what is the world coming to??? Don't ask me where it came from - somebody posted it on Tumblr but you go try to sort through a week's worth of CMBYN Tumblr, I double peach dare you. Anyway besides that wondrous thing here's a new chat with CMBYN screenwriter and almost-director and forever-legend James Ivory on the movie. He even manages to not bad-mouth Luca's choices this time.
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--- Call Me Leslie - The unjustly ignored in its time and still unjustly overlooked 2006 film Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is getting a big fancy blu-ray edition next year thanks to the wonderful folks at Scream Factory, so maybe we can push this thing into broader consciousness besides just horror nerds then. Still pissed we never got a sequel. But in that vein I guess a comic series called Before the Mask (a prequel, duh) got funded by an online campaign last year and that is indeed coming our way. Don't know how I missed that.
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--- Beale Boys - Barry Jenkins of Moonlight fame is getting his next movie together (a James Baldwin adaptation; we told you about it here) and just hired a couple of very fine looking gentleman for supporting roles - Dave Franco and Ed Skrein will co-star in If Beale Street Could Talk, which is about a young pregnant woman named Tish (played by newcomer Kiki Layne) who is trying to save the life of her boyfriend who's been accused of a crime he didn't commit.
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--- And Finally have you seen the new speedo-stuffed teaser for the upcoming American Crime Story second season called The Assassination of Gianni Versace? Not just any speedo - Darren Criss Speedo. If you missed the pictures of Darren rocking a little red speedo on the set (I doubt you did, but just in case) click here for them. And here's that teaser:
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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)

Leslie: This is the living room. There's Church and Zoe. 

They are my little sweeties. Actually, he's not. 

Don't put your finger anywhere near him. 

Taylor: Okay. 

Leslie: But you can pet him. He's a sweetie. 

I'm so terrible with these guys. I go away for days, 

forget to feed 'em. Little bastards just won't die. 

Taylor: Turtles are good that way, very feng shui. 

Leslie: Yeah yeah, plants and turtles. 

Plants and turtles. I only keep pets I can eat. 

A happy 37 to Angela Goethals, so terrific in this.

The sequel is still listed on IMDB - I hope it happens.

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You Know You Want It

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I've been kinda shitty keeping up with the slow going news on the sequel (or maybe prequel?) to the really terrific 2006 slasher flick Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, which will be called Before the Mask (so prequel then). They've been attempting to crowd-source funds through their Facebook page and through a Kickstarter campaign. As to the latter, there's still a day and a half left for them to reach their goal, if y'all have money you should make haste not waste and get on over there. They're offering all sorts of cool bonuses and what not for helping out. Anyway this new news I will be better about sharing because damn yes - they've made Leslie Vernon action figures!

Read all about it here, where you can also sort out buying information. They go on sale very soon, within the next week I think; they're 25 bucks for a standard figure, or 80 bucks for a deluxe one, signed by Mask's director Scott Glosserman, star Nathan Baesel, and the figure's sculptor (who did a really spectacular job, if you ask me) Neal DeConte.There are only 100 of these signed figures. Buy, buy!

By Scythe By Knife By Axe Bye Bye

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Look at the hotness that is that newly designed poster for the 2006 slasherterpiece (please tell me I just made that word up) Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon! The team behind that movie has been angling to make a prequel-sequel (called Before the Mask) and have taken to the 'net to try and fund it via us folks who call ourselves "the fans." I've linked to the Facebook page before; it's the best place to keep track of what's up. This poster was created in a limited run to drum up some cash, and there appear to still be some left (minus the one I just bought), which you can buy here. They're only twenty bucks! I so hope they manage to get this made. And don't even get me started on how tough it's been for them while Saw got 14 sequels. What a world, what a world.
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I Am Link

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--- Yo Joe - The little boy from the first Jurassic Park, Joseph Mazzello, has been getting quite a few little parts lately now that's he grown into a handsome young man, and he just got cast in the GI Joe sequel. And his name is Joe! That's nuts! Anyway are they even bothering with any girls this time around? Channing and Joe and The Rock and Ray Stevenson and sexy bitch Byung-hun Lee. Beefcake on top of beefcake! Which sounds about right. That's how I played with my GI Joes at least.

