Mask of the Devil (2022) User Reviews

Leave your integrity at the door

[nogodnomasters · 2/10 · 29 June 2023]

Ken Roosh (Kemal Yildirim) once made an art film about coming of age called "Small Tables." Since that lone success, he has been making low budget niche adult films. Meanwhile Mary, (Nicole Katherine Riddell) is attempting to lose her virginity to Johnny (Joshua Frater-Loughlin) who wants to wait until they are married. Leaving under a strict father, Mary decides to get a job so she can get a place of her own. She answers Roosh' s want ad for an assistant. The money is good, and she is very apprehensive about arousing the actors before the shoot. She gets encouragement from everyone to do her jump. Part of the props for the African scene included a demon cursed mask from Western Africa. When the mask finds a host, the blood bath begins.

The film had some good scenes, or at least attempts at good scenes. The situation comedy at Mary's house and the final phone call to Roosh. The blood aspect makes it a horror, but in reality it is a comedy-horror. Mary, the main character was a miscast.

Guide: F-word. Implied sex. No nudity.

Well made but never rises above its low budget

[robin-broadhead · 5/10 · 29 January 2023]

Some of the cinematography is excellent, getting good value out of limited locations. The visual effects, while clearly low budget, were very well executed,

The script and acting, however, are awful.

There are one or two moments when I thought it was meant to be deliberately bad in order to parody some stereotypical situations, but then I realised it was just going to be like that all the way through.

The pacing of the film is also slow and dull, making it hard to stay engaged in what story there was. The plot itself is quite weak, you get no character development or interesting twists and turns. It's exactly what you'd expect from reading the summary.

Overall, this film was a disappointment. The limited locations were the only redeeming factor, but even they were not enough to save the film from its poor script, acting, pacing, and plot.

Unless you are studying low budget filmmaking techniques, avoid this one.

Could Not Get Past Fifteen Minutes

[rebeltaz-18705 · 1/10 · 25 June 2023]

This ... movie? ... starts out with what looks like a "Coming Attraction" trailer for another "movie," presented as if it were ripped straight off a forty year old VHS tape with tracking problems. The "stars" in this fake film have equally fake names like "Voohees," "Krueger," ... yeah.

Once that's over, the "Feature Presentation" ain't no better. Poor acting, poor lighting, poor quality, poor sound.... In case you can't tell, everything about this is poor. Add boring into the mix and ....

Good Lord. You can only say so many things about a movie that isn't even worth 15 minutes watch time. Oh good... Minimum Character Limit Met.

DO NOT EVEN BOTHER.

bad work

[prolazniknamernik · 1/10 · 29 January 2023]

This movie is a total disaster.

It's amazing what people film and put in the horror genre.

British films of the last decades are a mixture of comedy and horror and everything in between.

To make matters worse, the budgets are obviously very tight, so the film's class is 0th production.

I would not recommend anyone who is a sincere admirer of film as an art that speaks in pictures to watch this film because it would be a waste of time.

Not horror, not comedy, not scary, not funny, not good for anything.

The bottom of the bottom.

The worst thing is that there is no group of film critics who would discredit such films in a timely and impartial manner so that we don't get annoyed for nothing.

Yeah but, no but.

[BA_Harrison · 1/10 · 30 January 2023]

Despite looking like Vicky Pollard from Little Britain, Mary (Nicole Katherine Riddell) finds herself hired as a fluffer on a low budget porn shoot. Unfortunately, one of the props being used on a XXX parody of Tarzan is a wooden African mask that transforms the wearer into a vicious demonic killer.

The first half of this film is played as an offbeat comedy with dark humour, but it isn't funny, even though the irritatingly quirky soundtrack does its best to convince the viewer otherwise. A porn-shoot premise offers plenty of scope for lewd gags and general outrageousness, but this film somehow takes the world of low-rent sex flicks, with its many sleazy characters, and makes it boring.

The second half of the movie is more focused on the horror, but with lousy acting, subpar gore, way too many cheap and nasty visual effects, and scene transitions that look like something out of a Powerpoint presentation, the whole thing is too simply too shoddy to be scary.

