The Obvious Suspects: Mask of Murder (1985)

Mask of Murder (AKA The Investigator) (Sweden/US, 1985)

Rating: *1/2

Starring: Rod Taylor, Valerie Perrine, Christopher Lee

In a small Canadian town, someone in a white mask is cutting up girls' throats with a straight razor. The suspect? A vagrant nesting up at an old cabin in the snowy woods.

After getting a tip on the killer's location, the fuzz soon swarms the place, including Christopher Lee as Chief Supt. Jonathan Rich and Rob Taylor as Supt. Bob McLaine. Rich gets wounded after trying to negotiate with the killer, Bob retaliates by shooting the killer repeatedly with an automatic rifle, thus ending the nightmare. Or so they think.

Some time after The Slasher got pumped with enough lead to turn him into a pencil, another series of razor murders begin to plague the small town. Is the killer really dead? Or are we dealing with a copycat killer?

Honestly, you can guess who the new killer is by the time the film hits the 20/30 minute mark, but for the sake of those who are eyeing to see this (understandably) rare slasher movie, I won't spoil it. Frankly, though, the mystery of who's responsible to this new wave of razor murders is a real dud because of this very early reveal, but the film still tries to confuse us by providing some red herrings along the way. I wasn't confused, and presumably half or more of those who'd seen this film wasn't as well, so why bother? Perhaps it's desperation or ineptness, but Mask of Murder is one of the cheapest and easiest flick to come around in a dual country production.

The gore's absent and reduced to icky throat cuts that look like a red food color being painted on with a plastic razor, very little T&A and any attempts to create a suspenseful scene is killed by the honky soundtrack. The film's only selling point is that it features some genre veterans such as Christopher Lee, but with very little screen time on his part, it's hardly worth the trouble.

If rarity is all we're looking for, then this one certainly took the cake; whether it's distribution problems or the fact this movie is overwhelmingly dull that everybody just pretended it doesn't exist, its scarcity is a Godsend and anybody who's able to get a copy of this film are doomed fools. Apparently, I'm half a fool since I only downloaded this film, so thankfully, I could just delete it and avoid running into it again. Saves me the burden of owning it...

Bodycount:
1 female had throat cut with a razor
1 female had  throat cut with a razor
1 male shot dead with an automatic rifle
1 female had  throat cut with a razor
1 female had throat cut with a razor
1 female had  throat cut with a razor
1 male shot on the face
Total: 7