Michelle rocks out a review of indie horror, The Laughing Mask.
The Laughing Mask has some interesting ideas for a horror film, but unfortunately the acting and technical issues keep it from being a good movie. The idea of a masked killer isn’t new, of course, but they do try to give the concept some extra flair in this film. I will say, the actual mask the slayer wears is pretty cool looking, it reminds me of a cross between a deranged clown and the Spider-Man villain Venom. Also, whenever the killer commits his atrocities he plays old ’40s music in the background which makes for a creepy atmosphere. Unfortunately, it feels like they didn’t flesh out any of the story around the serial killer and everything else falls flat.
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"What's in the box? Ahhhhh....A better movie!!!!" |
Bad acting is a hallmark of horror films, but there is a
difference between hilarious cheese factor and just plan ineptitude. Every
single actor is cringe-worthy to listen to, which is partly because of the
awful writing. It’s porn-caliber acting, but not in a fun way, in the kind of
style that makes it hard to watch the film. This is made even worse by the terrible
sound design and you can tell they used ADR (re-recording) for almost every scene--the
few they didn’t have tons of background noise and hiss. It’s quite distracting
and gives the movie an over-dubbed kung-fu film quality. Cinematography-wise it’s
alright, but the digital camera aesthetic doesn’t do it any favors and it looks
low budget.
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"Want to play with my ax, mo fo?!" |
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On the bright side, the editing is done well and there is a sequence
where old-timey cartoons are spliced between a gruesome killing to great
effect. These few things aren’t enough to make the film watchable,
however. The Laughing Mask sits in that odd purgatory that is for films that
are horrible but not bad enough to fall into the “so bad it’s good” category.
It just seems like an unexceptional rip-off of the many other “scary killers in
a mask” genre but without the fear that is needed to make it impactful.
Score
-Michelle Kisner