Maskhead

Using a modeling group as a front, two women decide to embark on a side project making snuff films of their oblivious and sexed-up costars, unaware of their true intentions, feeding their victims to a hulking, masked maniac who derives gruesome pleasure in their dismemberment.

Overall, this is a wholly enjoyable and exciting effort with a lot to like about it. The main focus of this one is the creation of the kind of sleazy, adult-entertainment environment where it makes the exploitation of women feel quite natural and expected. The modeling gigs and the different interviews looking at the girls and guys auditioning to be in the adult entertainment industry offer the kind of grimy, hardcore sex environment that would make it perfectly believable that they would get away with their content as much as they do. With the blissfully unaware victims thinking they're going to get a specific vibe offering the kind of depraved, raunchy attitude, which is matched nicely by the torture aesthetic. Seeing the killer arrive in their scene and begin butchering and torturing the clueless victim until they're left broken, dismembered, and in pieces leaves quite an impression here, with it all turning the depraved directors on even further. While that all works incredibly well, the repetitive nature and one-note presentation do run into issues. It uses the same template and format for everything, of someone running afoul of a member of their entourage and realizing too late that their words have come back to haunt them, as the encounter brings them into contact with their secret weapon of the hulking, bandaged killer, turning on them and mutilating their body in the snuff video shoot. That works initially, as the whole thing is a great way to introduce the secret organization that's in play and how it builds from the first encounters. However, once it becomes apparent that this is how the whole thing operates, the one-note approach becomes a bit detrimental. The approach is more of a series of skits loosely tied together with the main characters and tends to aimlessly go through the scenes without much thought to a throughline here, which is what holds this down overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Extreme Graphic Sexual Language, Nudity, sex scenes, and drug use.

Honestly watching this film I could see how it was made. The guys wanted to top the other films they had done, so they got a cast of actors willing to do softcore porn shots, wrote a flimsy storyline to support the gore and then Google'd several sexual fetishes to make the film even edgier. I will give them props for putting guys through the paces as well as girls. Honestly seeing men in these situations is far more interesting to me and there are so few films that even include them. However, it's still only a couple of scenes. The movie itself (minus the male skin) isn't really worth watching. The effects are passable (especially if you thought August underground was decent)and the acting is about what you'd expect from Toe Tag (which is to say a bunch of foul mouth Southern Good-Ole-Boys and Trailer Park Chicks).

There are other and better gore films out there. This one is only for Toe Tag fans. And I think it's pretty clear that any rating over a 4 is from someone who was on set or sleeping with a cast member...

The lesbian couple Syl and Maddie like to produce innocent fetish movies, but each video contains a deadly twist; A huge man covered in bandages and a bizarre mask who tortures and kills the fetish-actors on tape.

Needless to say, the special effects looks spectacular and realistic. This is not for the faint of heart; Arms are sawed of, bones are broken and heads are being crushed like water melons.

The characters in the movie are brilliantly portrayed by their actors, and the acting is top notch at all times! Toetag tend to be very superficial with the characters, so it's nice to see a fresh breath of air for once!

The main character, Maskhead, is brilliantly portrayed by the big-boned Michael Witherel. When he walks in on the "movie-set" you'll be scared to death because he is so incredibly big! He is also covered in bandages, burns and (Self-injury?) scars. The villain is perfect, so why don't tell us more about the man behind the bandages?

Not really a complaint, but more of a question to Toetag; Who is Maskhead? If you have managed to invent such a brilliant villain, why don't you exploit him more? Squeeze every character potential out of him! I am begging for a sequel!

10/10

I'm a life long horror fan and I've seen thousands and thousands of horror movies from all over the world and movies that range from 1080p to shot on a cheap VHS camcorder in the 80's. Nowadays I feel almost dead inside because of crappy the horror genre has gotten and Hollywood really has ran out of ideas. The biggest mainstream horror movies are mostly stealing ideas from the underground, indie, other countries, or outright remaking movies. Toe Tag on the other hand makes horror movies for hardcore horror fans but seem to put people off who go in expecting just a gore movie. Maskhead really is the easiest Toe Tag movie to watch and it does feel like a nice merge of the underground and the mainstream.

As you've noticed on the main page, Maskhead is a collaboration between Fred Vogel (Toe Tag Pictures) and Scott Swan (best known for John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns.) Two young and creative minds getting together and really doing something unique. It's not another fake snuff film and it really isn't a masked killer or slasher film. The plot is about a modeling agency scouting for talent to make some soft core fetish videos. The movie is shot on two cameras, one is digital video hand camera which is mostly used during interviews and the other is a traditional steady camera. They film the movie almost like what you're watching is a mix of the footage the characters are filming but also it's like a movie where you see these characters off the set. The footage is mixed around so you'll see things out of chronology but it all makes more sense later on. The people that run the modeling agency are two lesbians and when they interview people (mostly porn stars and wannabe stars) they do throw in some really provocative questions to see how they react on the fly. Another major character is Cowboy who in opinion was one of the best movie characters of 2009 and this guy was just overflowing with charisma. He talks a lot and has all kinds of wild stories to tell. You just can't get bored with Cowboy because he really is a charmer. Then there's Maskhead, nobody really talks about him and he doesn't talk much but he appears very disfigured, he wears a horrific mask (which is probably just to scare the hell out of people) and he brings a snuff element to the fetish videos.

That's the main idea of the plot and characters without spoiling anything. The audition scenes were mostly shot unscripted and those provocative questions did throw some actors off guard. The people being auditioned and interviewed are interesting to hear from and why they want to get into porn. As you would expect the men are all very over confident. The next portion of their screen time is staring in the fetish video. One of the best scenes is the clown girl which actually has quite a cult following. She does things like a balloon fetish and other things until the she sees something she can not unsee, at which point Maskhead grabs her and kills her. Each porn star is in a scenario like that and often times it builds to something very awful happening to them before Maskhead steps in from the shadows. It's talked about that Maskhead is the real star of these videos. The murders are pretty brutal but it's not too hard to watch, I mean it's tame compared to the August Underground series which I think is nice because it's gruesome but it isn't too off putting. I'd say it would probably be a bit much for a casual horror fan like someone who loves the Saw series but if you've seen lots of ultra gory movies then Maskhead is a bit light, which isn't a bad thing by any means. Maskhead is more about the characters and it's way of telling the story than it is about hardcore violence. Also for a movie with porn as subject mater, there really isn't much in the way of sexual content or nudity, but then it is supposed to be a soft core fetish video. I really think Maskhead was the #1 horror movie of 2009. I'd recommend it to fans of gruesome underground horror as well as people who like horror but aren't looking for something that goes to the point of mental scaring or making you sick. If this is your first Toe Tag movie then I'd say this would be the best choice followed by The Redsin Tower and Sella Turcica, they really have came a long way from the studio making serial killer snuff movies.

Ok, first things first. Don't pay attention to the negativity. To Tag pictures is a low budget true underground horror movie production label. And for the 4 I've seen they've delivered what horror should.

Maskhead, not your avergae lesbian couple. Holding auditions for future pornstars but when they refuse to do something asked of them a killer known as Maskhead kills him or her or them.

For a low low budget movie this was pretty good. Fred Vogel is the American Ulli Lommel. He has the talent to tell a story without having a set of good guys that face off with killers.

This isn't August Underground but if you like underground horror movies this one is for you.