The mask as the cheapest unit of the uncanny

If horror film makers have nothing else they can always rely on a cheap mask to bring a sense of the uncanny, playing upon our deepest instinctive fear of The Other.

Watching the 1974 Spanish horror thriller Night of the Skull, directed by Jess Franco, I was struck by how it instantly seemed to step up a notch when a character in a mask appeared on screen.

The mask in question isn’t a lovingly crafted custom design. It’s not carved or sculpted. No, it’s a typically floppy, tacky rubber Hal...