What if before Jason took Manhattan, he was in England finding love? As such a structured genre, horror is ripe for meta-commentary and parodies of its well-established tropes. Sometimes, the only thing better than watching your favorite horror movies is watching parodies of them. After the huge popularity of Scream'smeta-approach to slashers in the late 90s, the 2000s brought forth a slew of popular parodies like Scary Movie, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, and Cabin in the Woods.Since many have put their hat in the ring to appease our collective desires to poke fun at the genre, fans of horror parodies like the Scary Movie franchise likely feel as though they’ve exhausted their storage of quality parodies. However, like our favorite slashers, Anders Palm’shidden 1988 gem Unmasked Part 25has been waiting in the shadows to scratch that itch while providing more than enough gore to sate his bloodthirsty audience.
Released straight to video in 1988, the film was virtually forgotten until Vinegar Syndrome re-released a newly restored version of it on Blu-ray and DVD in 2019. Despite being a parody, Unmasked Part 25 does not let its sense of humor dull its propensity for style. The atmosphere and soundtrack of the film just ooze the post-punk glam style of 80s London. Palm’s film follows Jackson (Gregory Cox), who looks rather chic in a fitted black duster and hockey mask, as he attempts to give up killing once he falls in love with a blind woman named Shelly (Fiona Evans). Though it remains unnamed throughout the narrative, Unmasked Part 25 cleverly approaches the Friday the 13th franchise as though it is an adaptation of Jackson’s life. One scene shows bar patrons enthusiastically asking him for an autograph after his attempt to stalk a potential victim goes wrong. Even the film’s title itself pokes fun at the quick succession of installments to the Friday the 13th franchise, which would have already been seven at the time, by cheekily including “part 25” to its title despite being a standalone film.
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Within the film, Jackson’s rather infamous killings are the inspiration for a horror franchise called “The Hand of Death” that chronicle his actions while he was in the United States. Just like Jason Voorhees, Jackson also has an affinity for terrorizing camp counselors after an unfortunate incident which resulted in his drowning. Unsurprisingly, many things go awry at the climax of the film that takes place on, you’ve guessed it, Friday the 13th. Though it is more subtle in its comedy and pop culture references when compared to famous horror parodies like Scary Movie, Unmasked Part 25 takes the iconic slasher and puts him in ridiculous (albeit somewhat romantic) situations.
Alongside Friday the 13th, Palm’s film takes huge inspiration from another horror icon in the form of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Morespecifically, the basic plot of Unmasked Part 25 essentially poses the question of what would have happened if Frankenstein’s monster had the opportunity to expand upon his relationship with the blind man De Lacey in the text. It’s no coincidence that Jackson’s love interest is named Shelly, of course. The pair meet after Jackson fulfills his necessary quota of killing sexually active coeds with a cigarette in hand when, soon after, Shelly mistakes him for her date. After Shelly narrowly misses his attempt to stab her, Jackson takes a liking to her after he realizes that she doesn’t judge him for his monstrous appearance because she can’t see him. Once Jackson has a quick change of heart, they go to her apartment where it is revealed that our slasher can speak! Quite a lot, actually.
Rather than overt attempts at comedic relief with well-timed punchlines, the film tends to learn more toward absurdity in an effort to highlight the sheer ridiculousness of the actions taking place on screen. Kind of like the college English major out of your worst nightmares, Jackson reveals himself as a rather sensitive soul with a propensity to go on a ton of endless poetic tangents. If you have ever wanted to see a ruthless slasher recite Lord Byron or tenderly express his feelings of inadequacy after an awkward attempt at a BDSM scene, this film has that sort of social awkwardness in spades. Jackson’s brutal killings are often juxtaposed with flowery lamentations surrounding his desire to retire while actively seeking out additional victims to add to his roster.
In between impaling fornicating couples and squeezing skulls as though they are oranges, Jackson could be found taking sunset strolls on the lake while hand in hand with Shelly or trying on potential alternatives to his signature hockey mask. The ways in which the film reconciles Jackson as a brutal killer who just wants to be loved is exceptionally witty and subtle with its humor. Despite being an overt parody of Jason Voorhees, Jackson’s personality allows him to shine as distinctly his own character. The genius of the writing is that it positions Jason as a caricature of Jackson despite the latter’s position as an overt parody of the infamous machete-wielding killer. At its core, the film uses its attempts to humanize Jackson as the main source of its parodying of horror tropes which adds a breath of fresh air to the subgenre that typically relies on the extreme exaggeration of the self-awareness of its characters and audience.
There is something immensely refreshing about watching a horror parody that chronologically precedes the giants that the subgenre is known for today. After the respective groundbreaking releases of Scream and Scary Movie, there was undoubtedly a paradigm shift in which subsequent parodies have had to reconcile with the unspoken necessity to directly build upon the innovation of those films. While a lot of parodies tend to rely on the audience’s already established familiarity with the sources of their inspiration, Unmasked’s particular brand of humor allows it to be just as successful as a standalone film despite its pointed parodying of slashers. Created in a time when there was little precedent of well-established conventions of the horror parody, over thirty years later, Palm’s film still manages to feel new and unhindered by any perceived obligation to one-up or operate under the shadow of any predecessors.
