The Etruscan Mask

I've always been a fan of director Ted Nicolaou as he did some of the most atmospheric work (the SUBSPECIES series) for Charles Band's Full Moon. A group of college kids gets wrapped up in this evil couple's possession plan when they spot the title object in a scary apartment while on their newspaper delivery route (really!). Mark (Piero Passatore) soon becomes the focus of the man, who wants to place his soul into the young boy's body. Jude (Majlinda Agaj), his love interest, won't be having any of that as her deceased father has a connection with this old man and the evil mask. This independent outing shot in Italy starts off well, but quickly falls off. Part of the big problem is the acting by the leads, which is really bad in some spots as they struggle with the English dialogue. Nicolaou gives the film (actually, it was shot on digital video) plenty of atmosphere and he has found some great locations. As I said, it gets off to a great start with the sale of the mask. Unfortunately, for every good thing, there are two more bad things (weak script, CGI blood, wonky CGI monsters, shaky cam deaths, no nudity,seriously, the lead says, "I'm not taking my clothes off.").

I saw an interview with the director before I watched the film and I expected something... more. I was hoping for some exposition, maybe a little analysis about the Etruscan culture and mythology. There's nothing like that in this film, which was a disappointment to me. It is just a run-of-the-mill horror with teenage protagonists. Which means that they make stupid choices, are annoying and that you don't really care what happens to them. This is one of the greatest failings in any horror film as it robs the film of suspense.

Truthfully though, this is far from the worst film I've seen, it's just not one that I will remember for very long. There are far better films in this genre, but as long as you're not the one paying to watch this, I don't think you'll feel too robbed.