Masks (2011) User Reviews

Ambition vs. Reality

[kosmasp · 5/10 · 28 October 2012]

The movie looks pretty good and the work that has gone into the art department is quite a feet, especially considering the budget. On the other hand, the director tells us, that some of the equipment were borrowed from schools (art schools for the masks). Still you have to respect the choices that were made. It's obvious what this movie is paying homage too and in general terms it succeeds.

The story does have some issues, but if you're a fan of Giallo, you know that story was never something that people paid too much attention to. Character flaws and other things might spoil your fun, otherwise you will get a nice little horror movie with neat effects

Almost a great comeback for Giallo...

[Coventry · 7/10 · 1 June 2023]

In the last decade and a half, or so, many aspiring and nostalgic-minded directors attempted to revive the glorious Italian Giallo genre from the 70s and early 80s. Even though several of them are admirable efforts ("The Editor", "Francesca", "Abracadabra", ...) none of them truly captured the true spirit of old-fashioned Gialli. Heck, even the master himself - Dario Argento - didn't succeed anymore with his two final attempts "Giallo" and "Dark Glasses". For quite a long while into "Masks", however, I had high hopes that it would become a terrific and genuine throwback. Writer/director Andreas Marschall eventually does lose his grip on the plot and stylish trademarks, unfortunately, but the film remains worth discovering.

"Masks" definitely ticks a few mandatory and quintessential boxes. The plot is delightfully twisted and complex (and clearly inspired by "Suspiria"), the setting is theatrical, the atmosphere is effectively unsettling, there's (gratuitous) nudity, and the murder sequences are sadist and very gore. The first thing to catch anyone's attention is the authentically nightmarish DVD start-menu, what with its grisly images of a human eye nervously moving around behind a stoic and spooky mask.

The story takes place in a dubious acting academy near Berlin, where after numerous unsuccessful and downright embarrassing auditions, the aspiring twenty-something actress Stella is happy to finally get accepted somewhere. The institute has a very questionable reputation and history, though. The founder Mattheusz Gdula invented a groundbreaking new acting method during the 70s, but many of the contemporary students also died under mysterious circumstances. The acting method is still being practiced, although in the forbidden parts of the school building and for a small selection of students, and there's a vicious killer roaming around to make sure the Gdula legacy remains a well-kept secret.

Andreas Marschall, who also made the more than competent "Tears of Kali", clearly did his homework and studied all the elite trademarks of the finest 70s Gialli. "Masks" is full of nail-bitingly tense moments during which our heroine wanders around dark and ominous corridors while she's being watched, the use of spooky scenery (notably the titular masks) is excellent, and the violent kills are well-spread. The film is at least 20 minutes too long, though, and the third act feels dragging and tedious. There also isn't much mystery regarding the identity of the killer, in my opinion, and the climax should have been a bit more spectacular.

Suspiria for acting

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 15 May 2022]

Decades ago, Matteusz Gdula invented an acting technique that made his students the best in the world. Of course, a bunch of them also died mysteriously and he ended up killing himself, so his method was banned. So why is there now a school devoted to his teachings? And why would they invite Stella (Susen Ermich), a driven if unaccomplished actress?

If you weren't thinking Suspiria already - remote performing arts school, young girl unsure why she was asked to attend, mysterious past - the fact that Stella arrives just as Britt (Franziska Breite) is running away from something. To hammer it home, no one is warm to our heroine at all - not the students, not headmistress Yolanda (Teresa Nawrot), director Janowska (Magdalena Ritter) or Dr. Braun (Michael Balaun). Only Cecile (Julita Witt) - a young actress who teaches Stella how to open up her emotions while creating new emotions of her own that she doesn't quite understand - is kind, but then why is her body covered with bruises?

Someone attacked Britt. Cecile disappears. And Lydia (Katja Lawrenz) has shown up dead. Maybe going to far off-performing schools run by dead people isn't necessarily the best of higher education.

Then again, Stella is becoming a better actor. Instead of only using the pain in her past to become angry, now she can draw on it to become someone else. Perhaps this is the place for her. But at what cost?

Where films like The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears copy the look of the giallo, Masks goes further and understands the story and pacing of the best films in the form. Plus, the idea of a hidden part of the school where you must literally allow a mask to take over your mind so that you can become a role is a great one and the film does so much with it. It also understands something that the new school of giallo has forgotten: the kills must be as spectacular as your camera angles, your lighting and color theory. This is filled with genuinely shocking murders that stay within the giallo world without resorting to being torture porn.

Director Andreas Marschall also made German Angst and Tears of Kali, as well as music videos for Coroner, Moonspell and Sodom.

