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Masks
Reel Indies // Unrated // September 13, 2016
List Price: $39.95 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Film:
The demanding, life-changing process of when performing artists discover the extent of their talents has been the subject of different types of media for a while now, but it finds a particularly potent home in the horror-film realm. From outlandish supernatural classics of Italian giallo cinema to modern-day representations of psychological drama, cinema has captured the mental challenges endured by the performers in honing their craft and twisted them together with macabre metaphors and surreal visions, blurring the lines between reality and nightmare. Germany's Masks offers a more literal but straightforwardly disturbing glimpse at performing arts development, using the paths and methods that actors -- along with their mentors or instructors -- go down to unearth their true potential as a setting for madness and physical torture. Visual flair and a stirring atmosphere inspired by genre classics compensate for director Andreas Marschall's shallow take on the creative process, rendering something chilling and twisted yet inconsequential.
A gorgeous yet struggling stage actress, Stella (Susen Ermich), finds herself bouncing between auditions without the casting directors appreciating her limited talents, leaving her unable to find a home for her acting style. Between the disappointments, she learns of a certain kind of conversatory some distance away from where she lives with her boyfriend, a place that specializes in drawing out raw emotions from upcoming actors through visceral, immersive, occasionally harmful techniques. She makes the journey and gets wrapped up in the harsh and isolated culture of the company, where she sees other actresses pushed to their physical and mental limits through clandestine, closed-off methods that stem from the school's originator, Matteusz Gdula. Stella struggles to improve and integrate within the company, until she herself gets drawn into these bizarre techniques, which shine a light on the unsettling events that really happen behind closed doors at the theater.
Masks might not feature a coven of witches or ballet dancers --not to mention swapping the moody synth stylings of Goblin for harsh guitar strums and piano strokes -- but the reverence and parallels to Dario Argento's seminal horror film Suspiria come in quick and fast once Stella arrives at her destination. Cinematographer Sven Jakob-Engelmann embraces both warmth and twists on naturalistic color as the camera follows the actress into the conservatory nestled a good ways away from civilization, whose cramped corridors cast ominous shadows over the performers in a setting overtly reminiscent of classic Italian horror cinema. Dangerous secrets may loom within the walls of the theater, but the film's design misconstrues its echoes of past horror films for sufficient-enough plotting to hold one's interest in the Gdula theater company. In a sense, the way that Andreas Marschall tempers the outlandish undermines the intrigue in Masks, neglecting to bridge the gap between Stella's issues with her craft and the house of horrors that awaits her.
Partly, that's because it's tough to know what to make of our protagonist, Stella. In other semi-metaphorical depictions of the creative process like this -- Black Swan also immediately comes to mind -- the performer has a degree of accomplishment or objectively appreciated talent that could be pushed further, which helps to guide the point-of-view through their trials. In Masks, the actress immediately gets thrown under the bus as untalented, despite Susen Ermich's perfectly suitable delivery of her
performances before the casting directors, which crafts an enticing but muddled psychological atmosphere as she works her way deeper into the theater's teachings. There's something to be said for the extents in which an unappreciated or untalented actress might be willing to push herself in order to project authentic emotion, but we're not really allowed into Stella's head enough to appreciate that, and her wavering constitution becomes an integral part of the suspenseful elements that manifests later on in the film.
I know, I know: that's a lot of talk about story and pathos in what's ultimately supposed to be a horror film. Thing is, Masks doesn't push the envelope with its gore or scare tactics largely because of that balancing act between surface-level terror and the psychological turmoil suffered by Stella, driven by her wavering sanity and perception of how she's being twisted into a better actress. Susen Ermich handles being a vulnerable but perceptive victim rather well as she slips through the hallways of the school, which descend deeper and deeper into a giallo-infused funhouse of bold color, tweaked angles, and harsh photography while creating its sufficiently macabre imagery. The twenty-minute culmination of the Gdula school's "teachings" at the end doesn't generate as much suspense as hoped for, though, instead revolving around slippery plot twists and stagy displays of bloodiness that overly emphasize style over substance. Masks surely reminds one of the Italian horror genre's greats, but it doesn't project its distinctive attributes loud enough to take center stage.
The Blu-ray:
Reel Gore Releasing have provided quite a sharp package for their Blu-ray of Masks. Contained within a wide-width cardboard slipbox, a two-disc, clear-material (non-eco!) case holds the Blu-ray and DVD presentations of the film, and it shares space inside the box with a full-width Booklet -- which features a republished review of the film and an interview with Andreas Marschall -- and a Soundtrack CD featuring the tunes found in the film.
Video and Audio:
As an ode to the Italian horror genre, it shouldn't be any surprise that Masks comes equipped with a wide range of colors in its cinematography, infused with both reflections of the classics and contemporary touches in terms of detail and grit. The transfer from Reel Gore releasing frames the film at 2.35:1 in a 1080p AVC digital presentation, and it's an exceptional one. Complex displays of contrast are no trouble, offering inky black levels that aren't obtrusive to the necessary details concealed in shadows. Fine detail can be spotted in jewelry, burlap sacks, and close-ups upon Susen Ermich's disarming features. The real places that the discs shines are in the pools of color scattered throughout: natural greens and reds in foliage overgrowth showcase the disc's subtlety; the warmth of skin tones in sunlight and stage lighting are robust yet natural; and acidic greens and blues craft a sickly atmosphere without being oversaturated. Some digital flatness keeps things a notch or two below, but it's a rather strong transfer otherwise.
