Review of Mask (1985) by Jaykumar B — 15 Jun 2013

I don't know why this film never gets much love. Maybe it's cause people assume it's a Cher film, so it can't be very good, but it is that good.

The story of Rocky Dennis is pretty inspiring. After awhile you feel just awful for what the kid went through. People are always gawking at him no matter where he goes, or putting him down, but he never lets that get the best of him. He seeks to make people understand him and see beyond the face. As a guy who is pretty hard on himself for his looks, this guy had it ten times worse, so it really made me reflect on myself.

The cast is fantastic. The makeup on Stoltz still looks pretty impressive. I thought the love story with Laura Dern, playing a blind girl, was pretty great. He could've lied to her about his looks, but he doesn't and she still falls in love with him.

The whole aspect of his family basically being a biker gang was also great, as it seemed like they never once questioned him as a person, but biker gangs are kind of themselves outcasts as well I guess.

A lot of Springsteen in the soundtrack. You can probably guess how it all ends, but that doesn't make it any less heartbreaking.

And as a horror genre fan, the supporting cast was from all my favorite horror films. Rebecca Wood, Wayne Grace and Lawrence Monoson from Friday the 13th 4-5, Jill Witlow as Dern's BFF from Night Of The Creeps, Rocky's new doctor was Andrew Robinson from Hellraiser and the hooker his mom hires for him at one point is Elm Street 5's Kelly Jo Minter! A cool addition for this horror film nut!