User reviews

Please don't get me wrong, I did enjoy this movie. I just wanted to enjoy it a lot more than I did. See, in an age of remakes, I feel like it's really hard to find fun, original material so it makes it so much more rewarding when you do. But there's few things worse than feeling like you got the old bait and switch. And that's sort of how I feel about this movie.

Sure, the story and plot aren't exactly a rip off, it's just that someone wasn't trying hard...at all...to make it original. It's a stalk-and-slash movie (Haloween, Friday The 13th) where a guy makes masks out of his victims at an old, abandoned farm house (Texas Chainsaw Massacre). I wish there were more to it, but not really. That being said, don't let that alone turn you off of this movie. It really isn't without it's charms. The kills are fun, the actors actually do a pretty good job in their roles, and the effects are surprisingly good. If you want to just sit on the couch (preferably with some sort of adult beverage) and have some fun, this isn't the worst way you could do it. You just have to get past the relatively well-tread plot.

While not overly great, the movie "Maskerade" wasn't overly bad either. It had enough material to prove entertaining enough for a single watching.

The story in "Maskerade" is fairly horror / slasher movie cliché. Roughly summarized; a group of young people go to an old house (in this case, they buy it) with a vile, dark history. They awaken something wicked from its slumber, unintentionally. And now they are being killed, one by one. End of story. And it is pretty much straight from the 'how to make a slasher movie' handbook. Nothing new here in those terms.

The acting in the movie was good, and there were some interesting names on the cast list. Those including Michael Barryman (playing Fred), Terry Kiser (playing Mr. Peck), Treat Williams (playing Mr. Tucker) and a very short appearance by Jason London (playing Arthur Bronw). These people were the most impressive, but the young cast did a good job as well. Most memorable was Nikki Deloach (playing Jennifer), though.

As for the gore and guts in the movie, well it isn't a splatter-fest. The movie has just enough gore and gruesomeness to keep you interested, without being too much.

The biggest turn-off in the movie, if you will, was how it too much like other classic horror / slasher movies such as "Friday the 13th" and "Halloween". How you ask? Well, the "Halloween" part would be with the mask. Sure, Meyers used a firm-set rubber mask, while the killer in "Maskerade" wears a mask from people's faces. Oh wait, back it up here, can you say "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" anyone? And as for the "Friday the 13th" part, well when Jason Voorhees saw what he believed to was his mother, he froze up and stopped, as did the killer in this movie when Jennifer was wearing his mother's old dress. No, no, no! You do not "borrow" these things from classic movies, you make up your own stuff. This really brought the movie down in value and worth.

One thing that the movie should get praise for, though, was the ending. Now, I am not spoiling it in anyway by revealing stuff, but I will say that it is a typical Hollywood horror movie ending, but with a really great 'twist'. I liked that ending, and it almost, just almost, brought justice to all the other stuff that went wrong in the movie.

Overall, then "Maskerade" is good for a single watching, so if you have nothing better to do one evening, and if you like horror / slasher movies, then give "Maskerade" a chance. Despite its faults, it still is a decent enough addition to the genre.

What if your dream turned out to be a nightmare? After Jennifer's (Deloach) boyfriend Evan (Colletti) surprises her with a new house for her birthday strange things begin to happen. This is a hard movie to review. It is not that bad, but it drags, a lot. It's another haunted house because of something buried in the land movie that is not that bad, but it would have been a good "Fangoria Series" movie at an hour long, trying to stretch it out for an hour and a half really hurt the movie. If you are looking for a decent horror movie that is a cross between suspense and a slasher, this is a good choice. If you are looking for a very scary movie then I would go for something else. Not terrible, not great. I did like the ending though. I give it a C.

Would I watch again? - I doubt it.

When Jen's boyfriend buys her an old farm house sitting on top of 40 acres, she's at first mortified that he'd be so utterly stupid' but when she sees how hurt this makes him, she attempts to make the most of it not knowing that the child of the previous occupants still resides around the area and I've very productive of his mom old house.

Tired, generic slasher derivative that brings nothing at all new to the table. The back-story is a rather small variation of Jason Vorhees, the kills which one would think would be where Inovation could at least peek through is sadly lacking, almost every kill is mainly the same. I'd be hard pressed to even recommend this movie even to slasher genre aficionado, much less anyone else..

