It’s obvious — a human face can practically never be as scary as a masked face. There are infinite options when it comes to masks, something which the horror holiday, Halloween itself, has tapped into for generations. Masks are creepy; they can be designed in grotesque or disturbing ways, with faces frozen in time. Masks are mysterious and suspenseful; you can’t truly know who’s lurking behind one until it’s removed. Masks are iconic, lodging themselves in the cultural lexicon; even a hockey mask or a weird William Shatner mask can launch a horror franchise. These are some of the best masks in horror movies, ranked.
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11 Scream
Paramount Pictures
While Scream is a slasher classic, the mask itself doesn’t strike fear in the hearts of horror fans the way it once did. With it being a common Halloween costume and an ever-present ‘Wassup’ meme from the Scary Movie franchise, these days it evokes more of a chuckle than a scream, though the darkness behind the eyes and mouth is always unsettling.
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10 Trick ‘r’ Treat
Warner Bros.
Imagine being terrorized by an ominous trick or treater, and when you try to remove the child’s mask, you realize it’s attached to them permanently. While Trick ‘r’ Treat isn’t the most horrifying movie of all time, one thing is true: evil, demonic children are a million times scarier than demonic adults, especially when they just won’t die.
9 Halloween
Universal Pictures
After 13 films, Michael Myers may not be as scary as he once was, but he is still downright bone-chilling. The Halloween villain is seemingly impossible to kill (at least until Halloween Ends) and even harder to outrun. Looking back while running away is sure to burn that expressionless face into the victims’ brains, if only they lived long enough for his terrifying mug to haunt them.
8 Jigsaw
Lionsgate Films
While the horrors of the Saw franchise lie in the gore and how it’s utilized for creative and cruel deaths, the mask which Jigsaw wears is not one to be overlooked. While the first pig mask in the franchise is animated and cheap, throughout the progression of the movies, they get more realistic and more terrifying, making Saw a franchise with some noteworthy horror masks.
7 Silence of the Lambs
Orion Pictures
Knowing the gruesome details of Dr. Hannibal Lecter’s murders sends a chill down anyone’s spine, but seeing him in a mask that must cover his mouth because he cannibalized his victims and tries to bite the people around him is downright bloodcurdling. If that isn’t scary enough, something about the bars over his mouth opening really solidifies the fact that this muzzle-mask can’t be forgotten after watching Silence of the Lambs.
6 Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th had every kid at summer camp looking over their shoulder, and all the up-to-no-good teenagers donning goalie masks during the campfire scary story. It doesn’t matter if someone has seen this movie a million times or only seen a trailer — this mask has the ability to take the air from someone’s lungs in two seconds flat. Even if the actual, iconic hockey mask didn’t appear in the Friday the 13th franchise until the sequel. No other mask can have a person thinking about their own creative and gory death at the sight of it.
5 Hush
Netflix
The masked murderer in Hush is made scarier by the fact that he can take the mask off without fear. Early on in Mike Flanagan’s great movie (one of the best horror movies of the 2010s), the deaf and mute protagonist pleads with him that she won’t tell anyone because she didn’t see his face. He immediately removes the mask to reveal his face and make her death seem essential. Throughout the movie, the light on his icy white mask and his reflections in the windows and mirrors make a plain white mask plain horrifying.
4 Us
Universal Pictures
As if the idea that there is a tethered replica of everyone living below the world with a spiteful vengeance wasn’t scary enough, Jordan Peele had to suspend the replica reveal by using horrifying masks. All the masks are disturbing in Us, but the creepiest of all have to be Pluto and Jason.
Scary children are unbearable to begin with, but in a mask, all bets are off. Pluto’s mask looks to be one that could be found on a burn victim, and he removes it to reveal his identical appearance to Jason, who, while not sinister, still looks very unsettling in his own mask.
3 The Strangers
At a secluded house in the middle of the night, anyone unexpected at the door is unnerving, but three masked intruders will surely put a damper on anyone’s getaway. A burlap sack with cutouts for eyes and a line for the mouth is classically scary, but two pin-up masks add a sinister element to the trio. Their rouged cheeks and wide eyes make them look like dolls. Despite the grim conditions in The Strangers, these masks would be terrifying in any situation.
2 The Purge
The Purge franchise comments on how inhuman humanity can be, so it’s only fitting that the scariest masks on purge night are those that look almost human. Wide smiles, rigid features, and dark eyes make a nearly human face look monstrous. To see a maliciously smiling face as a purge victim’s last sight has to be one of the most terrifying things to underscore death. To make these masks scarier, they have become a popular Halloween costume that, unlike the Scream mask, feels chilling to see in real life.
1 Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Bryanston Distributing Company
Arguably the scariest of all horror movie masks is that belonging to Leatherface in Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which is about a cannibalistic family hunting down their young prey. Leatherface transitions from masks made of animal hides to human skin in order to hide his deformed face and wear his victim’s skin like a trophy, and it is terrifying. The fact that Leatherface and his crimes are based on those of a real murderer makes this mask horrifying to conceptualize, making it the best horror mask of all time.