--- And speaking of Jurassic Park, yes Steven Spielberg confirmed the push for a fourth film at Comic Con and yes they're saying it could be in the next two years. But it's not really anymore news then we heard a couple months ago. so I'm sitting on my hands til real concrete stuffs comes out like, I dunno, the movie itself. No more yanking me around! (Riiiight, this will last.)

--- Pro Dentata - Over at The Film Experience Robert crafted a wonderful ode to the 2009 vaginal horror flick Teeth, which I need to rewatch right soon. Why hasn't Jess Weixler gotten more work off off that movie? She's so good in it! Or hey what about young buck Hale Appleman? He's so hot in that!

--- Dead Man Walking - Frank Darabont has quit his job running AMC's The Walking Dead. Sadness! According to him he wasn't quite prepared for the demands of a day-to-day TV show after being a movie-maker for so long, but there's been a lot of drama behind the scenes of that show since the start. The first season was wobbly so I dunno what this might mean, good or bad, up or down, for the second season which starts in October. Guess we'll have to wait and see (says Mr. Obvious).

--- Royale With Cheese - Astonishing Stacie Ponder wrote up some thoughts on a bunch of Asian horror flicks the other day, including her first time with Battle Royale and Audition! Now that's a kick-ass two-fer.

--- Skin Tagged - Also via Twitch is the full trailer for Pedro Almodovar's The Skin I Live In, which I would set fire to the Statue of Liberty in order to see right a screening of this second.

--- Damme Hot - I know he's a crazy weirdo, but Jean Clauda Van Damme's gotten himself all beefed up for The Expendables sequel as you can see there (via) and I can't help but gawk again. I know there won't be, they never even got Always-Shirtless Jason Statham out of his top for the first one, but I'd kill for one more look at JCVD's greatest asset.

--- Speaking of Statham, Crank 3 will supposedly be made with or without him in it, says Efren Ramirez who was in both of the earlier films too. I can't imagine Statham not making the third film. God I love these movies. They're so ridiculous.

--- Let's Go Leviathan - Robert Zemeckis has finally decided to step the hell away from those dead-eyed monsters he'd been forcing us to stare at movie after movie and making something with real human beings, plus sea monsters! I guess the massive flop heard round the galaxy, Mars Needs Moms, drove the point home finally. The new project is called Here There Be Monsters and it may or may not be a project he does in the near future, but it sounds cool on paper. I've been jonesing for a giant monster movie renaissance for some time!

--- One Lopsided Triangle - Emma Stone might be re-teaming with her Zombieland director for Gangster Squad, which would make her the moll caught between her Crazy Stupid Love co-star Ryan Gosling and Sean Penn, which eww. Is there even a whiff of a choice there? I mean really.

--- Re Masked - Have you guys gone over to the Facebook page for Before the Mask, the prequel to the wonderful slasher flick Behind the Mask, yet? They're raising funds from fans in all sorts of neat-o ways, including offering up - for a price, natch - the opportunity to be killed on-screen! How rad is that? it's beyond my meager budget unfortunately, but man that is cool. You can also win a telephone call from the slasher himself, Nathan Baesel, who was so good in the first film. But they don't say if it can be a phone sex call or not. I'll just assume that's a yes. The director Scott Glosserman talks about this and more over at STYD.

--- Inn July - Twitch posted a couple of reviews worth checking out today. I loved their take on Miranda July's The Future. I had so much fun writing my review but it was vague in a lot of ways. On purpose, but still. So I don't think I made it clear how much darker this movie is than her first film Me and You and Everyone We Know. And despite is rep MAYAEWK was no walk in the park. Anyway I love this movie more and more the further I get from it. It's out this weekend in limited release! See it!

