Taylor Gentry

**Taylor Gentry** is the main protagonist of *Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon*, leading a documentary film crew in following Leslie Vernon in his preparations to become the next infamous slasher, similar to Fred Krueger or Jason Voorhees. However, Taylor's conscience soon gets the best of her, and she attempts to assist the teenagers targeted by Vernon in surviving his killing spree, though this proves futile, as they are quickly murdered one by one, leaving only Taylor to confront Vernon.

## Appearance

Taylor is shown to be a somewhat mousy girl with short strawberry blonde hair, brown eyes, and pale skin. She has a small, but attractive, figure, which she mostly hides under layers of sweaters and shirts, and usually wears blue jeans and her boots. Her hair is usually either down or kept up in a messy bun. During the climax of the film, Taylor sheds her sweater during her encounter with Vernon, now a full fledged murderer, and is left in her jeans and a bloody tank top, wielding an axe.

## Personality

Taylor is an ambitious journalism grad student and is shown to possess a lot of spunk, though she seems easily swayed by Leslie's charisma, not taking him seriously when he talks about the murders he plans to commit during the majority of the film; however, when Vernon does begin his killing spree, Taylor is quick to abandon the documentary and suggest they help the teenagers instead of leaving them to their own devices, suggesting either a strong moral compass, or a guilty conscience. When Vernon successfully murders all of the teenagers, including Kelly, Taylor takes control of the situation, doing everything she can to help Shane and Lauren survive. She is also shown to be a resilient fighter during the climax when confronted by Vernon.

## Biography

Taylor Gentry is a journalism grad student who attempted to film a documentary that focused on infamous, seemingly supernatural serial killers, such as Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, and Jason Voorhees, with the help of her friends and film crew, Doug and Todd. The group are shown visiting numerous locations, such as Haddonfield, Illinois, Springwood, Ohio, and Crystal Lake, New Jersey, before stopping in Glen Echo, Maryland, to follow Leslie Vernon in his preparations to become the next infamous supernatural killer, believing their work to counter balance and bring out the good in the world. Vernon states he embodies the local legend of Leslie Vernon, the bastard son of Molly Vernon, conceived from a rape, who was forced to work as a slave on the Vernon family's apple farm. Eventually, Vernon snapped and murdered his family, before being seized by the townspeople of Glen Echo, who cast him into the nearby river, leaving him to drown in the icy water. A local legend states that Vernon will eventually return to exact vengeance on those responsible. However, Vernon turns out to really be a delusional man from Reno, Nevada named Leslie Mancuso, as revealed by his former psychiatrist, Doc Halloran. Leslie also reveals he has been stalking a group of students, composed of Shane, Peter, Lauren, Julie, Michael, two unnamed boys, and most notably, Kelly Curtis, a mousy high school student and waitress, who Leslie predicts will be his downfall. He explains that Kelly embodies the role of the "Survivor Girl", typically known in pop culture as the Final Girl, the last woman (and sometimes man) standing, who is forced to face and defeat the murderer, monster, entity, etc. When Kelly is revealed to be sexually active and dies by falling from a second story window, Taylor deduces she was meant to fill the role by Leslie all along, revealing herself as a virgin. As Vernon murders the teenagers and film crew one by one, Taylor eventually confronts him, wounding him with an axe, before he corners her in a nearby tool shed. Vernon and Taylor struggle momentarily, before she wounds him with his own sickle. She then proceeds to trap him in an apple press and burn the building down, before escaping, seemingly victorious. She reunites with Doug, who had revealed he was in love with her when the two were cornered in a silo, and Doc Halloran. In a deleted scene, Taylor and Doug are shown holding hands in court, though for what reason they are there is unknown. It could be that Mancuso was apprehended and put on trial, or that they were implicated in the murders through their documentary footage.