Eye Candy: Mariah Bonner shows some T&A, Anabella Casanove is briefly topless

Are there any movies out there being made that don't screech of utter grimness and hopelessness? I am so sick of movies where every character dies no matter what they do. "Blair Witch" pulled the trick off nicely, for me, anyway. But now the idea is so overused that it comes across as hackneyed and trite.

If you haven't seen this movie, and don't want to know how it ends, don't read any further. On the other hand, if you want to spare yourself of the experience of watching it, do read on.

Needless to say, all of the characters die, hacked to pieces and cranially skinned by a character than seems half Leather Face from the Texas Chainsaw franchise, and half Michael Myers, or Jason Voorhies. Because he is hideously disfigured, he kills people, and skins their heads... face, lips, hair, ears, everything... and then he pulls this flesh bag over his own head to cover his face. Yes, he does this with both the male and female victims. In the end, he is killed by the female lead, who pierces him through the torso with some sort of voodoo spear or stake. Of course, as the coroner's office is about to take his body away, someone removes the spear/stake/lance/whatever.

Next scene is our heroine and survivor driving away in her slain boyfriend's Jeep. Overcome with grief, she pulls over to the side of the road to cry. A police car pulls up behind her, and it's driven by guess who... the killer! He has on another skinned mask, and he walks on up to her, and breaks her neck, killing her. At this point, questions beggar.

When last seen, the killer was being loaded into the back of an ambulance. Where did he get the police car? Did he arise from the dead and kill all of the policemen and other first responders? If he did, he killed a whole bunch of people in no time flat, as he caught up with our heroine only a few minutes after she'd left the scene of the murders.

Secondly, he was a resurrected corpse that had died some 50 or 60 years before. He was considered a dullard when he was alive and mortal. How and when, upon his first resurrection in the movie, did he learn to drive a car? There is no evidence in the movie at any time that he can handle anything more technologically advanced than an axe or a pitchfork.

Rather than watch this movie, see, perhaps, if you've a friend or a relative who has a DVD of their colonoscopy. It would have much less crap in it than this movie had.

Another slasher film. They still make them, I still buy them for about 10 pence. This one involves an annoying couple who have just bought a house that needs a bit of fixing up. You know, a bit of re-wiring, some double glazing. They might want to think about getting rid of undead serial killer in the back garden too.

No serial killer is worth anything unless he has some victims, so this couple's annoying mates show up to get killed. You know the type – They're younger than you, better looking than you, have more sex than you. Kind of makes you want to kill them, remove their faces, and wear them as masks yourselves.

So just like recent slasher films such as Stitches (okay), Blood Cabin (good), Madison County (pretty poor), The Bunnyman (ok) and The Rockville Ripper (ok), the killer chases folks around the house/barn/garden, they get the drop on him and fail to do anything about, blah blah you know the drill. Nothing much new to see here, although the 'using the victims faces as masks' thing kind of works.

I went into Maskerade otherwise known as Mask Maker with low expectations, the cover looks highly generic and the premise sounds like a lot was taken from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise.

Immediatly you are introduced to your usual group of 20 somethings, 3 girls and 3 guys including our obligatory "Final girl" It's all very standard stuff.

It tells the story of a young couple who buy a house in the middle of nowhere (More cliches) It has a dark history involving murder and witchcraft, one which they accidentally find themselves digging up.

We have an antagonist, we have the fresh meat and thus we have our standard slasher style death scenes. The whole thing is very play by numbers, but I'd consider it above par thanks to being not only well made but having a surprisingly good back story.

Don't expect any shocks but if you like the genre you can do considerably worse than this, in fact I wouldn't mind seeing this become a franchise.

The Good:

Nikki Deloach

Couple of great characters

Great finale

Decent plot

The Bad:

Jason London is wasted

Lot is taken from other films

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

People in their 30's are still cast to play college kids

I know they remade Friday 13th, but Mask Maker feels almost like they've remade the remake. Seriously, 'modern' slasher films, i.e. those with a - seemingly - indestructible undead serial killer have been around for nearly forty years, yet, in that time, film-makers don't seem to have been able to come up with anything more inspiring that 'teenage couples have sex and die.' If any couple partakes in pre-marital sex, you can write them off the cast list (same goes for any nudity at all).