And secondly they've got a review of Ti West's follow-up to The House of the Devil, the haunted house (make that inn) story The Innkeepers, which I would set fire to the Statue of Liberty a second time in order to see a screening of right this second.

--- And finally, my bud Sean wrote a Spider-Man comic! That is so cool! Conrgats, Sean!

Leslie's Papa Makes Some Truth

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Just a couple of weeks ago we had a wee bit of news regarding a sequel to 2006's wonderful meta-horror flick Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon - namely that everybody behind that film is keen to get a sequel going (actually some kind of prequel, apparently) and there's a Facebook page up and running devoted to the cause. The page has actually been pretty active, I see updates coming from it all the time, so fingers crossed!

But this doesn't really have to do with Leslie - rather it has to do with Leslie's director, Scott Glosserman. He's only had one film come out since Leslie, and that was a non-horror documentary about Wikipedia called Truth in Numbers, but that changes tomorrow night apparently, when an original horror film by him airs on MTV! Via TFC:

"MTV treats viewers to extreme suspense in its upcoming original TV movie "The Truth Below," premiering Thursday, June 16th at 10pm ET/PT.

In "The Truth Below," a Spring Break snowboarding vacation becomes a terrifying journey for college friends. Their road trip home from the mountain soon turns deadly when a freak accident forces them off the road and buries their car under an avalanche. Trapped with no choice but to wait for rescue and face an unknown fate, the group plays a game in which they reveal secrets they would never otherwise share. They soon discover they not only have to survive the accident, but also each other. The moments dwindle and they are forced to ask themselves "how well do you really know your friends" as their game builds to a shocking conclusion."

Anything airing on MTV these days instantly makes me skeptical (yes, I'm old) but Glosserman's talents go a good distance at combating that. Plus the last original horror movie of MTV's that I saw contained a scene where a girl on roller-skates got beheaded and then her headless body rolled into a giant cake made out of sushi, so we're all good. Here's the trailer:

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I Want Leslie

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And to complete a full trilogy of mind-blowing horror stories hitting me this morning, we have actual news about the long, long, loooooong talked-about sequel to 2006's wonderful meta-slasher Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (my review here).

BD has word from a horror-con in LA that happened this weekend where a bunch of the original film's cast and crew talked about how they've got everything in place except the backing for the film - they just need to prove there's a want for the movie to happen, and everybody will come back to make it happen. If a horrible sequel to a semi-horrible movie like Hatchet can be made, and that horrible sequel lead to a third presumably horrible film that's in the works right now, I don't understand why this can't. I'll send in 20 bucks!

For now BD suggests heading to the sequel's Facebook page - it's apparently called Before the Mask: The Return of Leslie Vernon, so perhaps there'll be some prequelizing here? - and "liking" it. So do that.  Because that's what makes the world turn now! Anyway I'll keep y'all informed with every nugget, as I do.
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I Am Link

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--- Still Longing For Leslie - Dread Central has exclusive word that Scott Glosserman, the writer/director of 2007's terrific slasher-dissection Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, is just about done with the screenplay for the sequel - took ya time, man! - and is looking to shoot in the Spring. Hell yes. I've been holding my breath waiting for this one for three years now, and my brains hurt because of it. Also I am dead. Have I mentioned I'm dead? I'm totally dead.

Anyway this would make JA a very very happy boy, if it comes to pass. I just pray that both Nathan Baesel and Angela Goethals can show back up as Leslie and his final girl Taylor again. I can't imagine either of them having any reason to let anything stand in their way of this, at least. Neither of them got the attention they should've for this terrific movie wherein they both gave terrific performances. Dammit.

--- I'm Sure He Is - Bryan Singer has finally gotten a green-light for his Jack the Giant Killer movie - hint: it's about a beanstalk! - and all the stories announcing it say the same thing: while he hasn't been signed yet, Bryan is actively pursuing Aaron Johnson for the lead. MMHMM. I'm "actively pursuing Aaron Johnson" too, Bryan. I just don't have a giant beanstalk to swing his way to convince him. So to speak.

