Top Ten Masked Movie Maniacs And Villains
Taking a look back at ten classic masked movie maniacs and villains – feel free to add any I’ve missed to the comments below the top ten.
1. Darth Vader – Star Wars
Darth Vader is a fictional character in the Star Wars saga, George Lucas’epic six-film space opera. Vader originally appeared as the Empire’s villainous enforcer in the Star Wars Original Trilogy (Episodes IV, V, VI), and briefly turns up as a tragic figure near the end of Revenge of the Sith, the third and final film of the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy (Episodes I, II, III).
Lucas, in the audio commentary for Revenge of the Sith, says that he considers both trilogies together to be The Tragedy of Darth Vader. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Lucas states he “made a series of movies about one thing: Darth Vader.” Lucas reiterated this in a May 2008 interview with Total Film: “The Star Wars story is really the tragedy of Darth Vader. That is the story.”
2. Death Eaters – Harry Potter
The Death Eaters constitute a group of wizards and witches. Led by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort, the chief antagonist of the series, they seek to purify the Wizarding community by eliminating the Muggle-borns.
They also try to create a new order through the Ministry of Magic and cause fear among the Wizarding community by terrorising and killing important officials and other enemies of the Death Eaters, chiefly the members of the Order of the Phoenix.
Death Eaters recognise one another by the Dark Mark on their left forearm, a sign created by Voldemort to summon them instantly to him. Their typical work attire includes black, hooded robes and masks, as seen in the film version of Goblet of Fire (skull masks and black robes with pointed hats) and Order of the Phoenix (metal masks and more elaborate purple robes).
3. The Ghost Face – Scream
Ghostface is the name of a fictional character and the main antagonist in the Scream trilogy. There have been five people to assume his mantle (from Scream, Scream 2, and Scream 3).
A serial killer, he often dresses up as a variation of a ghost, or the Grim Reaper (The name given to his costume in the film is ‘Father Death’). He also uses a device to disguise his voice. He is voiced by Roger L. Jackson (when the killer uses the voice disguiser; when the killer’s mask is off, the character who is the killer talks regularly).
Ghostface is named after the comment made by Tatum in the first film just before she is murdered. It is also inspired by the Edvard Munch painting The Scream. He is also known as the Woodsboro Killer, after the town where he commits his murders. Ghostface often calls his victims on the phone, taunting or threatening them before killing them with a 10.5 inch hunting knife.
Even though he is usually known for asking his victims horror film trivia while stalking them, he only does this six times in the Scream Series. (Casey in Scream, Call to Sidney in Scream, Randy’s call in Scream 2, Cici’s call in Scream 2, Sarah’s call in Scream 3, and Cotton’s call in Scream 3).Overall, Ghostface is responsible for 22 deaths in the Scream trilogy.
4. Hannibal Lecter – Silence of the Lambs
Hannibal is a 2001 thriller film directed by Ridley Scott, adapted from the Thomas Harris novel of the same name. Set ten years after The Silence of the Lambs, the premise is that Hannibal Lecter’s only surviving victim, the extremely wealthy Mason Verger, is determined to capture, torture, and kill him. The film’s locations alternate between Italy and the United States.
Hannibal was the highly anticipated sequel to 1991′s Academy Award-winning The Silence of the Lambs, which introduced Hannibal Lecter to mainstream movie going audiences (though the character was first portrayed by Brian Cox in the 1986 film, Manhunter, based on Harris’ novel, Red Dragon).
The Silence of the Lambs became only the third film in history to receive Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and screenplay adaptation. The character of Hannibal Lecter became a household name and part of popular culture.
The “bumpy” development of Hannibal drew a large amount of attention, with Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme, screenwriter Ted Tally and actress Jodie Foster all eventually declining involvement. Upon release, Hannibal broke box-office records in the United States, Australia, Canada and the UK in February 2001.
5. Jason Voorhees – Friday 13th
Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th (1980), as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman.
Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S. Cunningham and Tom Savini, Jason was not originally intended to carry the series as the main villain. The character has subsequently been represented in various other media, including novels, comic books, and a cross-over film with another iconic horror film character, Freddy Krueger.
The character has primarily been an antagonist in the films, whether by stalking and killing the characters, or acting as a psychological threat to the lead character, as is the case in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning. Since Lehman’s portrayal, the character has been represented by numerous actors and stuntmen, sometimes by more than one at a time; this has caused some controversy as to who should receive credit for the portrayal. Kane Hodder is the most well known of the stuntmen to portray Jason Voorhees, having played the character in four consecutive films.
The character’s physical appearance has gone through many transformations, with various special makeup effects artists making their mark on the character’s design, including makeup artist Stan Winston. Tom Savini’s initial design has been the basis for many of the later incarnations. The trademark hockey mask did not appear until Friday the 13th Part III. Since Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, filmmakers have given Jason superhuman strength, regenerative powers, and near invulnerability. He has been seen as a sympathetic character, albeit one whose motivation for killing has been cited as driven by the immoral actions of his victims.
Jason Voorhees has been featured in various humor magazines, referenced in feature films, parodied in television shows, and been the inspiration for a horror punk band. Several toy lines have been released based on various versions of the character from the Friday the 13th films. Jason Voorhees’s hockey mask is a widely recognised image in popular culture.
6. Leatherface – Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Leatherface is a fictional character in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre horror-film series. One of the first slasher-film villains, he is the main antagonist in all of the films.