Mask Maker is about your average undead serial killer, stalking a load of annoyingly-attractive American teens in a big house two of them have recently bought. There are attempts at explaining why he's undead, but it doesn't really matter. His 'gimmick' is that he doesn't really have a face and he rips off victims' faces and uses them as his own (didn't they do that in Texas Chainsaw?). It's worth noting that if you're wearing an ill-fitting, blood-soaked, torn-off mask of someone, all your friends will instantly think you're really them and not bother asking questions until you've hacked them to bits.

Talking about hacking people to bits, the death scenes are particularly uninspiring. Yes, there's a bit of blood, but nothing very original.

It's predictable too. No major plot surprises here. The clichés come thick and fast, especially with the 'locals who always know something' about the horror that is to come.

Basically, if you're into films with undead killers stalking dumb teens, just stick to Friday 13th. It may be a little old by now, but it's still better than this.

Oh, and if you're thinking of buying a property, get your solicitor to check that no psychotic undead serial killers aren't buried somewhere on the premises. If you find out there are, I recommend returning to the estate agents and looking for somewhere else.

This movie was fun to watch although it drags on a bit at times. I have to say that I was more impressed with the acting in this low budget horror flick than the majority of the cookie-cutter characters I'm used to seeing in horror movies. If you are looking for a movie full of blood and guts, this may not be your cup of tea. But, if you want to watch a fun movie with good acting and some decent scares, this is your kind of movie. If you are looking for a decent horror movie that is a cross between suspense and a slasher, this is a good choice. The house that we are at for a majority of the movie has a pretty creepy look to it. I wish the director would have milked the kills a bit more and built a little more tension as there weren't as many jump scares as I expected. All in all, it is definitely worth the watch.

Not quite the slasher film I was expecting but I still enjoyed it. A young couple and their friends start renovating an old house they have just bought, but not before unleashing the dead face stealing killer buried in the garden cemetery. Through use of flashbacks from the killers perspective and our heroin reading exerts from the killers mothers diary we get an insight into the happenings leading up to the creation of the stalking brute.

Not the most original plot as it's a cross between Halloween and the Texas chainsaw massacre but with less gore than those two movies. What really saved this film for me was the dialogue between all of the friends and the acting from such a young mostly unheard of cast. It made the characters relationships more believable than I'm used to seeing in this sort of movie and I actually liked all of them. Usually there's a couple of characters I hate and can't wait to see them get murdered, but I found myself quite disappointed to see some of them go. It was also great to see Michael Berryman again as well as Treat Williams even if they only had small roles.

The movie doesn't go all out on the gore front. A couple of the kills are almost off camera. The few kills you do see are done quite well but some quick cuts hamper you seeing exactly what you're looking at. What the film really relies on is the atmosphere created by the creepy house and the dank surrounding woodland. This really works as the setting is very remote and only adds to the feeling of dread. We have the killer Looming around the side of buildings in the background of some shots just like Michael Myers an often over used trick but done very well in this instance.

The only thing I didn't like was the ending a couple of things didn't quite work for me at the end but it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the movie overall. All in all this was a good little horror which I would recommend to fans of the genre.

The fact that any reviewer here can give it more than 2 stars proves they are fake reviews implanted by the studio.

This slasher flick isn't gouge your eyes out horrible but it's only worth seeing to laugh at how the slasher genre is. In other words, it's a drinking game MST3K movie.

'Mask Maker' embodies all the (bad) stereotypes of slasher flicks.

A young couple buy a southern plantation for only $10,000 since the local yokels think it's haunted. As with every slasher film IT IS and the local yokels try and warn the kids. Most amusingly the local yokels are played by comedian Terry Kiser/Bernie and Lomax Michael Berryman 'The Hills Have Eyes'. Surprising this walking dead duo aren't playing the bad guys. Make no mistake, they are the best (only) actors in the whole film.

"Whatever you do, don't dig up the backyard." they warn. Of course what's the second thing the kids do? Dig up the backyard right where the deformed serial killer's body is kept buried by an Amerid mojo.

I'm not letting this go. Since it's established that the plantation is "14 acres" is size, it's really really really bad luck that they find the exact spot and start digging it up! Also, who digs up their own yard? I've never even dug up my own yard! Several other plot elements are so bizarre that it's impossible to tell if they were intentionally added to show the characters' stupidity. Or if they were merely the result of the "writers" own stupidity.