--- Diarrhea at Barnes & Nobles - The Film Experience took on Mean Girls last night for the "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" series and if there's a movie more fun to talk about from the past decade that doesn't involve Anna Faris then I don't know what it would be.

--- Get Shorties - Every single one of you already knows this but I feel as if I should type it all the same - Martin Freeman is officially Bilbo Baggins, and there are a bunch of other people I've never heard of cast in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit now too. Read about who they are here! To the left there is Richard Armitage who's gotten the biggest new role other than Bilbo, that of the Dwarf leader Thorin Oakensheild. Yes of course I found a shirtless picture. Don't you know where you are?

--- Draper Man - Or is that Super Don? Now that the rumor's out in the world (via Armie Hammer of all people) that WB and Zach Snyder are looking for a middle-aged 35-40ish man for their Superman, everybody's completely convinced themselves that Jon Hamm has the part. They're even doctoring up pictures of it, as you can see there to the right and that's obviously the be-all- end-all when that happens. There's no going back! Somebody stuck his head on with photo-shop. Signed and sealed!

--- And finally, I've given up even trying to figure out when Guillermo Del Toro finds time to sleep or eat or take a dump - he just produces movies now, not dumps! He's hooked up with a Pixar animator and they're gonna make a full-length version of this animator's already-made creepy short cartoon called Alma. Which is already online, and you can watch here!

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Sorting Out The Spooks

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While I find the news heartening that AMC Theaters is replacing all their license plates with F U MPAA and releasing Adam Green's Hatchet sequel unrated into their theaters on October 1st, this can't help but stir up other more mixed feelings.

Namely, that Hatchet came out right around the same time that Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon came out, and I much preferred the latter (although Hatchet has its pleasures to be sure) and want a sequel following Leslie (mmm Nathan Baesel) much more than I do another movie with Victor Crowley. Alas, there hasn't been word on a Vernon sequel for ages. Sigh. Sadness.


Okay, sadness over! There are so many horror movies coming out this October, right? So glad that Saw's reign-of-terrible is finally ending and the month's made room for other horror movies. And yes we do have Paranormal Activity to thank for that. Even if you didn't like PA as much as I did, you oughta give thanks.
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Alright, Who Put LSD In My Snapple?

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I'm fucking hallucinating! First the "Dollhouse is being renewed" rumor, and now this nuttiness? I can't take this sort of positive whiplash, I'm a fragile and delicate bird! Via STYD:

" There's Renewed Interest in Behind the Mask 2

Every good film that dissects the slasher genre deserves a sequel. Behind the Mask, a look at the killer known as Leslie Vernon, certainly left the door open for a follow-up and now co-writer David Stieve says, more than ever, that getting one is a possibility.

While speaking to the fellas at Icons of Fright, Stieve says there is "concrete interest" and it's enough to get him working out plot details with director Scott Glosserman. Stieve wouldn't reveal the entity interested in producing the sequel.

For more, click here!"

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Nathan Baesel, the film's star, deserves so much more than the random episodes of CSI or Women's Murder Club (which is apparently a real thing that aired - airs? - on TV!) and other such bullshit that're all he's been getting for the past couple of years so I really hope something comes out of this. Dude's awesome!


Ack. I need to have a drink. This is too much hope for me in one sitting. It's like President Obama just peed on my face or something.
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Leslie Vernon Turned 34

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A very happy belated birthday to my favorite new serial killer, Nathan Baesel aka Leslie Vernon of Behind the Mask, who turned 34 yesterday. For previous Baesel worship, click here.

I've still got my fingers crossed that we'll get a part two... til then, any of y'all who still haven't gotten around to seeing BtM... get on it.
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Ahead For Behind The Mask

Bloody Good Horror has an interview up with David J. Stieve, who wrote the delightful Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, and he gives us some more info on where his head's at with regards to there ever being a sequel (which is something he's spoken on before):

BGH: Nathan mentioned that you might be working on a script for the sequel, maybe showing Leslie getting what he always wanted, his fame so to speak. Can you expound on your ideas for a sequel? Is that something that's inevitable?

