Many years ago a young, deformed lad witnesses his mother being killed for witchcraft involving the death of a baby. From this point on the boy takes his revenge on anyone who crosses his path and ventures onto his family home. The local townspeople eventually manage to put him to his grave where he belongs. Cut to modern times and a young student couple buy the property looking to make themselves a new home where they can live together. One of the young couple removes a totem-esque stick from the boys burial ground and thus sets in motion a blood bath as the deformed guy takes out his anger on the young students.
Hmm, another psycho slasher with a supernatural twist. Haven’t we seen this all before? What new does Mask Maker bring to the table?
Well not a whole lot to be frank. To say Mask Maker owes a lot to Friday the 13th would be a bit of an understatement. The movie really is not original in any way shape or form. If you watch it close enough you’ll see elements of a lot of great slasher flicks such as aforementioned Friday the 13th, as well as Halloween.
That’s not to say Mask Maker is a bad movie, it does have a very solid production value, even though it’s clearly a b-movie. The movies gore level, whilst being nothing spectacular is decent. The psycho in this movie is differentiated from all the other movie nutters by the fact that he steals the faces (literally) off his victims, hence the title Mask Maker. This gimmick whilst a solid idea, isn’t executed as well as it has been in other movies and i couldn’t help but feel this could have been much more powerful if delivered more effectively.
The movies pacing is decent enough, though there are some flashback sequences that raise as many questions as they answer. SPOILER! Like for example, what has the young lad been doing for all these years? Was he put to his grave all those decades ago or just relatively recently? How long ago was it the mother was killed, it looks like many years ago?
As it stands i will recommend Mask Maker but just be warned this movie will not get you overly excited or churn your stomach in any massive way (unless you’ve got a nervous disposition or something) but it is entertaining enough and offers some decent performances from the cast.
Movie Details
Director: G.E. Furst
Writers: G.E. Furst, Eric Miller, Jake Kennedy
Actors: Nikki DeLoach, Stephen Colletti, Michael Berryman, Treat Williams
Release Year: 2010
AKA: Maskerade