Mask of Murder 1985 Review I

Mask of Murder 1985

Directed by: Arne Mattsson

Starring: Rod Taylor, Valerie Perrine, Christopher Lee

Review by Luisito Joaquín González

Following hot on the heels of my reviews of Out of the Dark and Dead End, Mask of Murder is another of those mystery thrillers that borrows from the slasher movies and giallos that had been popular and big money–makers at the time. It was a joint Swedish/Canadian production that was shot in Uppsala län, and it was that unusual blend of cultural heritage that initially caught my attention. 

Christopher Lee’s credits over the last twenty years have included three mega-blockbusters, which isn’t bad going for an actor that made his first movie appearance way back in the midst of World War 2. He was initially John Carpenter’s choice to play the Sam Loomis character in Halloween, but he didn’t accept; something he admits he’s always regretted. He even went as far as to call it the biggest blunder of his career.

Obviously annoyed that he’d missed out on some supreme slasher action, perhaps the reason he took a supporting role here was because he didn’t want to make the same mistake twice? Or maybe he was blackmailed into doing it? I really don’t know, but one thing is certain however, he was definitely slumming it.

It’s all set in a small snowy Canadian town that’s actually in Sweden. Almost immediately, a loony in a mask grabs an unsuspecting woman and slices her throat with a straight razor. Later that day in another location, a second victim suffers the same fate at the hands of the gruesome killer. He removes his disguise and heads back to a remote cabin where he proves his dementia by gnashing his teeth and staring into the screen. Ooooh scary…

We next get to meet the members of our cast over an evening’s gathering. First off there’s John (Christopher Lee) the chief of the local Police Force. His best detective, Bob (Rod Taylor) has been having problems with his wife Marianne (Valerie Perrine). These difficulties must have a lot to do with the fact that his partner Ray (Sam Cook) is busy banging her every time that he gets the chance. The dinner party is cut short when Bob receives a call informing him that they have the assassin surrounded. They rush to the scene and to cut an overlong story short, city of Nelson should be a little quieter from now on. The tranquillity doesn’t last. It begins to look like there’s a copycat murderer at work when more women turn up with their throats slit. Is someone mimicking the murders? Or is the killer back from beyond the grave?

Why Christopher Lee turned down Halloween but chose to play a part in this turkey is one of the world’s biggest mysteries. You think that how the Cambrian explosion happened is a major puzzle? Mask of Murder is far worse. It’s up there with the Bermuda Triangle, Roswell and the emergence of complex life. I mean seriously come on; surely the screenwriter must have known that the killer’s identity was patently obvious from the start? Didn’t a test audience tell him? The Scooby Doo cartoon offers less obvious plot twists. Swedish filmmaker Arne Mattsson, whose 1958 thriller Mannequin in Red, more or less launched the giallo, directs so sloppily that he manages to drag surprisingly wooden performances from an inviting ensemble of screen veterans. Lee’s the best of the bunch, but he’s not on screen long enough to warrant his fans to hunt this down. The pace moves like a traffic jam, and perhaps the most obnoxious thing about Mask of Murder is the horrible music that accompanies every ‘twist’ in the story. It sounds like one of those guitar-sporting beggars that you see on street corners had been recorded whilst heavily inebriated. If the big name director makes you think you’re in for some credible filmmaking, well, sorry to disappoint you, but no sir-ee. The victims often don’t even get a line of dialogue. They literally walk on the screen and they’re executed within thirty-seconds. I was a theatre actor as a young kid and I had to go for various auditions. I guess for Mask Murder, auditions weren’t needed. If you were walking past, white and female, congratulations – you got the role!!

Surprisingly though, there are some things that I liked about the film’s set up. For example, the killer has a pillow case over his head and if you squint your eyes it almost looks like the burlap sack that Jason wore in Friday the 13th Part II. Also, the throat slashings are fairly bloody and in one scene a girl is murdered in a cinema. That’s a trick that has become a slasher trademark after He Knows You’re Alone, Cut and Scream 2. The only problem is that the gore scenes are so leisurely executed that the gratuitous blood gushes just look like a poor attempt to flog a dead horse. There was never really a moment where I felt like things might improve. I always ask myself if I’m being a tad over-critical. I’m surer than sure that in this case, I’m completely correct with my criticism. My suspicions were confirmed once and for all, when I witnessed Rod Taylor sniffing his adulterous wife’s underwear. (Don’t ask!). Funnily enough, after immense immigration, Sweden has become one of the most violent and dangerous places in Europe to live. It’s a shame this movie isn’t based on reality, because I’m sure ethnic Swedes would feel much safer if their police really did carry Rambo-like machine guns.

Along with the laziness of the director, the cast phoning their performances and the lackadaisical script, it’s a real disappointment that Mask of Murder fails so totally. The movie was once amongst the rarest fossils of the genre, despite being released in quite a few countries. Nowadays though, its available on a Swedish DVD, although I must admit that I haven’t seen what the quality is like or what version it is on that disc.The first copy that I ever found was the BBFC rated print, which is missing 124 seconds of footage, but then I came across a VHS in Spain that’s totally uncut. It doesn’t make much of a difference though. The film is as exciting as root canal surgery and almost as painful…

Slasher Trappings:

Killer Guise: √√√

Gore: √

Final Girl:

RATING:

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