David J. Stieve: I wish I could say that a sequel is inevitable, but I can't. Hollywood just doesn't have much room for absolutes. Had it done gangbusters business at the box office and gone "Blair Witch" or "Cabin Fever" or something, then yes, of course it would be different. And that's not to say a sequel isn't a possibility. But the jury's still out on the business end of it. Buy lots of DVD's, please! Great stocking stuffer gift, it's never too early to start shopping! But even then, the logistics become tricky. I've likened it to trying to land an airliner on a postage stamp. When you have actors like Scott Wilson and Robert Englund involved, it's a challenge to get them all back. Scotty (Glosserman) has other projects on his slate, as do I, and it's not like Nathan and Angela are sitting around with nothing to do, either. To get everyone together again, as much as I'd love it, would be a steep mountain to climb.

Having said all that, for me personally as a writer, I would relish the opportunity to tell the next chapter, and I do have a framework in mind. It does involve what Leslie would do next. He's only just begun to execute (pun intended) his master plan on Glen Echo. This was his opening salvo in what he aspires to be a lifelong passion project. He's succeeded in the first phases, setting up his legend and pulling off The Boy's return. Now he'd want to cash in on that in the following years, to create a larger mythology. This was only the beginning, and he would only get better, bigger, more terrifying as he learned and pushed himself. I think there's a ton of material left to explore in that, and self-referential aspects of the genre left to showcase. Just on some of the stuff that got cut from THIS film, we'd probably be halfway or a third of the way to a finished script!

On top of that, there's the entire untapped potential of the devices and cliches of slasher horror sequels to look at. And last, as I mentioned, one of the areas that appeals to me the most is what happens to Taylor. Survivor girls are subject to their own cliches, and not very many have come back with any great success. Typically, a survivor girl from one flick is the first to go in the next, or she sacrifices herself for the new survivor girl. Halloween's "Laurie Strode" being the obvious antithesis, she's really the only survivor girl who matters in my opinion. Taylor Gentry would be a lot more like Laurie Strode in my vision. And let's face facts, if Leslie aspires to be the next great slasher icon, he's not going to get there without Taylor, the next great Survivor Girl.

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I Am Link

--- Daydream Connection - Could it be true? Is The Muppet Show really coming back?

--- My kinda hunks - A list of six openly gay Indie Rock musicians, as an alternative to AfterElton's more obvious conventional list of the more pop-leaning gay musicians. I'd take Jonsi from Sigor Ros well before I went near Jake Shears. And I love the conversation in the comments on when Sufjan will come out.

--- Perhaps I Oversold It? Final Girl did her new Film Club yesterday for Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon and both FG herself and Steven at The Horror Blog ripped my baby to shreds! I'll be seeing y'all at High Noon in the town square, I will. Seriously though, I got chewed out by the boyfriend by over-hyping this movie the other day, so I'm gonna shut up on it. Other opinions are always welcome!

--- The trailer for Michael Dougherty's Trick'r'Treat can be found via FilmIck; love it, am counting the days til it, cannot wait.

--- More news on JJ Abrams' Cloverfield (Not Its Real Name), via BD - is it actually called Monstrous, as this poster seems to indicate? And there's behind-the-scenes footage making the rounds, too.

--- With A Bang - Last week's Horror Roundtable's up at THB. Opening credits are the topic du jour...
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My Top 10 of 2007 So Far...

Nat posted his Top 10 for 2007 so far over at The Film Experience and what's weird, list-averse person that I normally am, I was actually thinking on this same topic yesterday too. I wasn't planning on posting mine - it was for something else I'm working on, birthday-related - and it wasn't even a full ten that I'd accumulated, but what the hey, I'll give it a go for no other reason then I can. I'm not bothering with adhering strictly to release date nonsense, some of these were released overseas before this year or haven't even seen a real release here at all, but I've seen them this year so they count, in my logic. There are also plenty of films I've missed. But anyway...

