Mask of the Devil

I recently met the filmmakers and got to see Mask of the Devil. I really enjoyed it. It's a good script; solid writing with some really witty one liners while maintaining believable characters. Good acting all round with Martin Payne as a standout. Technical stuff was all good. This might be low budget, but definitely doesn't look out of place among the big players. I really love the titles and credits too, so much atmosphere. No real spoilers, but this is a two-for-one in a way. The second half takes a U-turn into another genre. Keep your eyes peeled for the parody porn poster titles in the background too; there are some really creative and fun parodies. Worth your time.

Despite looking like Vicky Pollard from Little Britain, Mary (Nicole Katherine Riddell) finds herself hired as a fluffer on a low budget porn shoot. Unfortunately, one of the props being used on a XXX parody of Tarzan is a wooden African mask that transforms the wearer into a vicious demonic killer.

The first half of this film is played as an offbeat comedy with dark humour, but it isn't funny, even though the irritatingly quirky soundtrack does its best to convince the viewer otherwise. A porn-shoot premise offers plenty of scope for lewd gags and general outrageousness, but this film somehow takes the world of low-rent sex flicks, with its many sleazy characters, and makes it boring.

The second half of the movie is more focused on the horror, but with lousy acting, subpar gore, way too many cheap and nasty visual effects, and scene transitions that look like something out of a Powerpoint presentation, the whole thing is too simply too shoddy to be scary.

Given how many producers, co-producers, executive producers and associate producers are listed in the credits on IMDb, I'm guessing that the film was crowd-funded, which is why I'll never stump up cash to help kickstart a film: I don't want to risk having my name forever associated with something this bad.

N. B. An early scene, in which antiques shop assistant Todd sells the mask to the prop hunter against his boss's wishes, seems inspired by the opening scene of Gremlins. Later in the film, porn talent Otto tears flesh off his face, dropping bloody chunks into a sink, in a scene reminiscent of Poltergeist. Sadly, Richard Rowntree, producer/writer/director of Mask of the Devil, is no Spielberg, Dante or Hooper.

If you are looking for an entertaining, funny and downright insane independent Horror Comedy than this is your film. An ancient mask ends up on a porn film set which leads to a sinister and hilarious series of events. The jokes hit the mark and there are some pretty inventive deaths. Being fresh and original is difficult these days but Mask of the Devil pulls this off (no pun inteneded). Martin Payne plays one of the most sleaziest characters you will find on a film set. Kemal Yildrim has one of the best deaths I have seen recently on screen. This is by no means perfect but the finished product is way superior than it's limited budget suggests. I have seen this twice now and am likely to watch it again. Perfect with Pizza and drinks on a Friday night.

As a horror fan I was pleased to be able to watch Mask of the Devil last night. The film starts with a bit of a back story of where the cursed mask came from, for a low budget film this was ambitious, but so superbly done it hooked me in right from the start! As we get to present day the believable set up with Mary still living with her strict parents again is convincing with a nice level of humour and stylishly done. When Mary starts her new job in a seedy porn production company there are lots of cringey moments and as the character has been set up well you care what happens to Her. Once the horror starts again there are some nicely done effects and visuals, it does becomes a little more predictable as the crew are picked off, but it is still an enjoyable watch!

Over all I think this is a great achievement for a low budget film, it certainly entertained me. Well done to Richard Rowntree and crew, defiantly the best film yet from Ash Mountain Films!

Some of the cinematography is excellent, getting good value out of limited locations. The visual effects, while clearly low budget, were very well executed,

The script and acting, however, are awful.

There are one or two moments when I thought it was meant to be deliberately bad in order to parody some stereotypical situations, but then I realised it was just going to be like that all the way through.

The pacing of the film is also slow and dull, making it hard to stay engaged in what story there was. The plot itself is quite weak, you get no character development or interesting twists and turns. It's exactly what you'd expect from reading the summary.

Overall, this film was a disappointment. The limited locations were the only redeeming factor, but even they were not enough to save the film from its poor script, acting, pacing, and plot.

Unless you are studying low budget filmmaking techniques, avoid this one.