Feb 2018
Slashers are one thing, but a killer who wears a mask? Are they trying to get away with it? Are they ugly as sin? Or are they wearing it simply as a joke?
I'm watching "Valentine" at the moment, and this killer acts like a Michael Myers rip-off, only his nose bleeds. It's all about the mannerisms of characters like these. Still. Calm. Focused. I guess Michael Myers set a precedent, but Jason kinda ran with it. He wears a mask because he's ashamed of how goddamn ugly he is. He could chase you without a mask and it would be just as frightening, but the mask is iconic. It's how you market the Crystal Lake killer.
Mannerisms have gotten pretty important to his character, because you can tell a Kane Hodder Jason from a regular guy's Jason. He's angry, and it's great how much he can convey without sound and facial expressions.
Leatherface's portrayals tend to be radically different in some of his sequels. I basically view them each as different characters, because they don't seem like the same guy ever.
Ever since the slasher genre started, movies have been trying to find a great new mask for a killer, but nothing quite works as well as the few that happened in the dawn of this subgenre. I think most killer masks are stupid, like this movie I'm watching (Valentine), and The Hills Run Red, Chromeskull, and definitely Happy Death Day (but that was more intentionally stupid, I think). And so is Terror Train. Prom Night is too dark for me to ever see what he looks like clearly. Maybe that was the point/solution for not having a good mask? And don't get me started on The Prowler... wtf is he even wearing?
I like the potato-sack-that-dreaded-sundown look of Jason-2/Malevolence, I love Michael Myers masks (H1 & H2 only), and the Miner from My Bloody Valentine is great.
What else is there? Who wears a great mask that creeps you out?
I'm watching "Valentine" at the moment, and this killer acts like a Michael Myers rip-off, only his nose bleeds. It's all about the mannerisms of characters like these. Still. Calm. Focused. I guess Michael Myers set a precedent, but Jason kinda ran with it. He wears a mask because he's ashamed of how goddamn ugly he is. He could chase you without a mask and it would be just as frightening, but the mask is iconic. It's how you market the Crystal Lake killer.
Mannerisms have gotten pretty important to his character, because you can tell a Kane Hodder Jason from a regular guy's Jason. He's angry, and it's great how much he can convey without sound and facial expressions.
Leatherface's portrayals tend to be radically different in some of his sequels. I basically view them each as different characters, because they don't seem like the same guy ever.
What are your Favorite Killer Masks?
Ever since the slasher genre started, movies have been trying to find a great new mask for a killer, but nothing quite works as well as the few that happened in the dawn of this subgenre. I think most killer masks are stupid, like this movie I'm watching (Valentine), and The Hills Run Red, Chromeskull, and definitely Happy Death Day (but that was more intentionally stupid, I think). And so is Terror Train. Prom Night is too dark for me to ever see what he looks like clearly. Maybe that was the point/solution for not having a good mask? And don't get me started on The Prowler... wtf is he even wearing?
I like the potato-sack-that-dreaded-sundown look of Jason-2/Malevolence, I love Michael Myers masks (H1 & H2 only), and the Miner from My Bloody Valentine is great.
What else is there? Who wears a great mask that creeps you out?
The Prowler was a gas mask I thought, and was pretty similar to the one in My Bloody Valentine only with military uniform instead of the miner's suit. Prom Night was just a ski mask, so nothing too imaginative there. Terror Train had the killer wearing a different costume for each murder, which was a good idea in the context of the film since it was a New Year's Eve masquerade party. The same idea was used less effectively in Hollowgate.