Rise of Leslie Vernon Sequel On The Way

It's been 20 years since the indie slasher mockumentary following the life of up and comer serial killer Leslie Vernon became an instant classic within the horror community, and it looks like we're finally getting a sequel.

As reported by Variety, the sequel has officially been greenlit revealing the title for the upcoming film.

A long-discussed sequel is officially underway, Variety can confirm. Titled “Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon,” it will follow the further adventures of the then-rising serial killer Leslie Vernon.

“For 20 years, people have asked if Leslie would ever come back. The truth is, he never really left. Fans kept this movie alive by sharing it, quoting it, introducing it to their friends, and treating it like something worth holding onto. This sequel is happening because of them.” - director Scott Glosserman

Scott Glosserman returning to direct, with write David J. Stieve also returning to write the script. Additionally, the original film's stars Nathan Baesel, Angela Goethals and Robert Englund have signed on to reprise their respective roles. In an interview with Rue Morgue, Glosserman has also revealed that Englund's Doc Halloran will play a far more substanial role in the sequel.

“Well, for sure, he has a more substantial role. He will be a more consequential character in this movie, whereas in the first one he was a cameo, albeit an important one. This time, he’s more significant. I’ll leave it at that.”

Rise of Leslie Vernon Sequel On The Way

To help with the sequel a Kickstarter is also being launched. Glosserman said the film is being mad regardless, the Kickstarter will just be to expand the film further.

“We’re making the movie either way. But the more the audience gets involved, the bigger we can make it. Bigger set pieces. More cameos. More surprises. This has always been a fan-driven film, and it still is.”

Paper Street Pictures, a filmmaker-first genre company led by Aaron B. Koontz and Cameron Burns, is producing the sequel. Adam Goldberg is also on board as an executive producer.

“Aaron, Cam, and the entire Paper Street team never stopped believing there was more story to tell with Leslie. Their support and persistence over the years made a huge difference in getting us here. They’ve built a home for bold horror filmmakers, and I couldn’t imagine making this sequel with anyone else.”

And what can fans expect in this upcoming sequel? Well it looks like we're going to have to wait to find out, as Glosserman wasn't ready to reveal much in an interview with Rue Morgue.

“Not much [laughs], other than that we’ve worked really hard iterating and iterating and iterating. So much of what we were doing in the aughts, and even in 2010, 11, 12, it was like we would write something in the sands, which then shifted underneath us. You know, in 2006, what we did was very novel. But then the whole meta self-referential thing not only super-saturated horror, it permeated myriad other genres. So it’s not enough to just be self-referential; we have to dig a lot deeper now, while preserving that commentary about the conventions and archetypes of what we’re exploring.”

“Fortunately, we have entire cycles of horror over the last two decades to pontificate about. And also, we can reflect on our own lives, what we’ve been up to for the last 20 years and how that corresponds to our characters and what they’ve been doing. You know, who has succeeded? Who has not achieved their goals yet? Was Leslie a success, and according to what benchmarks? Did he become the next Michael Myers? Well, not commercially, but he’s respected by the community in his world, as he is in the real world. So a lot of the narrative focuses on what has happened since then, and that can also be a commentary about life imitating art.”

Behind the scenes of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

“Knowing what we do and how we do it, you can rest assured we are going to go after and secure some pretty exciting people who are going to be totally fun and gratifying and also potentially quite important to the plot. In the crowdfunding campaign, part of our stretch goals will be some of those cameo reveals, so hopefully we’ll be able to reveal them sooner rather than later.”

“I would say, technically speaking, that BEHIND THE MASK II is going to be more sophisticated, because we all have 20 years’ more experience in what we’re doing. It will also be a heck of a lot more challenging to decide how we’re going to shoot, in what formats. It was much easier to go from a documentary style to an omniscient cinematic approach in the first film, and that conceit really worked. In this one, it’s going to be more difficult to achieve an omniscience throughout the entire running time. It was novel back then, but shooting with cell-phone cameras or selfie sticks now, it’s going to feel done before. So my biggest challenge as a director is figuring out how to tell this story. That’s something we’re working on that I can’t reveal right now, but I think it might be the biggest departure from the original.”