For example, the first thing they say when moving in is, "There's no electricity? That's odd. I make sure the power company turned it back on." Or words to that effect. Okay, when the power company turns the electricity back on the breakers must be in the "off" position. Hence, after power is restored they must be turned to the "on" position. They should said, "There's no electricity? Let's find the breaker box." Second, although the plantation is supposed to have been abandoned for 30+ years it's amazingly well maintained with clean windows and even fresh paint.

Third, in a silly twist the property turns out to be worth a cool $1,000,000 even due to a wine cellar with wine bottles dating back to at least 1864. What kind of paper and ink left in a rotting basement stays legible for 146 YEARS? NONE! Fourth, the property has the working plumbing necessary to for the nude bathing scene. WTF!!!? AGAIN! The plantation would have been on a septic system which will build up toxic fumes if the plumbing is not used on a regular basis. After 30+ it would be ridiculous to think that anyone would even be able to breath in doors, let alone have working plumbing.

Fifth, this isn't actually bad writing but just bad film making. When the couple drive down the freeway in their convertible there's bad blue screening and no wind. Yes, no wind. Their hair doesn't move in the first scene, but it does in the second. WTF? Anyway...... the couple invites over more young dumb friends to help them fix up the place. Let's face it, if it looks this good after being completely abandoned for 30+ years there's nothing to fix up. IT HAS FRESH PAINT! The fornication and drunkenness of the friends gives ample opportunities for the psycho slasher to kill the kids and use their faces for masks. Wow, scary. How with they stop him? He isn't scary, he's just a deformed guy with an axe. Sure he can't stay dead but all they have to do is run away and never return to the plantation. All that fresh paint and wine isn't worth losing your life over.

In conclusion, unless you're planning to drink heavily with some friends while laughing, there is no reason to ever ever ever see the horrible film making in 'Mask Maker.' The fact that any reviewer here can give it more than 2 stars proves they are fake reviews implanted by the studio. Any real viewer wouldn't be sober enough to write a positive review.

Slashers are a dime a dozen in the B-movie horror genre, so when a good one gets released, we should celebrate it.

There's no point in telling the story as it's one we've heard times & times before. What differentiates this slasher from the thousand others on the market is the great acting & writing. I found myself smiling more than I few times to one-liners, delivered by the able leads and supporting cast. My hat goes off to the female lead for being a great addition to the Final Girl mythos. She does tip her own hat to Amy Steel in the pop-psychology finale. For once, the group of friends actually act like real friends, not just a salade composée of geeks, bimbos, punks and jocks. The face-ripping shtick is a wink to "Texas Chainsaw" and some of the cinematography is straight out of "Halloween". But "Maskerade" stands on its own. Slasher fans MUST check it out.

I was looking for a decent horror movie today and this caught my eye. It does have an interesting plot, and is overall an okay movie. It doesn't ooze blood and guts, but there are certainly some moments where you may look away (at least I did). Most of the characters really don't grow on you, but the couple the movie revolves around certainly does. I found myself going, "run he's right there." Maybe it was just me but I did develop a sort of connection. The killer had some story behind him which was nice. Unlike some movies where you really don't know why they are killing people. So I thought that was nice. Overall though it was an alright movie. I personally did not like the end of the movie, but go ahead and watch it and decide for yourself!

I had never actually heard of this movie before I watched it,so I had pretty low expectations....maybe that's why I enjoyed it as much as I did....Not that it's a masterpiece by any means, but it's worth checking out....The acting is fine, the special effects aren't bad, plus I always enjoy when they bring in a horror movie icon like Michael Berryman....If you're not overly critical,you might actually enjoy it......

If you ever wondered why horror movies get such bad press,then 'mask maker' should give you more than a few clues. Two college students have recently acquired an old house at surprising low price.Said house has a past, the aforementioned students invite friends round to help with renovations,carnage ensues.Yawn. If you are lucky enough not to have viewed any of the 300 odd genre movies 'mask maker's cribs from,then you might find this movie refreshing and new and it's storyline charmingly succinct, Everyone else be prepared for a particularly overpowering sense of deja vu when viewing this. Unimaginative in every conceivable way from the casting (vapid pretty boys/girls playing major characters,genre veterans in small roles) to the bland,formulaic script (jump scares anyone? Or how about a post Coital couple getting murdered?.Choose your cliche folks,chances are it's here).Watching paint dry is as pointless an exercise as watching this yawn inducing crapfest,but at least the act of painting itself has some artistic value,unlike mask maker.