He has appeared in all six of the series’ films since the release of the original, in 1974. The character wears masks made of human skin (a practice which led to his name) and engages in murder and cannibalism.
In the series, he often uses a chainsaw and sledgehammer to slaughter his victims. He lives with a poor Southern family of fellow cannibals and serial-killers, who often behave abusively and violently towards him. The character is inspired by Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein who, like Leatherface, wore human’s face as a mask.
7. Michael Myers – Halloween
Michael Myers is a fictional character from the Halloween series of slasher films. He first appears in John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) as a young boy who murders his older sister, then fifteen years later returns home to murder more teenagers.
In the original Halloween, the adult Michael Myers, referred to as The Shape in the closing credits, was portrayed by Nick Castle for most of the film, with Tony Moran and Tommy Lee Wallace substituting in during the final scenes. He was created by Debra Hill and John Carpenter. Michael Myers has appeared in ten films, as well as novels, a video game and several comic books.
The character is the primary antagonist in the Halloween film series, except Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which is not connected in continuity to the rest of the films. Since Castle, Moran, and Wallace put on the mask in the original film, six people have stepped into the role.
Tyler Mane is the only actor to have portrayed Michael Myers in consecutive films, and one of only two actors to portray the character more than once. Michael Myers is characterized as pure evil, both directly in the films, by the filmmakers who created and developed the character over nine films, as well as by random participants in a survey.
8. Rorschach – Watchmen
Rorschach is masked vigilante who continues his vigilante activities after they are outlawed. Unlike the other five principal actors, Jackie Earle Haley had read the comic and was keen to pursue the role when he heard he had become a favourite candidate among fans.
He and fourteen friends put together his audition, where he performed scenes from the comic. Haley “almost went nuts” trying to reconcile his understanding of complex human behaviour with Rorschach’s moral absolutism, stating the character made him wonder if people generally just make excuses for their bad actions.
Rorschach wears a mask with ink blots: motion capture markers were put on the contours of Haley’s blank mask, for animators to create his ever-changing expressions. Haley found the mask “incredibly motivating for the character” because of its confining design, which heated up quickly. Small holes were made in the mask for him to see.
Haley has a black belt in Kenpô, but described Rorschach’s attack patterns as sloppier and more aggressive due to the character’s boxing background. Rorschach appears several times in the movie without his mask before he is apprehended, carrying a sandwich board sign proclaiming, “The End is Nigh”, but not until he is unmasked by the police is it made apparent that the sign bearer is Rorschach.
9. Scarecrow – Batman Begins/The Dark Knight
Cillian Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane / The Scarecrow: A psychopharmacologist who works at Arkham Asylum and has developed fear-inducing toxins.
He takes on the persona of the Scarecrow to use during his experiments, in which he uses his patients as human guinea pigs for his toxins. He is the primary antagonist and works with Ra’s Al Ghul and Carmine Falcone, who all three work together.
Nolan decided against Irish actor Murphy for Batman, before casting him as Scarecrow. Murphy read numerous comics featuring the Scarecrow, and discussed making the character look less theatrical with Nolan. Murphy explained, “I wanted to avoid the Worzel Gummidge look, because he’s not a very physically imposing man – he’s more interested in the manipulation of the mind and what that can do”.
10. The Joker – The Dark Knight
Heath Ledger as The Joker. Before Ledger was confirmed to play the Joker in July 2006, Paul Bettany, Lachy Hulme, Adrien Brody, Steve Carell, and Robin Williams publicly expressed interest in the role. Yet Nolan had wanted to work with Ledger on a number of projects in the past (though he had been unable to do so), and was agreeable to Ledger’s chaotic interpretation of the character.
When Ledger saw Batman Begins, he had realized a way to make the character work consistent with the film’s tone: he described his Joker as a “psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy”.
To prepare for the role, Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character’s posture, voice, and personality, and kept a diary, in which he recorded the Joker’s thoughts and feelings. While he initially found it difficult, Ledger eventually generated a voice unlike Jack Nicholson’s character in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman film.
He was also given Batman: The Killing Joke and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, which he “really tried to read and put it down”. Ledger also cited A Clockwork Orange and Sid Vicious as “a very early starting point for Christian [Bale] and I. But we kind of flew far away from that pretty quickly and into another world altogether.” “There’s a bit of everything in him. There’s nothing that consistent,” Ledger said, and added, “There are a few more surprises to him.”
Ledger was allowed to shoot and mostly direct the videos the Joker sends out as warnings. Each take Ledger made was different from the last. Nolan was impressed enough with the first video shoot that he chose to not be present when Ledger shot the video with a kidnapped reporter (Anthony Michael Hall).
On January 22, 2008, after he had completed filming The Dark Knight, Ledger died of an accidental prescription drug overdose, leading to intense press attention and memorial tributes. “It was tremendously emotional, right when he passed, having to go back in and look at him every day [during editing],” Nolan recalled. “But the truth is, I feel very lucky to have something productive to do, to have a performance that he was very, very proud of, and that he had entrusted to me to finish.”
All of Ledger’s scenes appear as he completed them in the filming; in editing the film, Nolan added no “digital effects” to alter Ledger’s actual performance posthumously. Nolan has dedicated the film in part to Ledger’s memory.
Posted on March 19, 2010 | Filed Under Movies
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