Consider a slasher horror film with a mask based on Brazilian mythology, a lot of gore, and a compelling tale in the backdrop. Isn’t it incredible? I know you think it is a “Friday the 13th” rip-off. When it comes to cooking, though, you will need the same things as any other cook. It is all up to you to make the dinner delectable! Armando Fonseca and Kapel Furman’s film “Skull the Mask,” follows the mask of Anhanga, who is known to be a vassal of the Pre-Columbian God Tahawantinsupay. When the mask lands in Sao Paolo, Brazil, it is given a body and begins making visceral sacrifices in retribution in order to reincarnate his God.
Beatriz Obdiaz, the chief of police, began to face issues that challenged her convictions. Natallia Rodrigues as Beatriz Obdias, Wilton Andrade as Manco Ramirez, Ricardo Gelli as Padre Vasco Magno, and others have played the key parts. The film had its world premiere at the Chattanooga Film Festival in May 2020, and it was then streamed on Shudder beginning in May 2021. Let us go back in time to 1944 when the narrative first began.
A Killer Hunt for Revenge – Skull the Mask (2020)
We take you to the Amazon Forest in 1944, where a strange artifact is brought to a military base for some experiment. But a powerful assassin burst into the base and started slaughtering everyone. When a janitor tried to stop him, the assassin chopped off his hand and escaped with the artifact, taking it to the mastermind. Consequently, we find that the artifact was some kind of a skull that was the center of some ritual that was being performed there. The entire episode was being recorded. A young boy was tied up whose blood was spilled into the mask while chanting a spell, as the mask seemed to regenerate. But the experiment failed. As soon as the person ended up wearing the mask, his head blasted.
The film then moved ahead to the year 2021, to the archeological site in the Amazon Forest, where the same mask was unearthed. The locals kept calling it the mask of Anhanga or TÚxlu. The archeologist Galvana took the mask with her to Sao Paolo, which would be displayed in a museum owned by Tack Waelder.
Meanwhile, in Sao Paolo, the police department was busy with the case of three missing Bolivian children, and the officer in charge of the case was Beatriz Obdias, famous for her hot-headedness and shady past. We were also introduced to Manco Ramirez, the janitor’s son, whose hand was chopped off in the first scene. He had preserved his father’s hand carefully and was in touch with Padre Vasco Magno regarding the Skull Mask of Anhanga.
Their family had been looking after the mask of the executioner of Pre-Columbian God Tahawantinsupay. They knew that if the mask landed in the hands of a treacherous person, it would wreak havoc everywhere. Whenever the mask of Ahnanga was in the vicinity, the preserved hand reacted vigorously.
Galvana took the mask to her residence, where her girlfriend Lilah was waiting, who became very intrigued with the Brazilian artifact, but Galvana instructed her to avoid touching it as it is vital for the museum and highly confidential. As soon as Galvana fell asleep, Lilah opened the box, took the mask, spilled her blood on it, and started performing the same ritual that we saw in the first scene.
The mask was regenerated, and soon Lilah, and eventually Galvana were slaughtered while their hearts were brutally taken out of their bodies. Obdias and her team investigated the murders when Tack Waelder reached the crime spot and appeared devastated as the Skull mask was missing.
He told Obdias that the missing artifact was incredibly precious and should be hunted down immediately. His interest in the artifact and his conversation with his men was highly suspicious. As the news of the murders aired on the news, Ramirez realized that the mask of Anhanga had arrived in Sao Paolo.
Subsequently, two cleaners arrived to clear up the murder scene, and the skull appeared from nowhere. It killed one of the cleaners and grabbed the face of the other cleaner, indicating that the mask had found its host. Immediately the skull went on a rampage, slaughtering people brutally and taking out their hearts and visceral organs; while we see that with each sacrifice, Tahawantinsupay was becoming more and more powerful.
The audience was getting a glimpse of the fierce God Tahawantinsupay, but I must admit, Anhanga appeared more fearsome than his master Tahawantinsupay. Meanwhile, Ramirez met Padre Magno and tried to convince him about the rampage of the Skull of Anhanga. Still, Father regarded the murders as pure coincidences and not deeds of Anhanga.
Ramirez kept asking for the Femur of Tahawantinsupay, which he needed to confront Anhanga, but Padre Manco refused to give it to him. Tack met Obdias and handed her a file containing the footage of the entire ritual in 1944. It also included the whereabouts of Ramirez, who was put forward by Tack as the prime suspect in this case.
Soon, the skull reached a nightclub where a masquerade party was going on, and before anyone realized it, he killed nine people in the party while the remaining members escaped. When Obdias enquired about the crime spot, she suddenly saw Ramirez and chased him. But Ramirez ran faster and went out of sight.
Soon Anhanga attacked Padre Magno as he was also looking for the Femur of Tahawantinsupay. A fierce battle ensued between them, but Padre was severely injured. In the meantime, Obdias agreed to investigate the matter personally with Tack’s team instead of the police. They performed a sudden raid at Ramirez’s residence, and when he was about to escape, Obdias shot Ramirez. Still, Ramirez ran, and after taking out the bullet from his wound, he reached the church where Padre was lying dead amidst a pool of blood.
Ramirez collected Padre’s blood in a plastic bag and took the key to a secret room where he retrieved the Femur of Tahawantinsupay. Just then, Anhanga reached the spot. After so many murders, he was completely drenched in blood. At first, Ramirez charged towards Anhanga, but then he realized he was not prepared for the final challenge. So, he escaped from the spot.