Okay if you really love horror films

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 24 February 2017]

"Masks" is a German movie from 2011, so this one in the German language is already more than five years old. It runs for roughly 110 minutes and is among the more recent works by writer and director Andreas Marschall. This is the story of a young ambitious acting student who gets involved with a very dangerous link to the past. This one is about acting teacher Matteusz Gdula, a man who invented his own acting technique back in the day that had terrible consequences, not only for him, but also for his students. So there are more than just a few flashbacks in this one, even if the main character is without a doubt Susan Ermich's Stella. Chances are high you never heard of her as an actress and even I haven't. Same can be said about all the supporting players in here basically, the younger or the older. I see that the guy who plays the acting teacher regularly works with Helge Schneider. Good for him. As for Ermich, I thought she was pretty fine overall probably, definitely elevated the material at times and with this I am not just referring to the scenes when we see her topless. Sadly, this is not the case for all the actors in here. Some of the supporting players feel very stale, especially in their line delivers. Sadly, there is always a danger of something like this to happen in horror movies as the money frequently goes to effects rather than performers.

Anyway, I think the film may be slightly too long for its own good. The longer it goes, the shoddier it becomes in terms of the script and focus. It is still kinda interesting early on with the introduction to the characters and the link to the past. The scene that actually involves the masks is also fairly decent, even if I am generally not too big on jump scares. But the weirdness and absurdity makes it work somehow. Afterward when the danger becomes much more human and not really that much about mysterious possibly supernatural elements anymore, the film is really extremely underwhelming. I found this especially disappointing as the build-up early on wasn't bad at all, also with the mysterious killings about people getting stabbed. All in all, it is a relatively generic horror movie. Not bad, but also nowhere near the best of the genre of the 2010s. There are weaknesses in story-telling as it is sadly so often the case with this genre, some nudity, even a slightly lesbian scene, a killer, lots of mystery, hot young girls, relatively incompetent males and in the center of it all a hot young blonde who is the key to all the mystery and strangely enough never gets focused by the killer(s), so she survives mysteriously until the very end. Will she also survive the film itself? Watch for yourself. Or don't if you are not into horror films. I give this one a thumbs-down. Not recommended.

More Suspiria than Guadagnino's, but still not very good

[moonmonday · 3/10 · 13 March 2020]

This movie clocks in at just short of forever, or at least that's what it feels like watching it. It desperately wants to be Argento's Suspiria (and as noted, does a better job remaking Suspiria than Guadagnino ever did), right down to the music, but it doesn't really work very well, for a number of reasons.

The first and foremost is that none of the characters are remotely likeable or sympathetic, making it very hard to become invested in anything they do. In Suspiria, the characters were often simple, but they were immediately comprehensible and often sympathetic. If you didn't like them, their actions at least could make some sense, even if you weren't aware of the subtler motivations that would only come into play near to the end of the movie. With Masks, most every character is suspect and very unlikeable. Plenty of characters only appear to be extremely hard to like, and there are so many unpleasant characters that they all start to run together very quickly.

Additionally, there's no real buildup of suspense at all. Violence occurs with no real reason behind it, and we don't even know the characters well enough to be invested in them. It's just a vignette around violence, and it doesn't add anything to the story. The setting is weird and unpleasant, but it's also stupid and meaningless.

Ultimately, the whole film is pointless. It could have been ten minutes long and accomplished the same thing. In fact, it probably would have been better, because then the threadbare premise wouldn't have been stretched out so thin. There were some decent ideas in there, but none ended up done well. The acting, whether you know German or not, is very questionable and uneven, which doesn't help matters.

The sets and costumes were good. The makeup and style were generally good. There was also a lot of really engaging photography. The music, though derivative of Goblin's classic soundtrack, is well done and just distinctly different enough to work.

But the rest of the production really lets all of the good down. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: just a bunch of unpleasant people does not make for good horror. There was exactly one line, where the main character lost her temper close to the beginning, where someone got exactly what he deserved, but that was it. It would have been much more interesting and enjoyable if it had actually explored the character developing more, which it really didn't do.

All in all, it's not a movie I can recommend. It may be a better take on Suspiria than the pathetic excuse for a remake that deserves to be forgotten, but that doesn't make it really a good movie. They tried, but as with many films these days, especially homages, they would have done better to keep it brief and do a short film instead...and only then develop it if there's enough material to do so.

This is an excellent giallo and Italian horror tribute

[Pravusjif · 9/10 · 29 October 2012]

I saw this movie tonight at "Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre XIII" Horror and Fantastic Film Festival here in Argentina.

I knew what the movie was about, and the remembrance of the Italian horror classic Suspiria it bears, but the truth is this movie takes it to another level and will blow you with the quality accomplished.

