Masks in Modern Media: Movies

Since the first film was developed in the late 19^th century, masks have played an important part with them in culture. Because film performances are really an offshoot of theatre, masks continued over to the screen. Because of the nature of film, however, more could be done when it came to special effects and editing. Masks have become not only things to be seen, but replicas to be bought and used. They also hold an important part of makeup appliances. Unlike the more symbolic appearances in the past, however, they can be used to make someone appear realistically as someone (or something) else. Since camera started rolling, masks have been a large part of the cinema and television experience. From the earliest mask in Hollywood in 1925 with Lon Chaney’s performance in “Phantom of the Opera”, masks have hidden faces. Whether it’s a masked killer trying to hide (or find) their identity, an anonymous hero saving the day, or wearing a face to avoid capture, masks have done it all in film. So grab your popcorn and soda, the movie is about to start.

Because of the nature of film, it can get tricky when we are talking about masks; there are films where the mask is an actual part of a character, such as Jason from Friday the 13^th, or “Catwoman” from Batman-masks that the character actually wears to hide their identity. Then there is the makeup application of masks, also called facial applicances-these are masks that are attached to the face to actually create a character’s appearance-Robert Engund is probably one of the more famous for his “Freddy Kreuger” makeup in “Nightmare on Elm Street”-masks that actually create the character rather than hiding identity and are often applied in long painstaking sessions in the makeup artists chair.

The Early years (1900-1940’s)

The early 20^th century is a time of innovation for film. The technology to capture frame by frame “moving pictures” has some murky background. The earliest known horror film is a 2 minute French short titled Manic du Diable, or “House of the Devil. That was in 1896. Horror films continued through the early 1900’s, including movies like “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” in 1919. Thomas Edison even made a film based on Frankenstein in 1910. But when did masks come into play as something the character wore?

In 1925 was the first incarnation of the well known “Phantom of the Opera”, with Lon Chaney. The story is about a disfigured man living in the Paris Opera house. Shunned from the world, he inhabits the caverns and tunnels beneath the Opera House. When he finds Christine, he immediately longs for her. Wearing a mask that covers his face, he terrorizes the opera group, eventually grabbing Christine. In one of the pivotal moments in cinema history, she pulls the mask off his face, showing his horribly disfigured face to the audience. It is said women fainted and men gasped at the horrible appearance when watching the movie. It was to be horror’s first “unmasking”. We can see the imprint of masks hiding a killer’s terrible secret on the audience. There were very few masked characters during this time. Surprisingly, there were a few early examples in this era of the “masked killer” which wouldn’t become well known for decades. Movies like “Star of Midnight” (1935), about a killer wearing a woman’s mask, and “Black Widow”(1947) about a woman behaving like her namesake, showed a little bit of monster as well. These films, not surprisingly, are not as well known as their more modern horror/thriller counterparts.