Review by Coventry

"Death Mask" is a very good film, but to be entirely honest, I hoped for more. I secretly hoped for this to be a genuine, undiscovered gem. One that only a few people in the world have seen, since it doesn't exist yet on DVD or Blu Ray, but nevertheless a powerhouse of an inspired-by-facts crime/drama that blows you away.

It certainly has all the required potential. The plot is based on true events, namely the infamous "boy-in-the-box" cold case, where a (to this day still) unknown 4-year-old child was found horribly mutilated, murdered and dumped in a lousy cardboard box. In the film, the same harrowing discovery is made, but the rest of the film is fiction. Police ME Douglas Andrews becomes obsessed with the boy, and he specifically cannot accept that the poor boy remains unidentified and nameless. Andrews mainly flees from a personal trauma, as his youngest daughter drowned in a pool and he blames his oldest daughter for the accident.

Andrew's obsessive quest for the boy's name and the circumstances surrounding his death results in a compelling and intense thriller. The sub plot with the spiritual medium is rather weak, but the incompetence and negligence of the senior police coroner is infuriating, and over the span of ten years Andrews gradually make stunning discoveries about the boy's medical condition. I guess the main reason why I'm still somewhat disappointed with "Death Mask" is due to the persona and behavior of the lead character. You simply cannot sympathize with Douglas Andrews because of how he treats his wife and especially he's daughter. He's so self-centered that I was constantly hoping for his wife and daughter to leave him.