The police are after a serial slasher. They corner the killer and gun him down, but when the slayings continue, detective Rod Taylor has to find the culprit. If his plate wasn’t already full enough, Rod also suspects his wife (Valerie Perrine) is cheating on him with his partner.
You might think you’re in for a goodie when you sit down to watch Mask of Murder as there are not one but two murders before the minute mark. While there are a handful of bloody slashings sprinkled throughout the rest of the running time, the film is never quite able to recapture the punch of the opening scene. From then on, it just sort of turns into a plodding police thriller. Despite the promising start, director Arne (The Doll) Mattsson handles the material rather stiffly, all things considered.
Christopher Lee is on hand as Taylor’s boss. Despite having his face on the video box, it’s more of a supporting role. He gets shot during the scene where the cops try to catch the killer early in the picture, which means he spends most of his screen time in a hospital bed while Taylor runs around and does all the legwork. It’s kind of a waste of Lee, but you can’t blame him for taking the role. It must’ve been an easy paycheck for him. Taylor, it must be said, carries the film as well as could be expected. It was definitely an interesting role to play, even if it wasn’t particularly well written.
Another problem is that you can figure out early on who the new killer is. Although his plan to get away with it isn’t bad, it just feels like he takes a long time to get around to pulling it off. The subplot with Perrine (who like Lee is more or less wasted) cheating on Taylor, while important, also drags things down considerably.
The mask the killer wears is pretty cool though. It’s just a white latex face covering that looks similar to the one in Wicked Wicked. While the mask is simple, it’s pretty effective. I wish the same could be said for the rest of the movie.
AKA: The Investigator.
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