Masks

In the last decade and a half, or so, many aspiring and nostalgic-minded directors attempted to revive the glorious Italian Giallo genre from the 70s and early 80s. Even though several of them are admirable efforts ("The Editor", "Francesca", "Abracadabra", ...) none of them truly captured the true spirit of old-fashioned Gialli. Heck, even the master himself - Dario Argento - didn't succeed anymore with his two final attempts "Giallo" and "Dark Glasses". For quite a long while into "Masks", however, I had high hopes that it would become a terrific and genuine throwback. Writer/director Andreas Marschall eventually does lose his grip on the plot and stylish trademarks, unfortunately, but the film remains worth discovering.

"Masks" definitely ticks a few mandatory and quintessential boxes. The plot is delightfully twisted and complex (and clearly inspired by "Suspiria"), the setting is theatrical, the atmosphere is effectively unsettling, there's (gratuitous) nudity, and the murder sequences are sadist and very gore. The first thing to catch anyone's attention is the authentically nightmarish DVD start-menu, what with its grisly images of a human eye nervously moving around behind a stoic and spooky mask.

The story takes place in a dubious acting academy near Berlin, where after numerous unsuccessful and downright embarrassing auditions, the aspiring twenty-something actress Stella is happy to finally get accepted somewhere. The institute has a very questionable reputation and history, though. The founder Mattheusz Gdula invented a groundbreaking new acting method during the 70s, but many of the contemporary students also died under mysterious circumstances. The acting method is still being practiced, although in the forbidden parts of the school building and for a small selection of students, and there's a vicious killer roaming around to make sure the Gdula legacy remains a well-kept secret.

Andreas Marschall, who also made the more than competent "Tears of Kali", clearly did his homework and studied all the elite trademarks of the finest 70s Gialli. "Masks" is full of nail-bitingly tense moments during which our heroine wanders around dark and ominous corridors while she's being watched, the use of spooky scenery (notably the titular masks) is excellent, and the violent kills are well-spread. The film is at least 20 minutes too long, though, and the third act feels dragging and tedious. There also isn't much mystery regarding the identity of the killer, in my opinion, and the climax should have been a bit more spectacular.

Accustomed to being rejected by acting academies, the ambitious but talent-free Stella is elated upon learning she's been accepted into the Gdula School whose imposing edifice has a wing that was boarded up after the institute's founder committed suicide back in the '70s. Matteusz Gdula had perfected a dangerous "method" guaranteed to make an actor "shine" but only a select few are permitted to learn its secrets by entering the abandoned wing. The last student chosen emerged after a week and performed "like Hepburn" before she mysteriously disappeared and now Stella's been asked if she'd like to learn...

Director Andreas Marschall takes his lead from Dario Argento and MASKS does for acting school what "The Maestro Of The Macabre" did for dance class in SUSPIRIA even though the horror here is giallo-esque rather than supernatural. Like its inspiration, the film is "style over substance" all the way but that style is the director's own and a potent one it is, too, with impressive cinematography accompanied by an ominous score filled with foreboding. The abrupt WTF ending comes as a shock but it makes one think about all that's gone before and works rather well in retrospect. The overall premise is similar to the director's previous TEARS OF KALI (2004) where former members of the Taylor-Eriksson group, a cult that tampered with a terrifying type of transcendental meditation, can't escape their killer karma in three loosely woven tales involving exorcism, psychotherapy, and an insane asylum. Both films are very effective low-budget shockers with judicious -albeit explicit- use of gore fx. Masks won "Best Horror Film" and (ironically) "Best Actress" awards at the 2011 Paris International Fantastic Film Festival, the 2011 Morbido International Film Festival, and the 2011 Fright Nights Horror Film Festival.

This movie clocks in at just short of forever, or at least that's what it feels like watching it. It desperately wants to be Argento's Suspiria (and as noted, does a better job remaking Suspiria than Guadagnino ever did), right down to the music, but it doesn't really work very well, for a number of reasons.

The first and foremost is that none of the characters are remotely likeable or sympathetic, making it very hard to become invested in anything they do. In Suspiria, the characters were often simple, but they were immediately comprehensible and often sympathetic. If you didn't like them, their actions at least could make some sense, even if you weren't aware of the subtler motivations that would only come into play near to the end of the movie. With Masks, most every character is suspect and very unlikeable. Plenty of characters only appear to be extremely hard to like, and there are so many unpleasant characters that they all start to run together very quickly.

Additionally, there's no real buildup of suspense at all. Violence occurs with no real reason behind it, and we don't even know the characters well enough to be invested in them. It's just a vignette around violence, and it doesn't add anything to the story. The setting is weird and unpleasant, but it's also stupid and meaningless.

Ultimately, the whole film is pointless. It could have been ten minutes long and accomplished the same thing. In fact, it probably would have been better, because then the threadbare premise wouldn't have been stretched out so thin. There were some decent ideas in there, but none ended up done well. The acting, whether you know German or not, is very questionable and uneven, which doesn't help matters.

The sets and costumes were good. The makeup and style were generally good. There was also a lot of really engaging photography. The music, though derivative of Goblin's classic soundtrack, is well done and just distinctly different enough to work.

But the rest of the production really lets all of the good down. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: just a bunch of unpleasant people does not make for good horror. There was exactly one line, where the main character lost her temper close to the beginning, where someone got exactly what he deserved, but that was it. It would have been much more interesting and enjoyable if it had actually explored the character developing more, which it really didn't do.

All in all, it's not a movie I can recommend. It may be a better take on Suspiria than the pathetic excuse for a remake that deserves to be forgotten, but that doesn't make it really a good movie. They tried, but as with many films these days, especially homages, they would have done better to keep it brief and do a short film instead...and only then develop it if there's enough material to do so.

I saw this movie tonight at "Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre XIII" Horror and Fantastic Film Festival here in Argentina.

I knew what the movie was about, and the remembrance of the Italian horror classic Suspiria it bears, but the truth is this movie takes it to another level and will blow you with the quality accomplished.

The story is about a girl who's dream is to became an excelling actress and enters an acting school founded by a controversial acting teacher of the 70's. There, she discovers that the forbidden training method used by the already late Gdula hasn't been forgotten entirely... and so have its horrors.

To sum up, this movie has great shots and the exact amount of gore needed to enjoy a well balanced Italian horror movie, plus an Excellent soundtrack that take you to the place of the protagonist more than once.

So if you are in for a great Italian horror tribute, don't forget to check this one out.

As a huge Giallo fanatic I was so excited to have finally tracked down a bluray of this movie. I came in with hopes high as I've heard it basically Suspiria in an acting school. It started out promising with two back to back gruesome kills but then the plot just dragged and meandered. The editing and pacing was atrocious and not in a fun way like Argento's films. There was zero character development so you didn't care of anybody lived or die. The movie feels very low budget and has that cheap direct-to-video early 2000's horror movie look. This DOES not look or feel like anything like the classic giallos of 70s. And for a movie called MASKS, the killer doesn't even wear a mask (wtf!) but the murder weapon is pretty cool. The ending is a little shocking but when it finally comes around you've probably stopped caring.