Masks. Who doesn't love them? Besides the cops, I mean. And bank tellers. And security cameras. Ok, well basically, anybody involved in law enforcement or against the redistribution of wealth. But without masks, who are we? Just a bunch of drunken college and university students out for a good time and in need of some cool refreshments via water cannons or machete-wielding harbingers of doom that will tear out your liver in an attempt to quell an insatiable blood-lust?
Masks are iconic symbols of a world that demands accountability. They provide a sense of security and shelter for those that feel their needs might just be greater than the needs of the common good, despite what the common good believe. Plus, if you are seriously grotesque it gives people something to remember you by. Would you rather be remembered as ‘that guy with no face’ or ‘that guy with the mask’? No question about it. Masks are cool, they define who we are or who we want to be and people can make a killing (literally and figuratively) wearing or selling them.
Here are 9 masks made famous through cinema.
Note: This list does not take into account the actual movie Mask, which was about a disfigured boy who had Cher as a mother, nor is it contain iconic super hero masks such as Batman’s and Spider-Man’s, due to their original popularity coming through comics and children playing dress-up.
9. Scream Mask
Ah, scream ghoul mask, what would Halloween nowadays be without you? You provide a staple necessity to teens who want to put in as little effort as possible for Halloween and hide the fact that they are probably too old to be trick or treating anymore. Especially great for you and a friend to torment the cool kids late at night, that Scream Mask has been around since its reveal in 1996 and has been made available in dollar stores throughout the world since Halloween of that year.
But really, who is scared of you anymore? Even Neve Campbell has accepted her mother’s wanton sexual past and moved on. You were even once worn by an orangutan. Now every time I see you, I think, “Pimply teenager or adorable ape?”
8. Halloween Mask
I nearly referred to this as that Mike Myers mask but I would have risked the ire of the Mike Myers fan club who would point out that the famous Austin Powers actor wore little to no masks in his role as the shagadelic super-spy and they weren’t especially iconic ones at that.
I am referring to the other Mike Myers, who despite his need to kill a young, nubile Jamie Lee Curtis way back in 1978, was still able to find the time to spray paint a William Shatner/Captain Kirk mask white, giving him that much needed anonymity he was craving back when he was just a young knife-wielding maniac with a dream, about to start his first killing spree.
7. Leatherface Mask
So you are thinking maybe you should just make your own mask, save on going out to track one down at the local costume shop in the sketchy part of town. Maybe you live way out in the middle of Butthole, Nowhere and looking to just have something for people to remember you by as you chase them around your house with a chainsaw.
There was one large man from Butthole, Texas who thought the same thing and taking advantage of what meager supplies he had (dead people) and his basic understanding of taxidermy and sewing, was able to create a mask so iconic that it became his name, Leatherface. Despite its lack of Scream ghoul or Jason goalie mask popularity, when people see a mask composed of human skin, they know they are dealing with a complete nutjob,
6. Jason Mask
Speaking of Jason hiding behind his goalie mask, here we are at number 6. Poor Jason – so misunderstood with the unfortunate death of your mother, the unfortunate death of yourself as a child while those young camp counselors fornicated and smoked dope while you drowned. So much anger to resolve. No wonder you hide behind a mask.
Not to mention how you have been killed with a machete, an axe, resurrected via lightning, again killed by a machete, exploded, strangled via motorboat, been literally placed in a wood chipper, submerged in toxic waste, incinerated by Earth’s atmosphere, pulled down into Hell and back, fought another iconic serial killer in your dreams, been electrocuted, and basically shunned by everybody you tried to meet in a social setting.
You brought hockey masks to the mainstream, although many failed to grasp that not all hockey players wore that type of mask. Nor were they made out of cheap glow in the dark plastic. But it made for a good cheap costume and you got to cover your overalls in blood while wielding a machete. That’s cool. Now go give someone a hug.
5. Dread Pirate Roberts Mask
By now you were probably thinking that masks were worn only by mass murderers with severe mortality issues. Not so. Many a romantic has also chosen to hide behind a mask. Not because they were burnt by acid or something like that, but just because they were terribly comfortable and that you thought one day all people would be wearing them.
