Unmasked Part 25

Director - Anders Palm

Cast - Gregory Cox, Fiona Evans, Edward Brayshaw, Christian Brando

Country of Origin - UK
 

Distributor - Vinegar Syndrome

Number of Discs - 2

Reviewed by - Richard Glenn Schmidt

Date- 12/18/2019

Once upon a time, in a mythical land called London, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth… That’s a terrible way to start. My bad. An ordinary couple tries to find love in the crazy, mixed up world of the late 1980s. Well, by “ordinary” I mean a horrifically scarred slasher killer and a sex-starved blind lady. Jackson (Gregory Cox) is a monster in a hockey mask who’s tired of the same old routine. Killing idiotic teenagers (or braindead 20 somethings for the purposes of this production) and living in a nasty basement with the corpses of his victims just ain’t the same no more.

Everything changes when Jackson meets Shelly (Fiona Lewis), a young sightless woman who falls head over heels for Jackson even though his scarred face is the least of his issues. As love blossoms between this unlikely pair, Jackson’s father (Edward Brayshaw), a serial murderer in his heyday, is very upset because he doesn’t want his son to get his hopes up. There’s another roadblock to happiness for the maniac and the maiden which could be a deal breaker for some couples: Jackson is on a mission to murder all of Shelly’s friends.

The elephant in the room is “Where the hell are the first 24 films in this franchise, bro?” One of the best things about this movie (or worst depending on your tolerance for corny jokes) is that Jackson is really Jason who’s fled a certain campground and is now hiding out in London. There’s a plethora of references that our “hero” is trapped in a never-ending series of sequels. Could his newfound love be his way out? You’ll just have to watch and find out!

Every once in a while, a movie comes along that has been on the periphery of my purview that I just know that I’m going to enjoy. When I finally got around to this silly and self-reflexive slasher, it exceeded my expectations. This is the case with Unmasked Part 25 AKA Hand of Death from director Anders Palm and writer Mark Cutforth. They really wanted to stick it to the oversequelification (this word does not exist… yet!) of horror films in the late 80s and so they made this bizarre parody with a whole lot of ridiculousness packed into it. For me, the faux soap opera bits (and jabs at the long running “EastEnders” series) are worth the price of admission alone.

Surprisingly, this is no throwaway cheapie. The filmmakers put so much love into this film. The set designer and the lighting director must’ve both been simultaneously in love with Fiona Evans because she gets the most gorgeous moments in the film. Speaking of Evans, I was shocked to see that she wasn’t in more films. I really wish she’d done at least fifty more slasher sequels! Gregory Cox is perfect as the Shakespeare-quoting madman. Kudos to him for pulling off a great performance underneath a hockey mask and the silly scar makeup the producers slapped on him.

I had a great time with Unmasked Part 25. It’s an oddity that relies on a gimmick but is charming throughout. All the excesses of the late 80s slasher genre are here with some eye popping (literal) gore moments, a fair amount of nudity (including the rarely seen male penis creature), really irritating victim characters, and foul language (gasp!). Extras on the disc include two audio commentaries, one with director Palm and another with writer Cutforth. I wish they could’ve been on the same commentary track because both have cool trivia about the film. There’s a bunch of production photos and the theatrical trailer for the film as well. Most importantly, Vinegar Syndrome has done a bang-up job with the presentation as the film looks and sounds great!