“Scott and I started talking about how to continue the story, even when we were back on set in Portland, shooting the first one,” says Stieve. “We’d be beating out scenes in the middle of the night in a hotel room and realize that we just had a good idea for a sequel. And its just evolved throughout the years. It finally feels like everything has coalesced. Leslie returning now feels like it’s taken a long time, but we’ve earned it. The story and the metaphor has presented itself in a way that we can’t ignore.”

What is that story and metaphor? Unlike their main character, the duo aren’t ready to show the press what they’re doing before it happens just yet. But they can say that the original cast and crew are back for the sequel. And they can also tell us that Leslie has had to struggle with the changing times—especially since, these days, he doesn’t have to coerce a camera crew to get on people’s screens like he did in 2006.

“The most challenging thing about the movie isn’t just the mise-en-scène of how to portray the world in the film, but to actually shoot the movie and get that mixed media contrast that we got the first time,” Glosserman admits. “Then we had very simple hard lines when we were one reality and then another.”

Stieve explains, “In the meta version of it, Leslie is certainly aware of shortened attention spans and shock tolerance. All of that will factor into his planning and execution—no pun intended.”

One thing that hasn’t changed is Leslie’s love of the classics, even if the rest of the world has moved on from his favorite subgenre. Behind the Mask was a love letter to the ’80s slasher, and the sequel will be too.

“Throughout the ’00s you had torture porn, found footage, J-horror, and then there were sequels and prequels and remakes,” Glosserman says. “And back in 2007, 2008, 2009, during our first iterations of the Leslie Vernon sequel, we were really trying to keep up with the zeitgeist. But there’s just so much to cover. And this guy, at his core, he’s a slasher. And that raises a question: if you’re someone who’s used to your ways, how do you keep up with what the younger people are doing? Or do you stick with what you know? That alone presents a conflict. And it will be interesting to see where we, as real people, have come over the past 20 years. So the sequel will not only reflect the conventions and archetypes of horror, but also our own lived experience.”