Skull: The Mask

Skull The Mask is both an hommage to 80's slasher and a great take on Indegenous Brazilian folklore with a cool backstory to explain the mask's nature coupled with many aspects that define contemporary Brazilian cinema identity.

This movie almost look like a spin off to the Elite Squade/ Tropa de Elite movies as the themes of these movies are present.

The practical gore is on point and the look of the mask killer is worth the most iconic slasher killer. The last quarter is nonetheless pretty weak and some characters are too bland with not enough development.

It is overall a very good slasher and a honorable take on Brazilian horror themes.

7/10 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This movie might have cost tens of dollars! And the filmmakers must have had some excellent experience, with home movies and such. Recommended only for hardcore lovers of exotic, foreign, B horror movies.

Okay, I actually finished this movie. The paragraph above was written 5 min into the film. So I have to amend this review by saying that this movie has fantastic practical effects, very cool makeup, and some impressive shots. It gets better, after the clunky intro. But it also gets worse towards the end.

The dialogue is especially atrocious. Almost every line uttered could be either removed or improved. The poor lead, Natallia Rodrigues, is given a thankless role of a seething detective, but I cannot tell you what she's so angry about. I guess killing those kids in the flashback?

If the dialogue is not the weakest part, then the "action" scenes would take that honor. A buddy of mine makes home videos with his 2 kids where they fight and stuff. Their videos look about as good as the stuff in this movie.

All in all, a heroic effort which results in a crappy movie, but one that shows moxie and potential.

A very stylised gory slasher, just what one would expect! Very fun to watch with a bunch of friends. At time stehe movie feels like a LSD trip, you just gotta love it!

You think you know what you're getting into when you throw on a movie called Skull: The Mask, and for the most part, you'd be right, as there are ample servings of the monster slasher gore promised by the cover. However, between the carnage, it takes on a more relaxed pace than you might expect, with a lot of time spent on mythology and police politics. Frankly, it's a little more convoluted than need be for the film's modest aspirations, but I guess it's nice that they at least try to carve a plot around the senseless killing rampage.

Once it gets down to brass tacks, it delivers on everything you could hope for. They bring to life some pretty sick ideas through gloriously gooey practical effects, the titular creature looks pretty badass and they even get a little arty with some psychedelic interludes and a pretty rad stained glass fight sequence. It's nothing you haven't seen before, so there are few surprises, but it's a half decent bloody b-movie if that's all you ask for.

For the most part Skull: The Mask is a very boring film with no likable characters. I didnt like it. However, the one positive point is the heavy gore content. Its super bloody and those parts are cool. Plus there are odd uses of wrestling moves in this film.