There's a lot of nuance and complexity in the sound design as well, accentuated well by the German 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio presentation. The element that stands out the most, if the included soundtrack with the Blu-ray presentation wasn't an indication, is Sebastian Levermann's ravishing score; the plucks of guitar strings, the strokes of piano keys, and other ominous touches throughout are razor-sharp and incredibly hefty. Dialogue sustains an even and organic rhythm with the rest of the track, while the higher pitches of screams are embraced without distortion on the higher-end side of the track. Surround sound isn't really a priority, where the occasional chirping bird or other atmospheric event travels to the back channels, some that sound natural and others that sound a bit like a bloated 2-channel stereo track. When the sound needs to hit hard, with a stab or a thud, however, it delivers a satisfying aural performance, supported by rich bass levels and satisfying mid-range clarity. English and Spanish subtitles are available.
Special Features:
Alongside a series of Deleted Scenes (4:15, 16x9 HD), two Trailers, a Music Video Clip (4:26, 16x9 HD), and a photo Slideshow, Masks arrives with a fifteen-minute Behind-the-Scenes (15:02, 16x9 HD) video about the production, a voyeuristic glimpse at crafting the film. It offers a candid look at production elements -- directing the actors, honing their appearances, navigating the cameras through cramped and dark spaces -- which makes for engaging and substantive viewing, though the inclusion of horror-movie music throughout isn't really necessary.
Final Thoughts:
Masks absolutely oozes the style and mood of classic Italian horror films, wrapped around a story of a performance artist who joins a peculiar school to hone her craft, a place with a dark history and bizarre happenings involving the students. Bold, yet conscientious cinematography captures lavish shades of color and shadowy corridors as the actress, Stella, navigates the labyrinth of both the school and her emotional state. It's a well-worn concept that can still work under the right circumstances, but Andreas Marschall doesn't quite do enough with its distinctive elements to elevate its odes to giallo horror-thriller cinema. The film itself is certainly worth a Rental, but die-hard fans of this kind of material will really appreciate the little details that went into the Blu-ray package, which arrives with solid audiovisual properties and a nice fifteen-minute glimpse at making the film.
Thomas Spurlin, Staff Reviewer -- DVDTalk Reviews | Personal Blog/Site
The demanding, life-changing process of when performing artists discover the extent of their talents has been the subject of different types of media for a while now, but it finds a particularly potent home in the horror-film realm. From outlandish supernatural classics of Italian giallo cinema to modern-day representations of psychological drama, cinema has captured the mental challenges endured by the performers in honing their craft and twisted them together with macabre metaphors and surreal visions, blurring the lines between reality and nightmare. Germany's Masks offers a more literal but straightforwardly disturbing glimpse at performing arts development, using the paths and methods that actors -- along with their mentors or instructors -- go down to unearth their true potential as a setting for madness and physical torture. Visual flair and a stirring atmosphere inspired by genre classics compensate for director Andreas Marschall's shallow take on the creative process, rendering something chilling and twisted yet inconsequential. A gorgeous yet struggling stage actress, Stella (Susen Ermich), finds herself bouncing between auditions without the casting directors appreciating her limited talents, leaving her unable to find a home for her acting style. Between the disappointments, she learns of a certain kind of conversatory some distance away from where she lives with her boyfriend, a place that specializes in drawing out raw emotions from upcoming actors through visceral, immersive, occasionally harmful techniques. She makes the journey and gets wrapped up in the harsh and isolated culture of the company, where she sees other actresses pushed to their physical and mental limits through clandestine, closed-off methods that stem from the school's originator, Matteusz Gdula. Stella struggles to improve and integrate within the company, until she herself gets drawn into these bizarre techniques, which shine a light on the unsettling events that really happen behind closed doors at the theater.
Masks might not feature a coven of witches or ballet dancers --not to mention swapping the moody synth stylings of Goblin for harsh guitar strums and piano strokes -- but the reverence and parallels to Dario Argento's seminal horror film Suspiria come in quick and fast once Stella arrives at her destination. Cinematographer Sven Jakob-Engelmann embraces both warmth and twists on naturalistic color as the camera follows the actress into the conservatory nestled a good ways away from civilization, whose cramped corridors cast ominous shadows over the performers in a setting overtly reminiscent of classic Italian horror cinema. Dangerous secrets may loom within the walls of the theater, but the film's design misconstrues its echoes of past horror films for sufficient-enough plotting to hold one's interest in the Gdula theater company. In a sense, the way that Andreas Marschall tempers the outlandish undermines the intrigue in Masks, neglecting to bridge the gap between Stella's issues with her craft and the house of horrors that awaits her.
