The Mask
Directed by Julian Roffman
Starring Paul Stevens, Claudette Nevins, Anne Collings, Bill Walker and Martin Lavut
A young archaeologist believes he is cursed by a mask that causes him to have weird nightmares and possibly to murder. Before committing suicide, he mails the mask to his psychiatrist, Dr. Barnes, who is soon plunged into the nightmare world of the mask.
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Reviews
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★★★★ review by Marna Larsen on Letterboxd
60's film project #43:
Let me save you a headache.
When the voice intones put the mask on (or is it put on the mask) now, put your 3D glasses on as those sequences are the only 3D in the movie. The back of the DVD says this is Canada's 'first and only' 3D movie...not sure if that is true? It's psychedelic nonsense which has nothing whatsoever to do with the 'plot' but it's amazing psychedelic nonsense, though I could only see like half of it. Anything with arms reaching or trees worked fine. Some of the other stuff was just sorta blurry. Still! I would watch this again just for those surreal fourteen and a half minutes! (Yep, four stars for those 14.5 minutes. The rest of the plot was mostly tea drinking. Like, cozy tea. Not psychedelic tea.)
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★★★★ review by Mangloid on Letterboxd
While most parts in this obscure Canadian psychedelic horror are pretty average. The scenes involving the mask are anything but. Very trippendicular indeed! Also a interesting metaphor for drug addiction.
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★★★½ review by smellington on Letterboxd
PUT THE MASK ON NOW -Dr. Alan Barnes believes the Mask is a gateway to the sub conscious, something forgotten long ago and wants to study the mask in order to discovery ancient knowledge / insight. When the doctor puts the mask on, the viewers are treated to some of the cinema's greatest horror imagery. The Mask serves as an allegory for drugs or really any escapism (including cinephilia), but who could really blame the doctor (even if the Mask is driving him insane) when the rest of the film is so drab so PUT THE MASK ON NOW.
I watched this on Fandor. The Mask scenes were not in its original 3-D format. I originally saw The Mask when I was in grade school. Television channels would occasionally show 3-D movies as a minor event where you pick up your 3-D glasses at a local convenience store. The Mask features suicide and undercurrents of sexual perversion, and I would feel uneasy about showing my grade school aged daughter. I guess my parents were cooler than I am. Other 3-D movies watched back then included: Gorilla At Large, House of Wax, and of course Hondo. -
★★★½ review by Austin Wolf-Sothern on Letterboxd
A psychiatrist gets a mask from one of his patients who committed suicide because of it. When worn, the mask causes amazing, scary, 3D hallucinations. The doctor gets hooked on putting it on and tripping out, and when people tell him he shouldn’t wear it anymore, he’s just like “Somebody stop me!” and continues on his strung out path. It’s pretty good, but really only stands out for the creepy 3D sequences.
Hoop-tober Film #25: Bonus/Screening
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★★★★ review by Amy Searles on Letterboxd
The body of the film is probably deserving of only about 2.75/5 stars, but the Slavko Vorkapich 3D nightmare sequences deserve all the shiny stars and fresh produce we can throw at 'em, so that averages out to 4 total.
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