Meanwhile, Obdias and her partner finally confronted the Skull monster, but within a second, Anhanga killed Obdias’s partner, and she fled in her car. Soon we found Ramirez, preparing for the final confrontation as he created a circle of fire and kept the Femur soaked in Padre’s blood. Obdias was watching everything from a distance. As soon as Anhanga reached the spot and started battling with Ramirez, Obdias realized her mistake of suspecting Ramirez and called for a police backup force. While chanting a spell, Ramirez ripped off Anhanga’s heart and pushed him back to his realm while he held on to the mask.
The suspense isn’t over yet! Tack inaugurated the mask in the museum praising the efficiency of Detective Obdias. But soon, Obdias realized that the mask displayed was a fake, while Tack had preserved the actual mask for the same ritual.
Tack had also been responsible for the three missing children he had kidnapped for sacrifice in the ceremony. The film concluded with Ramirez back to his old job when suddenly his father’s preserved hand hanging like a locket started reacting. Are we ready for a sequel?
Though the film lacks clarity, it makes up with the fight sequences, perfect locations, and gross practical effects. The effects of blood and gore steal the show. Apart from that, there’s not much worth mentioning, which is a pity because the mythological background of the film generates an excellent background.
The plot oscillates between the murder spree of the monster and the police drama, and hence the end result suffers a little. But considering the brilliant horror theme with the concept of a pre-Columbian mythological evil God in a different realm at least gets the desired heart-racing thrill. Furman’s experience as a VFX artist specializing in gore ensures a continuous visual spectacle. The lurid and intense effect is perfectly complemented by Fernando Arruda’s score, while the pace of the plot never slackens.
Mask of Anhanga and a Pre-Columbian God Explained
According to the director,” Anhanga is a demon from the 40 circle; he’s the guardian of the portal that leads to the Inferior World. He serves a higher entity, Tahawantinsupay – The Entrails Collector of the Four Worlds. He’s present in several Andean Pre-Columbian mythologies assimilated by the Inca Empire in the 15th century. His name is ” TÚxlu” in the Quechua language.” The Brazilian Jesuits, by mistake, named it “Anhanga” as they thought that any native thing was actually a demon.
This mystical entity resides in the artifact that actually looked like a mask. There were sharp-nailed finger-like appendices on the top of the mask’s head. These were used for movement as well as attacking and ripping-off hearts from the victims. Anhanga needed to rip off at least three hearts and consume them before assuming a host. That was the reason the ritual didn’t work back in 1944.
After Lilah regenerated the mask of Anhanga with the ritual, it ripped off the heart of Lilah, Galvana, and one of the two cleaners. When the ritual was finally completed, Anhanga wasted no time to capture the next cleaner as its host to commence the murder spree. The true personality of the host is totally lost as Anhanga takes the host’s place. The host consequently transforms into a supernatural serial killer that begins performing visceral sacrifices, absorbing all the blood, as it seeks to become the incarnation of Tahawantinsupay.
All the bloodbath and gore offerings are made to Tahawantinsupay to bring him back to the realm of earth. Ramirez’s family had been dedicated all along to ensure that the mask didn’t fulfill the ritual and assume a host. Back in 1944, Ramirez’s father was unable to stop the stealing of the artifact.
Still, luckily the entire ceremony failed, probably because the performers were not aware of the true nature of the ritual. But the chopped hand of Ramirez’s father acted as the proper guide, which used to warn Ramirez about the regeneration and activities of the mask.
The rotten, chopped hand first began signaling when the artifact arrived in Sao Paolo. Unfortunately, Padre Magno never believed in the existence of Anhanga or Tahawantinsupay, though the church had been thoroughly prepared and equipped by the Jesuits to resist the evil force of Anhanga. That is why we find that Padre pulled out a special sword, calling it “The Arm of God” to fight Anhanga.
Though Padre fought bravely and Anhanga had to put a lot of effort into defending himself, he ultimately defeated Padre. The true weapon that could defeat the evil monster’s surging madness was the Femur of Tahawantinsupay, which Ramirez found out after much effort. With each sacrifice, Tahawantinsupay was getting more and more powerful as he was almost ready to reclaim his position on earth.
It is understood that people like Tack, who wanted the mask to incarnate Tahawantinsupay had cruel intentions of becoming the God of the society with the help of the evil pre-Columbian God. How he intended to control the powerful God Tahawantinsupay is still unknown! Fortunately, Ramirez was aware of the exact ritual to degenerate Anhanga and sent him back to his realm, saving humanity from the wrath of the devil God.
Why should you watch Skull the Mask?
The film focuses on the historical tension between the indigenous people and the invasive colonials. The bloody gore associated with the serial – killing for the visceral sacrifices is extremely horrifying and complements the terror associated with the supernatural monstrosity of the mask of Anhanga. Director Kapel Furman himself worked with other artists like Michelle Rodrigues, Israel Massei for the VFX, while the magnificent make-up skills by Jessica Monge are worth mentioning. Overall, it is an entertaining watch for any horror fan with honest and sincere efforts from the directors and the entire set of crews.
A sub-plot bothers us with stolen Bolivian children, reminding us about real-life mishaps and intersecting places with this extreme terror. The acting is nothing exemplary, the dialogues are not so intelligent, but whatever most of this genre fans look for, the skull fulfills it all to the greatest extent.