So it was with the Dread Pirate Roberts who as we all should know by now was not really that dreadful or named Roberts. While sometimes confused with his Latino cousin, Zorro, who also ran around in all black, saving damsels in distress, the Dread Pirate Roberts used his mask to hunt down his Princess Bride/true love and save her from a conflicted trio of bad guys, then take her sightseeing, throw a massive guilt trip on her about getting married and in the end do it all over again, without the mask.
4. The Mask Mask
Stanley Ipkiss. Who knew that beneath that gangly, bank-exterior exterior lay the insane man of comic proportions and Shakira-esque hips that defied you to say that they lie? Not until that odd piece of ceremonial wood entered your life were you ever to entertain the idea that you would one day confidently wear a yellow zoot suit out in public, make out with Cameron Diaz and be able to make your eyes pop out of your head while wolf-whistling.
Your mask coined catchphrases such as ‘SSSSSSSmoking!’, ‘That’s a Spicy Meatball!’ and ‘Somebody Stop Me!’ although you obviously didn't really mean it. You were allowed to bring your innermost desires to life, as well as your dog’s which is admittedly pretty cool. Many tried to emulate you in the coming years, but none could get that exact recipe of zaniness and hue of green correct, much less find a yellow zoot suit and matching fedora that fit so well.
3. The Phantom of the Opera Mask
Now to go all culturally significant on your reading eyeballs. Yes, the Phantom of the Opera was a book at one time, also probably an opera. I mean, look at the title, it practically writes itself. Yet, it wasn’t until Lon Chaney put on that half piece of porcelain/plastic back in 1925 in one of the first ‘cultural’ masterpieces of horror did your iconism really take off with the general public.
Your opera mask has been worn by misunderstood romantics throughout the century who also happened to have been facially disfigured but still retain a love for music. Plus, you give people an excuse to wear tuxedos and capes together without coming across as ‘out of touch’. And let’s not forget those lazy teens on a limited budget that thought they were getting a Jason mask for a great deal.
2. Darth Vader Mask
“Darth Vader? That wasn't a mask, that was a helmet!” one might argue. Others might argue why the hell is it only at #2? Probably you just did. It could be counter-argued that Darth Vader wore more than just a helmet, just as in the end, Boba Fett was more than just some giant sand-worm’s appetizer. Darth’s helmet/mask allowed him to be who he was, which was the mask, which was him.
It all makes perfect subtext in a pretty standard George Lucas non-subtextual way. Nobody goes around comic-cons or standing outside movie theaters in line for re-releases looking like Annakin Skywalker revealed because, let’s face it, that was ugly. Darth’s mask brought terror into all those that gazed upon it with its soulless black eyes, it’s black mouth-grill and its shades of black transposed with other shades of black to create the most iconic science fiction mask of all time.
Plus, it makes for a bitchin’ piggy bank.
1. That Guy Fawkes Mask
Ah, Guy Fawkes. Who would have thought that during the low point of your mythology you would be reduced to a nursery rhyme that was popular only on one island country with its own identity issues?
But thanks to a set of American film-making brothers, an Israeli-born Natalie Portman willing to shave her head, and the voice of New Zealand’s Hugo Weaving, your face has become the symbol of an elite click of cyber-super vigilantes that comb the world’s internet always willing to prove their powers over the powers (and people) that claim to be superior to the common good. Or not, depending on your media sources, but let’s not get into that.
Legislators in the world’s top countries have debated over making just the wearing of your mask out in public an illegal offense, punishable by jail. Despite your pale appearance and your colored cheek-bones and pencil-thin mustache only John Waters could love, you have become a symbol not only of a discontented generation but also of a world that is on the brink of something more than can be labelled, controlled and pacified by the current powers that be.
Your mask has become the symbol of something more, a symbol of an enlightened social consciousness that is not comfortable with the status quo, like a Keep Calm and Chive On flag pinned in your dorm room. And all you had to do was attempt to blow up one of England’s most iconic buildings centuries ago.
That's all... comments in the comments section, as per usual.
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