Five top films that take mask-wearing to the next level in the Covid-19 era, from Batman Begins to Halloween to Eyes Wide Shut
- A William-Shatner-as-Captain-Kirk mask was spray painted white and used to chilling effect in the horror film Halloween
- A mask helps Jim Carrey’s character Stanley Ipkiss express himself in a way he normally can’t in classic ’90s comedy The Mask
With face masks becoming an essential part of our lives, here are five movies that take mask-wearing to often artistic, sometimes fantastical extremes …
Batman Begins (2005)
Christopher Nolan loves masks, as all those who see his new movie Tenet can attest. In the midst of a pandemic, there’s something profoundly strange about watching a film in which characters wear respirators.
“My mask is just a symbol,” says Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne, also known as Gotham City’s crime-fighting vigilante Batman. “No, this is your mask,” replies his beloved Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), holding his face – suggesting how Nolan is fascinated by the masks we use to hide in plain sight.
That he also faces a villain, The Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy), who dons a crude, eerie sackcloth before spreading his Fear Toxin across Gotham, adds to the theme. Less successfully, 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises saw Tom Hardy’s Bane permanently sporting a metallic muzzle that dispenses anaesthetic (and muffled his dialogue).
Halloween (1978)
The mask is a horror movie staple, from Jason Voorhees’ ice hockey visor in Friday the 13th to the “Ghostface” in Scream. But is there a more iconic covering in cinema than Michael Myers’ unnerving blank face in Halloween?