10 - Away From Her - Sarah Polley made a lovely directorial debut with this film and eased three fantastic performances out of Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent, and Kristen Thomson. It's a small film that I don't see myself watching too often, but a lovely testament to love after the dust has settled.

9 - Black Book - Carice Van Houten really is as great a find as she's been called, and Verhoeven's return to his roots makes the Holocaust positively - and ocasionally disturbingly so - rousing.

8 - Jindabyne - For one, it has Laura Linney, and for another, it one of the greatest final scenes of a film in recent memory. There are no words for how much I love this movie's denouement.

7 - Severance - A total blast. Everything I wanted it to be and more. Also, mmmm Danny Dyer. (my review)

6 - Ratatouille - Pixar, O Pixar, how much do I love thee? Though, to be fair, Jim Henson put rats in the kitchen and made me love them first.

5 - Zodiac - This might move up after I see it again, but as is this stylistic departure for Fincher was just proof he's one of the greatest talents working today. Keeping his camera-movements relatively timid and focused on the story and the actors he brought in one of the most fascinating procedurals in years. (Am I forgetting something?) (my review)

4 - Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon - I know, I've said enough already. Seriously though - see this thing already! (my review)

3 - Year of the Dog - Molly Shannon gives what I think has been my favorite performance all year long (so far) in this film, and she's surrounded by terrific supporting turns by Laura Dern and Peter Sarsgaard and I was just totally on board with everywhere Mike White went with this story. LOVE this film. (my review)

2 - Grindhouse - I'm keeping the films as one, but if I had to choose Quentin's Death Proof would be in this spot by itself. But that'd be at the expense of Rodriguez's asskicking Planet Terror and Rose McGowan's leg and mmm Freddy Rodriguez and all the trailers and I can't do it, they're one. And they're as awesome as as I'd hoped.

1 - I'm a Cyborg But That's OK - Park Chan-wook is, along with Michael Haneke, possibly my favorite living director. He's only made five films, but I love every single one of them, and his streak continues and ventures into seemingly very different territory with this one. It's just bliss, total bliss. If you aren't yodeling when you leave this movie you're dead inside. (my review)
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Five Questions From Samurai Frog

I'm such a shit, I've had that five-question-meme from Electronic Cerebrectomy sitting in my inbox for a full week now and I haven't answered them even though I requested the pleasure of the interview... I plead birthday-insanity; seriously, I can not focus this week. My thoughts are like a fireworks factory exploding in a vacuum. See? That's what my brain is like; these are the metaphors coming to me. God. Anyway, on with the questions, (and a huge thanks to SF for the asking) ...

1. We’re just a year apart in age. What’s scariest for you about turning 30? I know it terrified me more than I thought it would.

For one, my chances of winning Wimbledon are dwindling with every passing year. Now I'll have to be one of those Inspirational Movies starring Mark Wahlberg where The Guy's Too Old and Nobody Has Any Faith In His Abilities until He Proves Them All Wrong and I don't wanna be That Guy. Seriously though, it seems to hit me every other birthday, not just this one, this sense of panic that I've accomplished nothing that I was supposed to have accomplished by whatever age it is I'm turning as if I've had some sort of time-line buried in my subconscious that I've refused to alert myself to until I am suddenly as far off schedule as could possibly be and my stomach turns into a pit of acid and I can't breathe. Thirty was an inevitable one, though, with my extended childhood no longer credible. And I need to stop talking about this because it's 10AM as I type this and it's making me think about the bottle of bourbon in the other room.

2. I was never attracted to Jake Gyllenhaal until I started reading your blog; all those pictures somehow changed my mind. Dramatically. No question, I just wanted to point that out. What young actors and actresses do you think are going to have a real future and long careers in the movies?