Given how many producers, co-producers, executive producers and associate producers are listed in the credits on IMDb, I'm guessing that the film was crowd-funded, which is why I'll never stump up cash to help kickstart a film: I don't want to risk having my name forever associated with something this bad.

N. B. An early scene, in which antiques shop assistant Todd sells the mask to the prop hunter against his boss's wishes, seems inspired by the opening scene of Gremlins. Later in the film, porn talent Otto tears flesh off his face, dropping bloody chunks into a sink, in a scene reminiscent of Poltergeist. Sadly, Richard Rowntree, producer/writer/director of Mask of the Devil, is no Spielberg, Dante or Hooper.

A Horror Movie That is HORRIBLE!

[arfdawg-1 · 1/10 · 7 February 2023]

Wow. This movie is all over the place. Is it a take off on grindhouse movies? Is it a comedy? Is it a straight horror movie? I dunno. But I DO know that it's HORRIBLE.

Some of the worst directing I've seen in decades. The director has no clue how to move the film forward. It's slower than mollasses.

At first I thought it was a cultural thing and that the English don't know how to make a horror film. But then I remembered all those Hammer films I saw growing up. So guess what? It's the director's fault.

He shouldn't be making movies.

Sad, because there appeared to be money there for production that would bring it above the standard low budget fare.

A throwback to the golden era of Horror Comedies

[singhlall · 8/10 · 25 January 2023]

If you are looking for an entertaining, funny and downright insane independent Horror Comedy than this is your film. An ancient mask ends up on a porn film set which leads to a sinister and hilarious series of events. The jokes hit the mark and there are some pretty inventive deaths. Being fresh and original is difficult these days but Mask of the Devil pulls this off (no pun inteneded). Martin Payne plays one of the most sleaziest characters you will find on a film set. Kemal Yildrim has one of the best deaths I have seen recently on screen. This is by no means perfect but the finished product is way superior than it's limited budget suggests. I have seen this twice now and am likely to watch it again. Perfect with Pizza and drinks on a Friday night.

Good fun 'budget' horror/comedy

[carmats · 7/10 · 15 September 2023]

To me this cheeky comedy is a night of horror fun, is a worthy of your time. If you go in expecting a film worthy of Oscars and Imax, then you'll be disappointed. If you're looking for indie small-time passionate filmmakers with some laughs and gore then this is pretty good and you'll have a good evening. I can't help but wonder what happens after the film and I would have liked a little more build up in the XXX studio but I appreciate the time and money constraints. It could benefit with a Bawdy Man too. When you take this into account then I feel any rating below 5 to be overly harsh. Kudos to the community effort in this production.

Time to mask up!

[darkhoover · 8/10 · 23 August 2022]

Just caught MASK OF THE DEVIL during Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival on Sunday, August 21st, during Block 11. Clearly proves that Richard Rowntree -and his team- knows how to deliver WTF horror throwback fans want! Funny moments galore, mixed with plenty of slasher insanity, and considering most of the chaos is centered on a porn film set, it's amazing that without tons of explicit nudity, we all got the points. While the plot is pretty straightforward, the effects, atmosphere, and visuals shine.

Among the characters I have to say soundman Mike, played by Martin W. Payne, stole the show with his sleazy snark. Our audience really enjoyed all the nods to other films and horror checkpoints. Would poor Mary become a capable fluffer? Would a Small Table lead to bigger Tables? When would Mike get his? Could anyone escape from the bloodshed? Is this what the world of film making is like? While we probably know those answers all along, overall getting there is a bloody good time.

A generally fun indie supernatural-tinged slasher

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 7/10 · 2 January 2024]

Trying to get her family off her back, a woman takes a job on the set of an adult production company as an assistant, but as they continue the shoot find that they've brought a cursed African tribal mask as a prop that has possessed a cast member and sent on a murderous rampage.

