Historically important as the first official Canadian made horror film, and in 3-D no less, "The Mask" offers up a pretty damn creepy head trip. It's never as compelling outside of its nightmare / 3-D sequences, but it's nicely atmospheric and definitely very well acted. The visuals by Slavko Vorkapich (who scripted and designed the major set pieces) are most compelling, and could easily freak some people out.
Allan Barnes (handsome Paul Stevens) is a psychiatrist with a crazed patient named Michael Radin (Martin Lavut). Michael had been messing around with a mask which he "borrowed" from a museum, and putting it on has been driving Michael mad...and homicidal. Michael commits suicide, but before doing so, mails the mask to his shrink, and the good doctor finds himself just as fascinated by and obsessed with the thing when HE starts trying it on. Allans' concerned fiancée Pam (lovely Claudette Nevins) and his associate, Professor Quincey (Norman Ettlinger) worry about his sanity and potential for violence.
This is good fun, even if the story is pretty familiar overall. At least, this story does its job of setting up those set pieces, which just aren't the same when viewed in 2-D. That mask itself is pretty cool, whether or not somebody is wearing it. The film is produced & directed by Julian Roffman (who also produced "The Pyx", which is worth seeing), who only made a handful of films during his life and career, and is solidly acted by a cast that also includes Bill Walker as a dedicated detective, and Anne Collings as Allans' secretary.
The movie does put forth that idea that masks like this merely channel a persons' own actual thoughts and personality, much the same way that the same named Jim Carrey fantasy of 1994 did.
Seven out of 10.
Allan Barnes (handsome Paul Stevens) is a psychiatrist with a crazed patient named Michael Radin (Martin Lavut). Michael had been messing around with a mask which he "borrowed" from a museum, and putting it on has been driving Michael mad...and homicidal. Michael commits suicide, but before doing so, mails the mask to his shrink, and the good doctor finds himself just as fascinated by and obsessed with the thing when HE starts trying it on. Allans' concerned fiancée Pam (lovely Claudette Nevins) and his associate, Professor Quincey (Norman Ettlinger) worry about his sanity and potential for violence.
This is good fun, even if the story is pretty familiar overall. At least, this story does its job of setting up those set pieces, which just aren't the same when viewed in 2-D. That mask itself is pretty cool, whether or not somebody is wearing it. The film is produced & directed by Julian Roffman (who also produced "The Pyx", which is worth seeing), who only made a handful of films during his life and career, and is solidly acted by a cast that also includes Bill Walker as a dedicated detective, and Anne Collings as Allans' secretary.
The movie does put forth that idea that masks like this merely channel a persons' own actual thoughts and personality, much the same way that the same named Jim Carrey fantasy of 1994 did.
Seven out of 10.