Partly, that's because it's tough to know what to make of our protagonist, Stella. In other semi-metaphorical depictions of the creative process like this -- Black Swan also immediately comes to mind -- the performer has a degree of accomplishment or objectively appreciated talent that could be pushed further, which helps to guide the point-of-view through their trials. In Masks, the actress immediately gets thrown under the bus as untalented, despite Susen Ermich's perfectly suitable delivery of her
performances before the casting directors, which crafts an enticing but muddled psychological atmosphere as she works her way deeper into the theater's teachings. There's something to be said for the extents in which an unappreciated or untalented actress might be willing to push herself in order to project authentic emotion, but we're not really allowed into Stella's head enough to appreciate that, and her wavering constitution becomes an integral part of the suspenseful elements that manifests later on in the film. I know, I know: that's a lot of talk about story and pathos in what's ultimately supposed to be a horror film. Thing is, Masks doesn't push the envelope with its gore or scare tactics largely because of that balancing act between surface-level terror and the psychological turmoil suffered by Stella, driven by her wavering sanity and perception of how she's being twisted into a better actress. Susen Ermich handles being a vulnerable but perceptive victim rather well as she slips through the hallways of the school, which descend deeper and deeper into a giallo-infused funhouse of bold color, tweaked angles, and harsh photography while creating its sufficiently macabre imagery. The twenty-minute culmination of the Gdula school's "teachings" at the end doesn't generate as much suspense as hoped for, though, instead revolving around slippery plot twists and stagy displays of bloodiness that overly emphasize style over substance. Masks surely reminds one of the Italian horror genre's greats, but it doesn't project its distinctive attributes loud enough to take center stage.
The Blu-ray:
Reel Gore Releasing have provided quite a sharp package for their Blu-ray of Masks. Contained within a wide-width cardboard slipbox, a two-disc, clear-material (non-eco!) case holds the Blu-ray and DVD presentations of the film, and it shares space inside the box with a full-width Booklet -- which features a republished review of the film and an interview with Andreas Marschall -- and a Soundtrack CD featuring the tunes found in the film.
Video and Audio:
As an ode to the Italian horror genre, it shouldn't be any surprise that Masks comes equipped with a wide range of colors in its cinematography, infused with both reflections of the classics and contemporary touches in terms of detail and grit. The transfer from Reel Gore releasing frames the film at 2.35:1 in a 1080p AVC digital presentation, and it's an exceptional one. Complex displays of contrast are no trouble, offering inky black levels that aren't obtrusive to the necessary details concealed in shadows. Fine detail can be spotted in jewelry, burlap sacks, and close-ups upon Susen Ermich's disarming features. The real places that the discs shines are in the pools of color scattered throughout: natural greens and reds in foliage overgrowth showcase the disc's subtlety; the warmth of skin tones in sunlight and stage lighting are robust yet natural; and acidic greens and blues craft a sickly atmosphere without being oversaturated. Some digital flatness keeps things a notch or two below, but it's a rather strong transfer otherwise.
There's a lot of nuance and complexity in the sound design as well, accentuated well by the German 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio presentation. The element that stands out the most, if the included soundtrack with the Blu-ray presentation wasn't an indication, is Sebastian Levermann's ravishing score; the plucks of guitar strings, the strokes of piano keys, and other ominous touches throughout are razor-sharp and incredibly hefty. Dialogue sustains an even and organic rhythm with the rest of the track, while the higher pitches of screams are embraced without distortion on the higher-end side of the track. Surround sound isn't really a priority, where the occasional chirping bird or other atmospheric event travels to the back channels, some that sound natural and others that sound a bit like a bloated 2-channel stereo track. When the sound needs to hit hard, with a stab or a thud, however, it delivers a satisfying aural performance, supported by rich bass levels and satisfying mid-range clarity. English and Spanish subtitles are available.
Special Features:
Alongside a series of Deleted Scenes (4:15, 16x9 HD), two Trailers, a Music Video Clip (4:26, 16x9 HD), and a photo Slideshow, Masks arrives with a fifteen-minute Behind-the-Scenes (15:02, 16x9 HD) video about the production, a voyeuristic glimpse at crafting the film. It offers a candid look at production elements -- directing the actors, honing their appearances, navigating the cameras through cramped and dark spaces -- which makes for engaging and substantive viewing, though the inclusion of horror-movie music throughout isn't really necessary.
Final Thoughts:
Masks absolutely oozes the style and mood of classic Italian horror films, wrapped around a story of a performance artist who joins a peculiar school to hone her craft, a place with a dark history and bizarre happenings involving the students. Bold, yet conscientious cinematography captures lavish shades of color and shadowy corridors as the actress, Stella, navigates the labyrinth of both the school and her emotional state. It's a well-worn concept that can still work under the right circumstances, but Andreas Marschall doesn't quite do enough with its distinctive elements to elevate its odes to giallo horror-thriller cinema. The film itself is certainly worth a Rental, but die-hard fans of this kind of material will really appreciate the little details that went into the Blu-ray package, which arrives with solid audiovisual properties and a nice fifteen-minute glimpse at making the film.
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