Well, the people I think are going to have long careers don't seem to be jiving with the people I'd want to have long careers. Like where did Eric Per Sullivan go? I love that kid, but I don't think he's going to have, say, Zac Efron's career, even though he's a thousand times more interesting. I do like that Amanda Bynes girl; I've got to admit that I always got sucked into The Amanda Show every time I stumbled upon it. I think there's a wealth of talented kids in the Harry Potter bunch, and for purely pervy reasons I'm gonna throw the name Stanislav Ianevski out there - he played Viktor Krum in Goblet of Fire and showed up unexpectedly in Hostel: Part II and... I like him. Though to paraphrase Bijou Phillips - and who wouldn't want to quote that lovely lady? - I think he might be a little too Eastern Bloc to be too successful.

3. Dr. Monkey asked me this and I thought it was kind of neat: as a cinephile, what’s your dream movie project? What would you like to see as a movie?

The His Dark Materials books would've been my answer a couple of years ago, but now they're really truly happening and looking great; Chris Weitz would never have occured to me as directing them but, from how it looks so far, it seems he maybe did right by Phillip Pullman and us fans. And who'd have guessed that the guy who made Meet The Feebles would become an Oscar-winner for adapting Tolkien? I guess what I mean is it's the marriages of director and source material that seem at first to come out of nowhere that I find most exciting. All that said - and all that really leading nowhere (told you, I'm scattered) - I've said these two before - I want David Cronenberg to direct an adaptation of Margaret Atwood's Oryx & Crake, and I want Eli Roth to direct the American remake of Battle Royale. I think those are two perfect marriages of director and subject.

4. Let’s say, because I am, that I’m someone who likes horror movies but doesn’t really seek them out. What are some movies that you think people who don’t drift towards horror might like? And conversely, if someone wanted to go deeper into the genre, what do you recommend they see?

This question is killing me. Literally, my head has fallen off trying to come up with the perfect answer. Plop. Head on the floor. There are so many different things you can get from horror, so many different sub-genres that offer something totally different; it all depends on what a person wants or expects from it. I stayed away from the super-gory stuff - the stuff (literally) splashed across the pages of Fangoria - for a really long time and still it's the sort of horror I'm least familiar with. I've always loved the Slasher films, it's the stuff that was trickling down to me as a kid, the Friday the 13ths and Nightmare on Elm Streets, and later the Scream movies, so anything that plays off those conventions really gets my toes curling.

Which brings me to my choice for recommendation, which should be obvious to anyone who's so much as glimpsed at MNPP within the past six months - even if you have the most basic awareness of the slasher films (and is it even possible not to, at this point?) I promise you you will love the hell out of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. It's scary, yes, but mostly it's just wicked smart and hysterically funny and I don't think you have to be a horror-lover to really enjoy it. And I'm just gonna leave it at that one for now, because this is way too long and I could go on for much, much longer.

Speaking for myself for the second part of the question, I've been learning myself as of late on Mario Bava and the Giallo films - mostly Italian films from the 60s and 70s that always involve a large knife and even larger breasts, and I'd definitely recommend anyone who wanted to understand horror today check these out. They can be really beautiful to look at and, when they get it right, super-twisted as well.

5. You had a dream about hanging out with me and my beloved Scarlett. How often do you dream about me, exactly? Feel free to be as detailed and take as much space as you feel the explanation warrants.

Whenever I close my eyes, Aaron, you are there. You and the glaucoma and the mild burning sensation.

ETA Dammit, see, I told y'all my head was up my ass. I'm supposed to offer anyone who asks in the comments an interview of five questions themselves, that they'll post on their own blog their answers to. So yeah, anybody want my mushy brain grilling you, lemme know! Peace.
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Leslie Vernon Returns?

If we all close our eyes right this second and wish really hard we can make this happen, right? This is screenwriter David J. Stieve, who wrote Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, in a really nice interview at Icons of Fright; when asked if he might write another horror film, Stieve says:

"Well, then you’re treading into sequel territory. If there is any kind of scoop, it’s not really a scoop but... I can tell you and your readers that there is a definite idea for what’s going to happen to Leslie Vernon next, that’s been the goal all along. There are a lot of what-ifs, and things to have to happen right in this business for that to ever come to fruition, but certainly if there’s going to be another horror movie coming from me, my biggest impulse, of course, is to relate what happens to Leslie next...

