What is this mysterious mask?

Many of you saw this on eBay a couple times over the past year. The seller wanted as much as $2,500 for it at one point, even though the only thing he knew about it was that it came from a Friday the 13th film.

So is this just another Frightstuff or JDF mask that's been bronzed (for some weird reason) or is it something more?

I decided to buy it and examine it in person.

The first thing I noticed was that this mask bears all the tell-tale signs of being a movie mold mask, as opposed to a fan sculpt. It has all the same flaws as a Frightstuff/JDF: the warp of the forehead, the ripple under the left eye, the indentation in the lower left edge and the vertical crease through the mouth area. It also has an identifiable snap divot in the forehead, although the ones on the sides seem to have been masked by a border that resulted from the bronzing process (which you can see in the above photo).

It is clearly cut to look like a part 7, with some quick-and-dirty scratches around the propeller damage. The mask also bears heavy pitting in the bronze.

The back of the mask was also bronzed, although you can identify the telltale haircell pattern of ABS plastic. The back of the mask seems to have been abused over many years: the bronze is discolored and feel slightly filmy. It is also peeling away from the ABS in spots, and has a slight metallic odor to it which is not present in the front. There are also streaks of superglue across the back.

The eye cuts are very crude, with some partially melted ABS clumped around the backs of the cuts. Mask artists will tell you that this is a common occurrence during dremeling. The fact that the melted ABS was not removed suggests this mask was made hastily by someone who was probably trying to bang out several of them at once.

But here's where it gets interesting.

The propeller damage is very inaccurate to the movie mask, and very distinct. It looks exactly like the cuts that were done to the promotional masks made shortly after production of part 7 by MMI special effects artist Mecki Heusen.

A reliable source told me that at least ten of these promo masks were made for part 7 for various purposes.

Many of these masks were sold for thousands of dollars as "screen used" although their proper value is probably closer to $800-$1,000 each, according to my source.

But if this bronzed mask is an old promo mask, which one is it?

Most likely, its this one:

A lot of fine details line up nicely: The unusually angular cut of the top perimeter, the axe cut width and penetration into the vents, the eye cuts, the angles of the propeller cut and the way they cut into the two vent holes, and tellingly, the lack of drilled holes for straps make this a very unique mask.

The mask at above left used to belong to Lou Carlucci, best known as the creator of the original Freddy glove for A Nightmare on Elm Street. Lou also did some FX work on F13 Part 7 (notably, the electrocution scene), and used to own the screen-used Jason suit that now belongs to Mario Kirner. Here's a shot of the suit with this mask displayed with it when it was still in Lou's collection:

There's no question that this isn't a fan-made mask: trying to imitate this one obscure promo mask that almost no one has seen would be absurd. And given how sloppy the promo masks were cut, how no warping was done to the plastic to imitate the hero mask, and how consistently they cut the prop damage, chances are extremely high that this mask was made in 1988 by MMI, using the buck they had for the film.

Owning a promo mask is the closest most of us will ever get to owning an actual movie mask, so this is an interesting find. Especially considering who it belonged to. For anyone interested in owning a rare piece of F13 history, I'll consider offers on it. Thanks for reading.