Face Your Fears

Every once in a while, you come across something that makes you wish that you'd either never been born, or at the very least hadn't been born with the power of sight. This is one of those times. There's just a lot to unpack with this thing, and quite frankly I'd rather hide in my closet with a revolved than spend anymore time talking about it, but this is what I do, so let's make the best of it. This mask is interesting on a few levels, but let me just say for the record that I have never found clowns creepy. Like, in the slightest. It appears to be a thing everyone else finds creepy, but it just doesn't do anything for me. Then again, I don't find much creepy, so. But then again, this isn't a regular kind of clown, is it? Look at the way this was designed. It's not just a facial covering. It's a facial covering with a face inside . There's eyes, and hair at the top. This isn't just a mask, it's a mask of a person wearing a mask. That...

While I can hear you naysayers already asking me "What is there to possibly admire about a wet trash bag pulled over a decomposing Halloween pumpkin?!", allow me to answer that as thoroughly as I can for you so you might understand me just a little bit better. First of all, Howlin' Harry here is, like most masks covered on this blog, all about the deets. That's right. The deets. We're bringing back 90s slang tonight. With his hauntingly dislocated jaw and raised eyebrows, his face ever stuck in a perpetual "You did WHAT?!" pose, he's just as artistic as any other mask I've talked about even with nowhere near as much work put into him. For once, the color Grey has been used in the correct way and his tone really actually helps out the design here, which I'm assuming was supposed to be "middle aged Crypt Keeper's second wife". His teeth are all varying shapes and sizes, and that big gaping black maw is magnificent, especi...

I'm fairly certain this is the face that greets you once you die. Some call him God. Others call him Xenu. I, myself, call him Prickly Bill. No real reason other than he looks like a Prickly Bill. Either way, no matter what name you subscribe to, Prickly Bill is one thing, and that's thrilled to see you. Just look at that smile on his face; those big buck teeth bulging from his gums! He's absolutely happy you've decided to spend the evening wearing his face over your face and thus granting him access to our mere mortal world, even if only ever briefly. His eyes are even bulging because he can't believe he's gotten so lucky to have your generosity to thank for being given a little while to linger in our universe over your head. Prickly Bill looks terrifying, but looks aren't everything, you know? He looks terrifying, sure, but deep down, is the god we should all seek to revere; a god of simultaneous beauty and disgust, a god of love and curiosity, a god ...

There's absolutely no way to categorize this type of mask, so I have just come up with the categorization of putting this mask, and all masks that fall into the look a like of it, as "mother fucking awesome". Because this thing is mother fucking awesome. I mean, back before Halloween became nothing but licensed franchised superhero costumes and cosplays of all kinds, this is what you did. Companies had to actually try and make an effort to get your attention, and we got some great shit because of it. And look, I'm not going to look down on anyone who cosplays, because those people have tremendous talent and are better than a lot of actual costume designers in Hollywood I'd say, but I do miss when Halloween was more of a "I'm a bug eyed chainsaw armed mummy" and not "I wore my Shazam costume again this year." Not that there's anything at all wrong with Shazam, it was a great movie, but come on man. Bug eyed chainsaw armed mummy sounds...