The story is about a girl who's dream is to became an excelling actress and enters an acting school founded by a controversial acting teacher of the 70's. There, she discovers that the forbidden training method used by the already late Gdula hasn't been forgotten entirely... and so have its horrors.

To sum up, this movie has great shots and the exact amount of gore needed to enjoy a well balanced Italian horror movie, plus an Excellent soundtrack that take you to the place of the protagonist more than once.

So if you are in for a great Italian horror tribute, don't forget to check this one out.

Does for acting school what Argento did for dance class

[melvelvit-1 · 8/10 · 9 February 2015]

Accustomed to being rejected by acting academies, the ambitious but talent-free Stella is elated upon learning she's been accepted into the Gdula School whose imposing edifice has a wing that was boarded up after the institute's founder committed suicide back in the '70s. Matteusz Gdula had perfected a dangerous "method" guaranteed to make an actor "shine" but only a select few are permitted to learn its secrets by entering the abandoned wing. The last student chosen emerged after a week and performed "like Hepburn" before she mysteriously disappeared and now Stella's been asked if she'd like to learn...

Director Andreas Marschall takes his lead from Dario Argento and MASKS does for acting school what "The Maestro Of The Macabre" did for dance class in SUSPIRIA even though the horror here is giallo-esque rather than supernatural. Like its inspiration, the film is "style over substance" all the way but that style is the director's own and a potent one it is, too, with impressive cinematography accompanied by an ominous score filled with foreboding. The abrupt WTF ending comes as a shock but it makes one think about all that's gone before and works rather well in retrospect. The overall premise is similar to the director's previous TEARS OF KALI (2004) where former members of the Taylor-Eriksson group, a cult that tampered with a terrifying type of transcendental meditation, can't escape their killer karma in three loosely woven tales involving exorcism, psychotherapy, and an insane asylum. Both films are very effective low-budget shockers with judicious -albeit explicit- use of gore fx. Masks won "Best Horror Film" and (ironically) "Best Actress" awards at the 2011 Paris International Fantastic Film Festival, the 2011 Morbido International Film Festival, and the 2011 Fright Nights Horror Film Festival.

A future classic of the giallo genre

[thetheonly · 9/10 · 17 October 2019]

Note: 9.5 if I could rate it that This film hits every single mark of the giallo genre and gives a true homage to the genre. This film feels like if Argento was still around and created a new film. First the synopsis is what you would expect for a giallo it's nothing too crazy but as an analogy it does what Suspiria did for dance that this film does for theatre. The film follows an actress who is trying to become famous on stage and soon begins to fall into a cult like group. That's as deep as I'll go to avoid spoilers. I also want to mention what this film succeeds and fails at. First the atmosphere gives off a true 70s vibe and perfects the depth and feel of a classic giallo. Next this film has a beautiful tone that feels surreal, artsy and whimsical but still extremely dark all at the same time. The cinematography is also some of the best I've ever seen it's shot almost like a continuing music video, which is good in this case, and it also doesn't cut away or censor any of the violence portrayed. Next the gore is amazing, it's very effective and used wisely with nice pacing. I would also like to mention this is the best acting I've ever seen for a micro budget film, even though i don't speak German the emotions show through spectacularly. Finally the film leads in an unexpected way, no spoilers. The film does have a few things I don't like. First it has dutch angles more frequently than I would like, but it's barely noticeable due to how engrossing the film is. The only other thing is some character decisions don't make sense and there is a lack of character development outside of the lead, I get it's a horror film but being almost 2 hours long I was a bit surprised. I would recommend this for horror fans who go in with an open mind and don't have the film spoiled for them. I would also recommend it for hardcore giallo fans. Though for an average film viewer it might not be you're cup of tea and at times the film is a bit of an acquired taste. The other thing that a lot of people mention is that the film seems to be style over substance, but I would disagree and say there are underlying themes and I've read many different opinions on what this films message is, for some, if any. If you do decide to check it out it can be more than a bit difficult to track down in person since it got an extremely limited release in the U.S. at only 3000 copies, but amazon still has copies left at around 18 dollars each and they contain the blu ray, DVD, soundtrack and booklet all to accompany the film which is a steal at that price. Overall check this film out its well worth the time in my opinion.

Brilliant Horror Tribute

[haraldhiebl · 9/10 · 17 March 2022]

The Style and the atmosphere brings us back to the 70s. The equipment and the color selection of the rooms show a perfectly chosen dark picture of the events. The tension is kept high all the time. And there are really a few shocking moments in this movie which makes it an unforgettable experience for all horror fans. And to all the people who watched Suspiria in 2018 I just can recommened this german Horror jewel as it´s really very well made.