A moment of quiet romantic reflection from The Mask: Canada's initial foray into the 3-D horror genre.
Reason for Induction:
For being our nation’s first-ever 3-D homegrown horror movie;
for introducing plastic glasses, rubber snakes and secret
psychedelics to Canadian cinema.
Citation:
So there’s this psychiatrist, right? And one of his patients
kills himself because he’s all addicted to this glittery mask
– picture a hockey goalie gussied up for Pride Day, not that
that would happen – and when the doctor gets his hands on
the mask, this big radio announcer voice goes: “Put the mask
on…NOW!” And that’s when you put on your 3-D glasses and then
you have the same hallucinations as the doc and Mr. Suicide,
like serious drugged-up, mind-bending stuff: snakes lunging,
eyeballs flying, Lawrence Welk dancers with bleached faces.
This movie was made more than 40 years ago and even though
it looks like black and white kitsch, it’s actually kind of
about that moment when society moved from a 1950s fear of
drug use to a 1960s celebration of the unleashed unconscious.
No, seriously! It is!
Plus, it’s the first Canadian movie that ever got distribution
in the States (via Warner), and it’s Canada’s first horror
movie – not to mention Canada’s first 3-D movie, and it might
as well be the only one, because let’s just forget about the
1983 crapathon Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden
Zone (starring Molly Ringwald!). And you get to see Toronto
before it looked like a real city. At one point, the doctor
pulls up to “the university” and it’s actually some weird
parking lot at the front of Queen’s Park. No kidding.
On the video version, Elvira makes fun of The Mask
for being a cheese-fest, but come on, since when is Elvira
the arbiter of good taste? It’s a worthy cult film, with great
creepy atmosphere. Too bad director Julian Roffman went on
to producing and never directed again because in a way, The
Mask marks the beginning of commercial filmmaking in
Canada. Plus, it was banned in Finland, and if that’s not
cool enough to get you a star on the Alternative Canadian
Walk of Fame, then what is?
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