Obviously the focus of that or the metaphor involved there, as it happened with Nathan as an actor or Scott as a director, or me as a writer, it’s how do you handle that “freshman phenom/rookie of the year” type thing! That’s the symbolism at play; how does Leslie handle his success? And of course you have the whole genre-specific constructions and conventions of a horror sequel. There’s specific conventions involved with every killer that comes back. How the town reacts, who the people are that survive, and who fills what role coming around again…so there are all these very specific genre expectations for a sequel that are ripe for the picking but there’s obviously the metaphor of how does Leslie as the ‘artist’ handle his fame, does he handle it well, does he burn out too quick, keep himself in check, does he do it right? There’s a very rich soil to till from a storytelling standpoint. Depending on how the DVD does, etc. that’s the impetus."

Oh pleeeeeeeeeeeeease let this happen, pretty please I'll be a very good boy I promise!!!

(via FilmIck, who also says a Hatchet Part 2 might happen)

ETA Looking around Icons of Fright's site I see they've also got an interview with Leslie Vernon himself, Nathan Baesel, as well as one with the film's director, Scott Glosserman, up. I've got my reading for the evening planned now! Damn I love this movie.
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I Promise I'll Shut Up... Soon

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So I couldn't help myself; after buying Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon yesterday I went home, started watching the extras, and then got sucked in and watched the entire movie again. And again I must pull out my wobbly soapbox and cry to you, the masses, WATCH THIS MOVIE.

I was even watching it with an eye on the level of violence or gore for those of you who don't like that sort of thing and realized, this time around, that the film is stupid-light when it comes to any of that; there's hardly any blood spilled, really. A large portion of the violence happens either off-screen or without blood. There's just one moment that flaunts this assertion, but it's more silly than disturbing.

And what struck me this time, and I'd somehow forgotten since watching it last time, is that the film is more a comedy than a horror film, and a very very funny one at that. Of course, it's comedy that aims directly for my slasher-movie-loving, post-modern-horror-paper-writing heart, but it's hardly something that only someone who's studied Carol Clover would get.

I might even argue that the claim made on the back of the DVD's box - I'm blanking on who said it and I don't have the DVD on me right now - that BtM is more clever than Scream is true. I do love Scream, and I have to watch it again - it's been years - before I feel comfortable saying that for reals, but there is something so smart about the way this film insinuates itself into reality at the same time it creates a reality in which Fred, Jay, and Mike are real people, and then flits back and forth between film and video and horror and comedy and it makes for something that constantly keeps you off balance so it earns that final thirty minutes where the tone shifts pretty radically in one direction.

I was wowed anew by how really really wonderful Nathan Baesel is here - there are a lot of ads on the DVD for the other slasher-movie-throwback coming out this year, Hatchet, in which they claim that Hatchet's villain Victor Crowley (that is the perfect name) is the new slasher-killer to add to the pantheon, but I would add Leslie Vernon a thousand times to that elite short-list before Crowley. There's a scene in BtM, after the film has switched from mostly-behind-the-scenes video-footage into filmstock when we see Baesel's face in killing-mode after having his mask pushed off, and everything we've come to see in Leslie before this moment - all that humor, that sense of fun - is wiped utterly away from his face, and his expression is far scarier than the mask covering it up. It's one of several moments that I find really, truly scary in the film.

I don't want to oversell the film as super-scary though; it does have some really unsettling pieces, made even moreso by Baesel's acting, but more than being straight-up horror its just a load of fun and really smart in the way it plays with the conventions. If you're even a casual horror-movie watcher I could see you enjoying the heck outta this movie. Give it a chance! And no, nobody's paying me to say this. I just LOVE this movie.
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