Mask Maker

Please don't get me wrong, I did enjoy this movie. I just wanted to enjoy it a lot more than I did. See, in an age of remakes, I feel like it's really hard to find fun, original material so it makes it so much more rewarding when you do. But there's few things worse than feeling like you got the old bait and switch. And that's sort of how I feel about this movie.

Sure, the story and plot aren't exactly a rip off, it's just that someone wasn't trying hard...at all...to make it original. It's a stalk-and-slash movie (Haloween, Friday The 13th) where a guy makes masks out of his victims at an old, abandoned farm house (Texas Chainsaw Massacre). I wish there were more to it, but not really. That being said, don't let that alone turn you off of this movie. It really isn't without it's charms. The kills are fun, the actors actually do a pretty good job in their roles, and the effects are surprisingly good. If you want to just sit on the couch (preferably with some sort of adult beverage) and have some fun, this isn't the worst way you could do it. You just have to get past the relatively well-tread plot.

What if your dream turned out to be a nightmare? After Jennifer's (Deloach) boyfriend Evan (Colletti) surprises her with a new house for her birthday strange things begin to happen. This is a hard movie to review. It is not that bad, but it drags, a lot. It's another haunted house because of something buried in the land movie that is not that bad, but it would have been a good "Fangoria Series" movie at an hour long, trying to stretch it out for an hour and a half really hurt the movie. If you are looking for a decent horror movie that is a cross between suspense and a slasher, this is a good choice. If you are looking for a very scary movie then I would go for something else. Not terrible, not great. I did like the ending though. I give it a C.

Would I watch again? - I doubt it.

I know they remade Friday 13th, but Mask Maker feels almost like they've remade the remake. Seriously, 'modern' slasher films, i.e. those with a - seemingly - indestructible undead serial killer have been around for nearly forty years, yet, in that time, film-makers don't seem to have been able to come up with anything more inspiring that 'teenage couples have sex and die.' If any couple partakes in pre-marital sex, you can write them off the cast list (same goes for any nudity at all).

Mask Maker is about your average undead serial killer, stalking a load of annoyingly-attractive American teens in a big house two of them have recently bought. There are attempts at explaining why he's undead, but it doesn't really matter. His 'gimmick' is that he doesn't really have a face and he rips off victims' faces and uses them as his own (didn't they do that in Texas Chainsaw?). It's worth noting that if you're wearing an ill-fitting, blood-soaked, torn-off mask of someone, all your friends will instantly think you're really them and not bother asking questions until you've hacked them to bits.

Talking about hacking people to bits, the death scenes are particularly uninspiring. Yes, there's a bit of blood, but nothing very original.

It's predictable too. No major plot surprises here. The clichés come thick and fast, especially with the 'locals who always know something' about the horror that is to come.

Basically, if you're into films with undead killers stalking dumb teens, just stick to Friday 13th. It may be a little old by now, but it's still better than this.

Oh, and if you're thinking of buying a property, get your solicitor to check that no psychotic undead serial killers aren't buried somewhere on the premises. If you find out there are, I recommend returning to the estate agents and looking for somewhere else.

I had never actually heard of this movie before I watched it,so I had pretty low expectations....maybe that's why I enjoyed it as much as I did....Not that it's a masterpiece by any means, but it's worth checking out....The acting is fine, the special effects aren't bad, plus I always enjoy when they bring in a horror movie icon like Michael Berryman....If you're not overly critical,you might actually enjoy it......

Not quite the slasher film I was expecting but I still enjoyed it. A young couple and their friends start renovating an old house they have just bought, but not before unleashing the dead face stealing killer buried in the garden cemetery. Through use of flashbacks from the killers perspective and our heroin reading exerts from the killers mothers diary we get an insight into the happenings leading up to the creation of the stalking brute.

Not the most original plot as it's a cross between Halloween and the Texas chainsaw massacre but with less gore than those two movies. What really saved this film for me was the dialogue between all of the friends and the acting from such a young mostly unheard of cast. It made the characters relationships more believable than I'm used to seeing in this sort of movie and I actually liked all of them. Usually there's a couple of characters I hate and can't wait to see them get murdered, but I found myself quite disappointed to see some of them go. It was also great to see Michael Berryman again as well as Treat Williams even if they only had small roles.

The movie doesn't go all out on the gore front. A couple of the kills are almost off camera. The few kills you do see are done quite well but some quick cuts hamper you seeing exactly what you're looking at. What the film really relies on is the atmosphere created by the creepy house and the dank surrounding woodland. This really works as the setting is very remote and only adds to the feeling of dread. We have the killer Looming around the side of buildings in the background of some shots just like Michael Myers an often over used trick but done very well in this instance.

The only thing I didn't like was the ending a couple of things didn't quite work for me at the end but it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the movie overall. All in all this was a good little horror which I would recommend to fans of the genre.