Wednesday 9 January 2013

The Matrix (1999) and Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)

Boom! Got my number 2 in the IMDb Top 250 watched.

The motherlickin' Matrix




What is there to say on 'The Matrix' that has not been said... Its a movie that will be discussed for as long as movie geeks watch it and young movie geeks discover it.

I remember the first time I saw it. I was staying at my grandparents house in the summer of 1999, and my grandad and I headed over to the Silverlink and sat to the left in the second row. We loved it. (and he rarely likes any movies, except 'From Dusk til Dawn' and Jason Statham, but he's recently told me he's grown tired of ol'Statham.)

For years, and hell even now when I rewatch it, I had the biggest girlcrush on Trinity, just thought I'd share.







The visuals are amazeballs, the story and concept open to your own interpretation, and understanding.

You can read into the movie from a philosophical or a religious stand point.

Or go "oooh that looks cool!"


Rating - 6




I followed it up with 'Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon'

And could have gone with knocking another one off the IMDb Top 250 list, but I was tired and wanted to watch a favourite movie. (not that 'The Matrix' is not a favourite, it is)



Why the love?

I like horror movies.

I like comedy horror movies.

I like self referential movies. Meta. All that baloney.

We meet Leslie, a guy who wants to follow in the footsteps of the Greats... Freddy, Jason, Michael... and carve out his own legend. In the universe of this movie, these horror movie villains are real.

We are introduced to Leslie through a college documentary crew, headed by Taylor as they join him as he plots and plans his stalking and killing of a young teen, Kelly, "Survivor Girl" (most commonly known as "Final Girl"), just like the old slasher films of the '80s.












#Spoilers












So as it goes our aptly named Taylor (I have a thing for gender neutral named Final Girls... Laurie Strode, Sidney Prescott or subverted with Ashley Williams in the Evil Dead series) is his "survivor girl". It is she who faces him down during the climax, as he planned all along.

But before we get there we are treated to Leslie showing us behind the curtain, and into the world of supernatural killing sprees... the world of slashers. How they do what they do. The why they do what they do comes later, from Taylors "own understanding or not."

























The girl he had been stalking was his "red herring" as his friend, and old slasher, Eugene ( Played by Scott "Hershell in 'The Walking Dead" Wilson) asks him about when Taylor and her crew go with Leslie to celebrate his "ahab" moment.















"What's an Ahab!" Taylor jumps around in celebration with Leslie, quite taken in by him, yeah I ship them. Leslie is charasmatic, funny and handsome... and a slasher.

He is happy that he has got an Ahab, like Moby Dick, like Dr. Loomis, he has an adversary that stands as a pure "white hat", all that is good, to come and stop Leslie.

Without bad you cannot have good.

And none other than Horror Legend Robert Englund plays his Ahab, Doc Halloran.



















He, just as Taylor and her crew, believe that Kelly is Leslies target. Leslie makes out that she is a sweet virginal innocent teen, as he stalks her at work, at the Library, placing false "evidence" to link Kelly to him, to link her to him as a relative.

This is all part of the show for Taylor.















As Leslie prepares for the showdown, the party at his "home", he can't come forward and claim it because it would not help build his legend for people to know he is actually alive. He started the myth that he was the son of the Vernons, his own name actually being Leslie Mancuso, who was enslaved to work in their orchard on their farm with only a sickle. The boy revolted against his family, killed and hanged his mother from one of the trees in the Orchard, and when the townspeople (gotta have an angry mob!) flung the boy over Glen Echos falls, where it is said that he was eaten by turtles...

Nice!

As he prepares for the showdown, he runs through how he sees the nights proceedings to go, well... no... but its the version he tells Taylor, who has not figured out that she is his "survivor girl" yet.

I really like this run through, we get to see the typical way this scenario would play out in such a movie, with him facing off against the virginal Kelly...

















Taylor and the crew, after she shares a close emotional moment with Leslie and they are in the next room as he makes his first kill, they leave. Almost.

Conciousness get the better of them, as they head back into the house, back to the party to warn the teens... but find Kelly fucking her boyfriend, and it is not until his plan seems to be going wrong as he stalks and kills his way through Kellys friends and Taylors crew that it dawns on Taylor that she is his "survivor girl"


















Rating - 5

If I had to recommend only one of these movies, its gonna be 'Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon'. Why?

Because everybody has seen and appreciated 'The Matrix' (yeah I rated Matrix higher than Leslie Vernon... but still I stand by my "everybody has seen The Matrix")

So there you have it fine reader... any horrorfan should see this, or be ashamed of themselves. Ashamed!

I honestly do not think it will play as interesting to none horror fans but its essential for us.

#HorrorSquad







Hasta Luego
-Fake Shemp-


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