Sometimes they serve to hide the killer’s identity while other times they conceal a disfigured face, and other times, well, probably the production team just thought it’d look cool. Usually the idea is that it’s what lurks underneath the mask that’s scary, but a good horror movie mask is frightening in its own right. Here then are 20 of the scariest masks ever to turn up in horror movies:
21. Peachfuzz Mask
As worn by: Josef in Creep read more: Best Modern Horror Movies
20. Pig Mask
As worn by: Jigsaw’s various acolytes in the Saw franchise There’s so much going on in the Saw movies that this mask is far from the most iconic thing in the movies, but since Billy is a puppet and not a mask, he couldn’t be included on this list. With its straggly black hair and gloopy eyes, the pig mask is pretty terrifying in its own right – especially for swinophobes like, um, me. read more: Best Horror Movies on Netflix
19. Wind-Up Frog Mask
As worn by: The unfortunate Dr. Hargreaves in The Abominable Dr. Phibes read more: Best Horror Movies on Hulu
18. Lamb, Tiger, and Fox Masks
As worn by: Assorted killers in You’re Next Out of context, these masks are kind of adorable – they’re just animals, after all. But in context, the cutesy masks are pretty frightening. They’re worn by black-clad killers who loom out of the darkness, lurking under beds or unexpectedly smashing through windows, and all that violence makes the pleasant, blank expressions on the masks seem distinctly horrible.
17. Night Owl
As worn by: The killer (and one of the victims) in Stage Fright read more: Best Horror Movies on HBO Right Now
16. Smiley
As worn by: Various members of Anonymous in Smiley You’d think a mask based on an emoticon would be kind of cute, particularly a smiling one, but the execution of this one makes it grotesque instead. The smooth skin hiding the killer’s facial features is mildly unsettling to begin with – it makes it seem like their eyes and nose are missing – but it’s the jaggedly stitched up gashes that form the ‘smiley’ that makes it really repulsive. read more: The 13 Best Horror Movie Themes
15. Cupid
As worn by: ‘JM’ in Valentine read more: 31 Unsung Horror Movie Icons
14. Unnamed Serial Killer Mask
As worn by: Leslie Vernon in Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon Leslie Vernon knows better than most how important a good serial killer mask is; he’s studied the classics and is working on building his own serial killer mythos. Although this is a strikingly weird-looking mask, he kind of missed a trick by not giving it an equally creepy name.
13. Hag Mask
As worn by: The ice-skating killer in Curtains It’s the uncanny valley effect that makes this mask scary, really. It doesn’t have any particularly terrifying features; it’s just kind of blank, and a bit shapeless. But the way it looks like a human face gone ever so slightly wrong makes it pretty horrible to look at.
12. “Satan”
As worn by: The unidentified killer in Satan’s Little Helper It looks like a cheap Halloween mask. It’s meant to be a cheap Halloween mask. But as “Satan” starts killing people for real, aided by a nine-year-old computer game addict, the horrible face of the mask starts to look super creepy. read more: 31 Best Horror Movies to Stream
11. Demon Mask
As worn by: No-one, really, but it’s from Demons Another one that’s scary for what it does rather than who it’s worn by, this shiny demonic mask has sharp edges and will turn anyone daft enough to cut themselves on it into a ravening demonic… thingamajig. Which is scary. Other than that, it actually looks pretty cool. The Phantom of the Opera might be the original masked killer, but while the Phantom’s traditional half-mask is pretty cool, it’s got nothing on the weird metal bird mask donned by the Phantom of the Paradise. It’s vaguely robotic, looks decidedly uncomfortable, and is deeply creepy. read more: De Palma’s Best Film Ever: The Phantom of the Paradise
9. Preacherman
As worn by: Preacherman in Slashers Preacherman might not have been the scariest killer in the ‘slashers’ arena, but he probably had the most frightening mask. It’s another one of those faces-going-wrong deals. He sort of looks like a plasticky decayed guy, and that, combined with the ridiculous preacher outfit, makes for a pretty nasty combination.
8. These Horrifying Grinning Faces
As worn by: The Polite Leader and co in The Purge
7. Dead William Shatner Mask
As worn by: Michael Myers in the Halloween franchise This is yet another one of those uncanny valley things. Michael’s mask is based on a human face, but it’s blank, baggy, wrong. And somehow, knowing it was based on a death mask made from William Shatner’s face for an episode of Star Trek makes everything much, much worse. read more: Halloween Timeline Explained
6. ChromeSkull
As worn by: ChromeSkull in the Laid to Rest franchise Laid to Rest is a terrible film. Its sequel is vaguely better, but not by much. But the mask is so incredibly cool-looking that it’s hard not to wish that wasn’t true. Look at it! It’s almost anatomically correct, but sort of distorted, and incredibly shiny. It’s definitely a mask to strike terror into your enemies with. Black Sunday is an incredibly stylish horror movie, and that style extends all the way to this amazing mask. It’s another one that you really wouldn’t want to try on, though; it’s got spikes on the inside, and is used to torture and kill accused witches. If you see someone wandering around wearing it, they’re already dead. Yikes.
4. Rabbit Mask
As worn by: Frank in Donnie Darko You’ve never seen a rabbit that looks like that, and you’d never want to. Frank’s rabbit mask is eerie, distorted, grotesque, and utterly unforgettable. Imagine seeing that looking back at you from the mirror. You’d never sleep again. read more: Donnie Darko – The Enduring Legacy of a Cult Classic
3. Machete Mask
As worn by: Jason Voorhees in Jason X read more: Friday the 13th – A Celebration of Roy Burns
2. Ghostface
As worn by: Various killers in the Scream franchise It’s simple, striking, and kind of brilliant. Based loosely on Munch’s The Scream, and originally created by Fun World as a Halloween costume before Wes Craven nabbed it for Scream, it’s deceptively simple. It might only have black blobs for features, but it’s surprisingly expressive. (And it’s usually expressing “I’m going to kill you now.”)
1. Leatherface
As worn by: Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre There are so many things an aspiring murderer could choose to make their mask out of – plastic, wood, metal, or cloth, for instance. Even an off-the-peg number can be terrifying in the right circumstances. But the scariest material for mask-making has got to be human skin. It’s gross, it’s threatening, and yeah, there’s not much scarier than that. Bleurghhh. Other scary masks that didn’t quite make the cut: The masks in Halloween 3: Season of the Witch, the dolls from The Cabin in the Woods, the burlap sack from The Orphanage, the white mask from Eyes Without A Face, Hannibal Lecter’s muzzle from The Silence of the Lambs.
