Scariest Masks

The top 20 scariest masks from horror movies.

1. Curtains (1983)

Although it’s not a great movie overall, Curtains features one of the scariest scenes ever filmed. A killer wearing an “Old Hag” mask attacks a pretty young woman when she is out skating on the ice. The deep, hollow eyes, wrinkled skin and menacing frown come together to make something truly unsettling. The fact that she’s armed with a razor-sharp sickle is also a little worrisome.

2. Alice Sweet Alice (1976)

The killer in this movie wears a clear plastic mask with a horrible makeup job. it’s very eerie and unsettling, but when you pair that with a bright yellow raincoat that a child would wear, well, it becomes the stuff of nightmares. In fact, it was so effective, it was re-used years later in V/H/S (2012).

3. Nightbreed (1990)

In Nightbreed, the evil, knife-wielding Dr. Decker wears this creepy mask with button eyes and a zipper mouth when he commits his murders. Is there anyone who isn’t terrified by button eyes?

4. The Hills Run Red (2009)

Babies are creepy. Porcelain dolls are creepy. Either of these would be enough to freak anyone out. But the combination of the broken porcelain baby doll face with what appears to be a shattered human jaw, all held together with barbed wire, is absolute nightmare fuel.

5. Halloween (1978)

The pale white skin, the empty eye sockets, the matted hair and the expressionless face. Who knew that a spray-painted William Shatner mask could be so creepy?

6. Tourist Trap (1979)

In Tourist Trap, a group of teenagers come across a psycho with a house full of animated mannequins. This PG-rated horror movie features a number of different creepy masks that lend it a scary, inhuman atmosphere.

7. Motel Hell (1980)

Motel Hell is – for the most part – a silly horror comedy, but there is a man wearing a pig’s head and wielding a chainsaw. A PIG’S HEAD! AND A CHAINSAW!

8. Friday the 13th Part III (1982)

Jason Voorhees never wore his infamous hockey mask until the third installment of the Friday the 13th movies. In the first one, he just appeared briefly as a grotesquely disfigured boy and in the second movie he just wore a bag over his head. Today, the hockey mask brings to mind menace, murder, machetes and dead teenagers. But does anyone actually remember a time when a hockey mask was just normal sports equipment and wasn’t scary in the least?

9. Bruiser (2000)

Blank and expressionless masks are unsettling, but the tiny eyeholes in this one somehow make it so much worse.

10. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Leatherface manages to live up to his name by wearing a mask made from the skin of his victims. Bone-chilling.

11. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Hannibal Lecter has to wear a muzzle with teeth-like metal bars over the breathing hole when he’s being transported. The minute you see it, you know this man is dangerous. If they ever took off that mask, Hannibal the Cannibal would probably chew our face off and eat it. And after he finished his grisly meal, he would probably have something witty to say.

12. The Orphanage

13. Scream (1996)

The Ghostface mask became an instant classic with its gaping eye holes, contorted mouth and black and white coloring. It’s the kind of mask you vaguely remember seeing in some half-remembered nightmare. It is based on a famous painting by German artist Edvard Munch called… The Scream.

14. Eyes Without a Face

At first glance, this may not really look like a mask at all. This French horror film is about a young woman who wears an eerie, pale mask to conceal her disfigured face. The girl’s father is a deranged surgeon who will stop at nothing to get her a new face. The fact that you don’t know exactly what’s under her static, unmoving face mask makes it extremely eerie.

15. Laid to Rest

16. Slaughter High (1986)

OK, what if we use an old man mask? Well, that’s not scary. What if we dress him like a jester. Ah! now it’s scary!

17. The Strangers (2008)

You’d be scared too if Dollface, The Man in the Mask and Pin-up Girl showed up at your front door.

18. The First Power (1990)

The serial killer in The First Power wears a creepy-looking mask, but ironically, when he takes off the mask, he’s just as creepy-looking.

19. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)

20. Donnie Darko (2001)

Special Mention:

Town that Dreaded Sundown
Vanilla Sky
The Town
Wicker Man (1973)

The strange villagers in Wicker Man wear these rustic, ominous masks during a twisted version of a pagan ritual.

Scarecrow from batman
Terror Train (1980)
Onibaba
Trick ‘r Treat
Cabin in the Woods.