Skull: The Mask

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.

"Skull" is a dumb film from Brazil that has little to offer cinematically other than lots of blood and practical gore effects. But if you like those things, it might be worthwhile if you're starved for entertainment. I'm actually being very generous with 4 stars, and that's because in this day and age of excessive CGI, it's nice to see the real deal.

So it starts off with a really confusing explanation of the origin of the Mask, which is hidden in a Nazi underground bunker. A leather-clad individual strides in and starts murdering people, then steals the mask and it ends up being used in a ceremony in front of a Nazi (I said it was confusing) and the mask melds itself onto a guy being sacrificed who goes crazy and starts murdering everyone in sight. Cut to present day. (What happened in the meantime??) The mask has been found and others are looking for it. Someone clueless lets it out, performs a ceremony and the mask somehow kills her and her girlfriend. Fun fact: Brazilian TV news shows grotesque crime scene photos in their reports. So later, a cleaning crew is working at the scene and the mask chooses the biggest guy to attach itself to his face and take over his body. He then starts killing people everywhere he goes in vicious and grotesque ways. Amazingly, it takes the police a long time to find him even after he attacks a disco, and when they do, only a couple of cops take him on. One would think they would be on the radio asking for backup and several dozen officers would be rushing to stop this maniac. Maybe it's different in Brazil. Anyway, the dumbness continues and a guy who looks disturbingly like Sylvester Stallone and has a connection to the confusing start eventually takes over.

The cinematography is really awful, as is the acting, the script, direction...really everything except the gore, which isn't great, but as I said earlier, I do respect the effort. It seems to have been the only thing the makers of this ridiculous film did put an effort into.

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.

The movie is a great 80s throwback horror; a very entertaining watch, filled with gory scenes, packed with action, and a solid storyline that you just have to follow to the end.

Well done, practical effects and all!