Deathmask

I first saw Deathmask at a friend's house when I was 17 and I never realized The Incredible Hulk could be this gritty and dark. A storyline involving a serial killer would have been more suited to a show like Starsky & Hutch or even Quincy ME, but it's a risk that paid off brilliantly in the Hulk, thanks to atmospheric direction from cameraman John McPherson and a terrific script from Nicholas Corea, who was a former soldier and policeman himself.

David Banner once again finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time as blonde, female students at a college are being mysteriously picked off by a masked maniac. After saving his friend Miriam as the Hulk from the killer, David is wrongly accused and arrested by Chief Frank Rhodes (a stunning performance from Gerald McRaney). It's while he's at the police station when David discovers who the real perpetrator is...

This one has got plenty of action and suspense, although the second hulkout could have been more eventful. Deathmask was shown very late at night on ITV (UK TV station) back in August 1990 because of its adult content. I don't think they even showed it back in the early '80s, because of what was going on with regard to The Yorkshire Ripper.

When the Hulk is good, it tends to be great. But then, I'm a fan of the show. But seriously, this is one of the top ten of "The Incredible Hulk". Season 3 is filled with very good one-off shows and "Deathmask" is really top notch.

"Deathmask" starts off quite eerie as we see a girl has been murdered and a strange white and featureless mask is placed next to her. As it turns out, a number of women have been murdered on a college campus and the townsfolk are getting very restless. As fate would have it, David Banner has recently found work in the local library and it doesn't take long before he's suspected of the killings.

OK, I don't like reviews where people are faulting the show for putting David in these predicaments. A lot of episodes stretch credibility as to just how unfortunate David is but that's a given here, just as murder followed Jessica Fletcher wherever she went in "Murder, She Wrote". So, those who can't accept the show's formula shouldn't be watching (or more importantly; writing reviews for) "The Incredible Hulk" in the first place.

In "Deathmask" the Hulk is brilliantly fitted into the storyline. Instead of just coming and saving the day he becomes the object of the madman's warped imagination as he envisions the Hulk as the monster he himself turns into when he's doing harm. Veteran television actor Gerald McRaney does well in the episode's biggest guest starring role. His scenes with Bixby in the prison cell are well written and filmed in a moody and atmospheric style.

The mystery may not win any prizes but this is a very good Hulk episode, suspenseful and well acted. Not to be missed for a fan of the big green dude.

A serial killer is on the loose in Prestonville, a heavy breathing maniac who strangles blondes, and after a few more murders, David Banner (Brent) -who is working as a library assistant in the college town- is accused of being the perpetrator and is arrested; he had saved a girl who was about to be killed after his hulk-out and when the police arrive she mutters the word, "David." The police presume she saying he attempted to kill her.

David is questioned by the detective in the interrogation room while an enraged lynch mob led by a father of a victim is stirring outside vying for David's blood- soon David learns the truth and another lady might die ...

Deathmask is the kind of story you would find in Kojak or any of the police shows of the time, but it works superbly in this episode of the Incredible Hulk- love how the series can adapt to various genres. Obviously influenced by the slasher film craze around that time, Deathmask is one of the darker episodes, has a chilling atmosphere and the tension never lets up. The performances are superb, right from Frank Marth as the typical ambitious mayor who sees the arrest of David as a way up the political ladder (and it doesn't matter if David is innocent or not) to Gerald McRaney, the detective with some issues. The interrogation scenes are quite tense and moody. The hulk-outs are great. Top tier entry.

David "Brent" (Bixby) finds himself working in the library of a small town college campus in the grip of fear after a number of young female students are murdered. Local police chief Frank Rhodes (McRaney) is at a loss until David is inadvertently implicated by a victim who survives a murder attempt thanks to the Hulk. The subsequent interrogation reveals the culprit and the Hulk eventually brings them to justice.

Atmospheric and at times palpably chilling, "Deathmask" is top shelf Incredible Hulk fare. Compelling stunt-work, some new and improved Hulk transformations, and a solid, suspenseful storyline are underlined by gripping performances by McRaney, Chapman (as a grieving father whose daughter was murdered) and Marth as the clichéd but well-played local mayor with political ambitions. McRaney's lengthy bi-play with Bixby in the interrogation room is great theatre.

The climax probably doesn't do the episode justice and it could have been done as a feature-length - it certainly had all the components of a quality made-for-TV movie, incorporating a wider range of photographic angles and effects usually reserved for film. Despite some missed opportunities, still among the best of breed in the Incredible Hulk series.

We have here a pretty standard thriller plot: a serial killer is targeting young blonde women, the town gets in an uproar, the mayor wants to cash in on the killings politically, and as a result David is arrested despite a total lack of actual evidence against him. A lynch mob forms to bring David to mob justice, and in the meantime he has to stop the real killer. The killer's identity isn't hard to guess, either. But none of that prevents this from being a thrilling and surprisingly somber episode.

The episode sets the mood right off the bat with a night scene in which the heavy breathing killer leaves behind a victim with a white deathmask. A sense of fear is built throughout the episode, but the two standout scenes are unquestionably the ones in which policeman Frank Rhodes interrogates Banner. Gerald McRaney, who has played a series of minor villains on The Incredible Hulk, departs the series on a high note and his biggest role as Rhodes. Bixby does a fine job in these moody, theatrically-influenced scenes, but the focus is clearly on McRaney, who takes Rhodes into full confessional mode with riveting conviction.

The themes also reflect on the Hulk, as the killer unconsciously compares his situation with Banner's: having something terrible inside yourself that you cannot control. It puts David's problem in a disturbing light, and I found myself thinking anew about what it must be like to come out of a blackout and not know what you did during it until you read it in the newspaper.

The ending is appropriately dark. We aren't told that there's no hope for the tormented killer, but nor are we assured that he'll be perfectly fine after two months of psychiatric treatment. He may be cured one day, but the blood on his hands can never be erased.