This was a generally fun and likable effort. Among the better features of this one is the cheesy overall setup that provides this one with the kind of workable full-throttle starting point for what takes place. Seeing the initial recollection of the mask in the opening flashback allows for everything to take place to get a proper context for the curse to be passed down properly, much like the first half here getting to know the girl and her need to get out of her family's hold that brings her into the realm of the industry individuals where she starts in on their films in the way she does. This all goes together alongside the first scenes of her going around the background of the set meeting the cast and crew while getting the behind-the-scenes look at the production of it all which not only gives this a fine means of propelling things along but also has some funny moments with her prudish reactions to their free-spirited ease with performing adult content to start this rather nicely. Once the mask has been introduced and it starts in on getting the more horror-based content setup, the film picks up incredibly well following up on the opening idea of the curse being passed through the mask onto the performer in the shoot. As we see the starting point with the performer putting it on and succumbing to the series of facial deformations every time he tries to put it on, the resulting possession takes place in the background as the main focus is on the inability to acclimate to performing her particular duties on this type of film means there's a nice slow-burn build for the slashing to come. This amounts to a fine series of indie-style stalking scenes throughout the darkened quarters of the shooting location with the vicious kills featured here generating the kind of brutal splatter not just dished out to the victims but also on the indestructible killer themselves that gives this section a great time with these factors all making for a lot to like here. There are some issues present that hold this back. The main detriment present is the low-key nature of what takes place on the porn shoot that it's somewhat hard to buy into the atmosphere generated on a porn set. With the idea of a porn shoot being consumed by an evil entity working nicely enough, the lack of sleaze during this section as its coy nature foregoing any type of sexual thrills or shenanigans makes it feel remarkably tame on top of the dull tone presented. Since there's not much in the way of gore or kills featured during this period, a sleazy atmosphere would've been a fine way to overcome it but since it's denied this can make the film a bit of a struggle to get going for the wrong reason. As well, there are also the somewhat obvious low-budget limitations present where the flimsy CGI, scaled-down production values, and a general air that doesn't help hide its origins all make this come down somewhat to be its few drawbacks.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, and sexual content.

Finally got to see Mask of the Devil

[jpstyles-1 · 8/10 · 28 August 2022]

As a horror fan I was pleased to be able to watch Mask of the Devil last night. The film starts with a bit of a back story of where the cursed mask came from, for a low budget film this was ambitious, but so superbly done it hooked me in right from the start! As we get to present day the believable set up with Mary still living with her strict parents again is convincing with a nice level of humour and stylishly done. When Mary starts her new job in a seedy porn production company there are lots of cringey moments and as the character has been set up well you care what happens to Her. Once the horror starts again there are some nicely done effects and visuals, it does becomes a little more predictable as the crew are picked off, but it is still an enjoyable watch!

Over all I think this is a great achievement for a low budget film, it certainly entertained me. Well done to Richard Rowntree and crew, defiantly the best film yet from Ash Mountain Films!

A HORROR-GASMIC MASTERPIECE

[TyCheman · 9/10 · 8 September 2022]

A definite crowd pleasing horror flick that takes place on a porn set. This unsettling supernatural story brings a rise to the audience. Filled with jumps, bumps, humps, and blood!

The main character finds herself struggling to make ends-meat and responds to an add in the newspaper looking for help on a production team; not knowing exactly the intimate details of her new job to help on set with physically preparing the talent.

Richard Rowntree brings another blood-loving feature to the world with his new film MASK OF THE DEVIL!

The cinematography and set design was outstanding; as well as the acting.

Here's to a fantastic film shot during Covid, I'm excited to see what is next for those involved.

Genre-blending fun.

[friedfysh · 8/10 · 3 October 2022]

I recently met the filmmakers and got to see Mask of the Devil. I really enjoyed it. It's a good script; solid writing with some really witty one liners while maintaining believable characters. Good acting all round with Martin Payne as a standout. Technical stuff was all good. This might be low budget, but definitely doesn't look out of place among the big players. I really love the titles and credits too, so much atmosphere. No real spoilers, but this is a two-for-one in a way. The second half takes a U-turn into another genre. Keep your eyes peeled for the parody porn poster titles in the background too; there are some really creative and fun parodies. Worth your time.