Skull: The Mask

Skull The Mask is both an hommage to 80's slasher and a great take on Indegenous Brazilian folklore with a cool backstory to explain the mask's nature coupled with many aspects that define contemporary Brazilian cinema identity.

This movie almost look like a spin off to the Elite Squade/ Tropa de Elite movies as the themes of these movies are present.

The practical gore is on point and the look of the mask killer is worth the most iconic slasher killer. The last quarter is nonetheless pretty weak and some characters are too bland with not enough development.

It is overall a very good slasher and a honorable take on Brazilian horror themes.

7/10 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

You think you know what you're getting into when you throw on a movie called Skull: The Mask, and for the most part, you'd be right, as there are ample servings of the monster slasher gore promised by the cover. However, between the carnage, it takes on a more relaxed pace than you might expect, with a lot of time spent on mythology and police politics. Frankly, it's a little more convoluted than need be for the film's modest aspirations, but I guess it's nice that they at least try to carve a plot around the senseless killing rampage.

Once it gets down to brass tacks, it delivers on everything you could hope for. They bring to life some pretty sick ideas through gloriously gooey practical effects, the titular creature looks pretty badass and they even get a little arty with some psychedelic interludes and a pretty rad stained glass fight sequence. It's nothing you haven't seen before, so there are few surprises, but it's a half decent bloody b-movie if that's all you ask for.

This movie might have cost tens of dollars! And the filmmakers must have had some excellent experience, with home movies and such. Recommended only for hardcore lovers of exotic, foreign, B horror movies.

Okay, I actually finished this movie. The paragraph above was written 5 min into the film. So I have to amend this review by saying that this movie has fantastic practical effects, very cool makeup, and some impressive shots. It gets better, after the clunky intro. But it also gets worse towards the end.

The dialogue is especially atrocious. Almost every line uttered could be either removed or improved. The poor lead, Natallia Rodrigues, is given a thankless role of a seething detective, but I cannot tell you what she's so angry about. I guess killing those kids in the flashback?

If the dialogue is not the weakest part, then the "action" scenes would take that honor. A buddy of mine makes home videos with his 2 kids where they fight and stuff. Their videos look about as good as the stuff in this movie.

All in all, a heroic effort which results in a crappy movie, but one that shows moxie and potential.

Upon the discovery of a strange mask, a detective investigating a separate case finds that her new assignment is to track down the missing mask leading to the discovery of a mystical serial killer haunting the mask carrying out a massacre across the city looking to complete an occult ritual

There's a lot to like with this one. Among the better features here is the rather fun backstory and mythology present in here for the titular mask, creating a fun universe that has the potential to really expand and explore itself based on what's offered. Focusing on the occult beginnings here with the flashback showing the creation of the mask in a bizarre ritual that involves a human sacrifice, blood spilling onto the sacred mask that regenerates it, and some fun martial arts on display that showcase a rather intriguing backstory for the particular entity as well as starting the film off with an impressive sequence. The connections established here involving the historical origins and the apocalyptic consequences uncovered through this are quite enjoyable and set this up rather well. That also leads the film along until it starts dishing out an impressive and over-the-top series of splatter sequences for the kills during the masks' rampage. The gooey nature of the kills is impressive enough in concept here featuring head smashing, guts being cut out and removed, limbs being torn off, and face slicing among much more carried out throughout the film. The scene showing the skull coming to life and attacking the host to possess him throughout the rest of the film is quite creepy and manages to generate some suspense of the object stalking them throughout the house before, while the massacre at the nightclub is a spectacular highlight showing the carnage taking place in full view of others without anyone able to stop him. Armed with an imposing look, an impressive design, and fun practical effects, these elements are enough to hold the film up over its flaws. There isn't much to dislike here but it does have a few minor issues. The main problem centers around the strangely unnecessary and ridiculously protracted investigation by the officer looking into the disappearance of the kids. Granted, this does eventually lead to the main storyline but the beginning to this featuring the early goings-on of the crimes makes for a confusing attempt to build up much in the way of a backstory for her. This doesn't really endear us to her all that much based on the backstory we know about her and how surly and unruly she is, while the lack of focus on the rampage at hand in favor of something else that doesn't get solved anyway makes for a rather uninvolved opening. The other issue to be had here is the rather unbelievable nature of some of the scenes here which take some of the realism away from the film. The way the investigation into the murder spree carries out where it tends to focus on an obvious connection between how the bodies were recovered makes it rather difficult to believe that any series of potential clues to their source is going to be wiped away based on the curious nature of their acquisition that doesn't mean anything. The daytime confrontations with the killer are highly comical and goofy, either appearing in front of others with no real reaction to what's going on around them or slowed down to lend greater importance but instead being jarring and off-putting. These issues lower this one but not that much from its positives.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity.

For the most part Skull: The Mask is a very boring film with no likable characters. I didnt like it. However, the one positive point is the heavy gore content. Its super bloody and those parts are cool. Plus there are odd uses of wrestling moves in this film.