‘Terrifier’ Star David Howard Thornton Joins ‘Behind the Mask II: The Rise of Leslie Vernon’!
‘Behind the Mask II: The Rise of Leslie Vernon’ just got a whole lot more terrifying as ‘Terrifier’s’ David Howard Thornton joined the cast!
Behind the Mask II: The Rise of Leslie Vernon just got a whole lot more terrifying, as Variety reports that Terrifier‘s David Howard Thornton (Art the Clown) has joined the slasher sequel in a “key role”.
The announcement follows the film’s crowdfunding campaign that raised over $400,000.
Set twenty years after the original, the sequel to the cult found footage slasher film “picks up in a horror landscape that has changed dramatically since Leslie first emerged, as the old rules of the genre collide with a new wave of modern slashers, viral killers, legacy sequels and blood-soaked icons built for the internet age.”
The film reunites director Scott Glosserman and writer David J. Stieve with stars Nathan Baesel and Angela Goethals.
Said Glosserman, “David is one of the defining faces of the modern slasher era. If Behind the Mask was about deconstructing the classic rules, then a sequel 20 years later has to reckon with what the genre has become. Bringing David into Leslie’s world lets us put the old guard and the new blood in direct conversation, which is exactly where this movie should live.”
Producers include Aaron B. Koontz and Cameron Burns for Paper Street Pictures (Scare Package), alongside producers Scott Glosserman and David J Stieve. Executive producers are Adam F. Goldberg and Hans Rodionoff, alongside Carmelo Chimera and Syed Ali Saeed of Act One Media. Kristy Jett is an associate producer on the film.
The original Behind the Mask debuted in 2006 and followed Taylor (Goethals), head of a documentary crew filming the methods of killer, Leslie Vernon (Baesel). It became an instant cult fave through its clever exploration of the slasher genre and a charismatic cast that also featured Robert Englund as a Dr. Loomis type.
I had the immense pleasure of attending the film’s twentieth anniversary screening in Los Angeles, where the sequel was announced. Since then, the film’s Kickstarter smashed through multiple goals. I have to imagine that Thornton joining is a result of that achievement.
