WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
The idea of the masked killer has been a staple of horror throughout the decades. Come on, three of what would be considered as cult horror films are centred around them – Friday 13th gave us Jason Voorhees in his hockey mask, Halloween had Michael Myers and then there’s Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I guess you could potentially describe it as being a trope of the slasher sub-genre. Sometimes the killer is revealed, sometimes they’re not…
The Toolbox Murders
You may or may not have heard me use this term before but this film was considered as a ‘video nasty’ as it made it on to Section Two of the DPP list for films of an obscene nature. Strangely, the opening to this film reminded me a little bit of the original Maniac which was made only a few years later. What’s strange about this film is that the killer doesn’t seem to put on the mask until AFTER he has killed his victim. OK, yes it covers his face for the following kill but it felt almost as if he wanted to make sure the first woman, we see him murder, saw his face. Can we talk about quite how weird the death scene is with the nail gun? Firstly, there was absolutely no need for her to be masturbating in the bath before the killer enters but I also didn’t understand why as she died, they kept flashing to the body of his first victim at the beginning of the film. The rare thing about this film is that the killer is actually revealed an hour into the run time when he confesses his crimes to Laurie, when usually the killer isn’t revealed in slasher until the final showdown.
Stage Fright
The opening to this film is crazy! It feels so real, like your typical slasher starting off with a murder to set the scene for the film to come – then it turns out it’s just the dress rehearsal for a stage show! I think this is the only film of this style where we see the killer’s face, prior to them putting on the mask or at least that’s what we assume because we don’t see him when the first kill is made even before he gets the mask. What I found clever about the first “on-stage” murder is that it’s almost as if the killer is told to do it, because the director has no idea that it’s no longer Brett under the owl mask. I hoped, and maybe this is me just waiting for something a little more original, that all the murders took place on stage during the rehearsal. That way there would be a genuine need for the mask and in a weird way, no one is any the wiser about who the killer really is. I just feel that with the film working like a regular slasher horror, especially for the 80s where we only see the killer a few times – the mask feels a little redundant.
The Night Brings Charlie
The 90s was known for its new age of slasher films, what with I Know What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legend. Most notably, this decade introduced us to Ghostface in Wes Craven’s Scream franchise. What’s weird about this film is that it feels much older than the 1990s based on the way it was filmed but then it also feels a little student-made. I guess the question that most people will ask is whether a sack and a pair of swimming goggles will count as a mask but it can be defined as a covering for all or part of the face so technically yes, this counts! I think that Ella is supposed to be the light relief in this film but there’s so little tension created that it all just feels really awkward. Much like Scream (excluding the 3rd film of course), we have two killers in this film but what I don’t understand, and maybe I missed the explanation, is why Charlie and Walt are killing these people! It’s almost as if they imply they are natural born killers and can’t help themselves when it comes to murder.
The Pumpkin Karver
Next stop on our time-travel journey through the decades of slasher films – the 2000s! The weird part is that even though this film was made in 2006, it looks a lot more like something out of the 1980s with the way that it’s graded. Having said that, there’s an early scene that is reminiscent of a later one in Scream. When Alec pretends to attack Lynn in the basement she says “Oh, I’m really scared now. Please don’t kill me Mr Pumpkinhead” a little like Tatum’s death scene. I’m going to be honest, I was expecting this film to go the way I had always hoped Scream would – that our lead character was the actual killer because he had lost his mind due to the earlier trauma of killing his sister’s boyfriend. This would have made more sense than the weird supernatural bent they seem to take on the story – that Alec’s spirit is somehow haunting Jonathan instead – especially as it does come across like Jonathan is going crazy at first, added to the fact that the old man tells about the evil of carvers! It could have been hereditary from his father instead. It also doesn’t make sense why Alec’s spirit does that when as far as we know he wasn’t even a killer! I’ll say this much though, it was pretty funny to watch Bonehead peeing on his own face.
The Farm
I don’t want to make this sound like too much of a criticism but, even though the opening to this reminded me a little of The Strangers: Chapter 1, it was such a slow burner that I felt like it had been running for much longer than it actually had been. For example, it felt like a lot more than 25 minutes before we were introduced to the character in the goat mask and Nora ending up in the cage. I have to admit though, this film became weird very quickly after that. This probably sounds really strange because of how uncomfortable a scene like this can be but I feel like they could have spent more time on the moment when they artificially inseminate Nora to add to the fear of it. Come on, isn’t the scene with Cheryl and the tree from The Evil Dead terrifying? Let’s get uncomfortable people! What is clever however is that from that moment, very few words are spoken for the remainder of the film. This probably sounds really odd but I actually liked the fact that there was no explanation behind the farm, let alone the use of the masks as not everyone wears them – it just happens which adds to the fear because the audience, like our main characters, are questioning everything! Best thing about the film – the closing tableau!
In a Violent Nature I watched A LOT of films at the cinema last year and I think this was potentially the best of the lot! This puts a new spin on the slasher sub-genre by filming it from the killer’s point of view! You would think that once the locket is removed, the camera would naturally follow those who took it but instead we watch as the body of Johnny rises from the grave where he’s been buried for 60 years. From here we spend the first 15 minutes following Johnny through the forest, before and after him killing a guy I believe may have been his father. In the beginning, you will probably all wonder why I picked that because of the fact that he isn’t wearing a mask from the very beginning, but he does end up using one, I promise. The key thing is though, that even before he gets his mask, we don’t see Johnny’s face clearly as the majority of shots are either of the back of his head or obscured by something else until after he gets the mask. It’s pretty apt that the film is called In a Violent Nature because my God – I wouldn’t describe the deaths as anything other than violent…
