Thursday, December 1, 2022

A Study of the Freddy VS Jason Mask

Having recently come into a Freddy vs. Jason blank mask straight from the movie mold, I've spent some time studying details to try to get some insight into how it was likely made, and what it's origins might have been.

I can say for sure now that the movie mask was not a ground-up sculpt done for the film. It has a number of characteristics that clearly derive from the Part 6 mask and is almost certainly a third generation re-tool of a Part 6 mask.

The mask has some features that clearly derive from the original Paramount era masks. It has the uneven upper forehead that slopes down to the right, and the slightly askew brow that slopes down in the opposite direction.

 

The nose is slightly more pointed on the right side of the tip in exactly the same way. The contours are almost a perfect match to my Part 6 (a second gen recast of a movie mask by Fiberglassmasks.com), although the sides appear to have been pulled in for a tighter fit. Though the wonky contours match perfectly, the nose is noticeably smaller than a Part 6 mask.

Looking very closely you can see some finer details that give the recasting away. First, there is the faint impression of a forehead triangle or chevron.

Second, you can see some warping around certain vent hole edges, which can also be seen in some Part 6 masks.

The warping may have been caused by the mask maker working fast and with a high speed on his drill, which might have caused some melting of the plastic as he worked.

Third, you can see that a vent hole on the right side was moved, the circular outline of the original still being slightly visible. 


Evidently this was to create a sense of symmetry since the whole placement now matches the pattern on the opposite side of the mask, but why anyone would go to that sort of trouble is beyond me.

While I'd say that the VS movie masks definitely have Paramount-era lineage, it may not have been direct. It's been known among long-time collectors for nearly twenty years that the crew recast one of the earliest fan-made Jason masks, made by a small company called Horror Hockey Masks from 2001 to 2005. 

The long-defunct site sold masks that are said to have been cast from a Part 6 mask. And they do have a peculiar characteristic in that some of the earliest copies had that same right-side cheek vent moved outward.

HHM stopped moving the vent hole in later years and sold straight fiberglass castings, so it seems to be a feature unique to the masks sold in 2001-02, around the time Freddy vs. Jason was in production.

Justin Mabry (of Nightowl) said on Facebook recently that he was the first to recast a part 6 mask back in the 1990s, and that his masks were in turn recast by Gates of Hell Studios and Horror Hockey Masks. Here is a rare photo of one of Justin's original masks, currently owned by Bob at Fiberglassmasks.com. This is the mask that my above Part 6 mask was molded from.

A friend of mine and long-time collector sent me an autograph from Bill Terezakis to Joe Cliff of Horror Hockey Masks thanking him for supplying production with a mask, so it looks like that's what happened here. Check it out!

And here is a photo Jo Nobile found at the Ultimate Freddy vs Jason Archive (Facebook) showing what appears to be the HHM mask they were given used during an early costume test.

 

So in a nutshell, the masks of Freddy vs. Jason were a third generation retool of a mask from Friday the 13th Part 6 via HHM and Nightowl.

This is an interesting shift from what previous films had done, which was to get an older mask or mold straight from Reel FX, who had been custodians of the mask since Part 3, or from a previous special effects team. Evidently things had gotten lost by 2002 and production had to turn to fans as the keepers of the mask.

12 comments:

  1. I remember when Horror Hockey Masks and Gates of Hell Studios were the only places to get Friday style hockey masks on the web. Then came Nightowl and NFX. I think all 4 had a part 6 cast as the source. Nightowl also had access to a part 7 cast at the time I believe. I have one of Nightowl's early fibreglass part 7 casts and an NFX fibreglass part 6. I've never seen an ABS or PETG part 6 with quite the right shape compared to those early fibreglass part 6 masks.

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    1. Thanks for your comments. There's been some interesting conversation popping up over this post on Facebook... Justin said yesterday that he was the first to recast the part 6 production mask, and that both Shane (GOHS) and Joe (HHM) recast his piece shortly thereafter. Two or three long-time collectors told me recently that they had heard the FX team from Freddy vs. Jason said in an interview that they bought a mask off of HHM to recast for production. Trying to find some confirmation for that. Truly, when it comes to Jason masks, everything is a recast of a recast of a recast. lol

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    2. I remember hearing at the time in 2003 that the FVSJ crew bought a HHM mask to recast as well.

      What Facebook group is it?

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    3. Clift was a notorious re-caster. He molded a 7 he bought from NFX, and of course denied it, but it was too obvious. After that neither Justin, nor Shane, myself, or JZ would sell to him because we knew what he did, even Eric from the HMA tried warning people away from him, and EA was one of the biggest, most well respected voices in the scene at the time. So like a weasel, Clift just went and bought two GOH masks from eBay. I think it was a 3 and a 6, he remolded one or both and started spamming the message boards with recasts and eventually WCT got one from him. It didn't win him any friends, everyone thought WCT should've gone to Justin or Shane, but out of the five of us, Clift had the lowest prices and everyone assumed that was why, but I don't think anyone ever found out for sure.

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  2. On the topic of versus masks I have one from 2003 before the movie came out that the maker claims was cast off the screen used damaged mask from the end of the movie. His name was Connor McCullough and he did work on the FX team for FvsJ. He also sold a latex mask that was made from the appliances for his design for the "unmasked" Jason that didn't end up appearing in the movie.

    I think history shows that there were 2 different unmasked faces proposed for the movie although neither appears on film. Most of the merchandise that have an unmasked Jason uses one design, only the Rubies mask from before the movie came out seems to use the McCullough design that I have as reference. Its also painted like the prop, not how it appears on screen, so it's very purple looking vs grey/brown that appears on screen.

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  3. Can you post a link, there's a ton of Camp Blood Facebook groups.

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    1. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2266588263478081

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  4. Found your blog since September and I'm loving it.

    When I recently rewatched FvJ, my best guess was that aside from the some narrower looking face it very much resembled the Paramount molds. I just couldn't find anything on its origin until now

    Out of curiosity, FvJ related, do you think you could find the origin of the "popular" unmasked Jason used in merchandise like the Neca figure sculpt?

    Essentially it seems to borrow features and proportions from the OG Savini design but with a zombified texture. Makes sense since the film established a similar, though chubbier, kid Jason head makeup I can only find one image floating around that matches this but with no attributed source. I do own the recent Blu-ray boxset which might have some answers in the bonus features, but that's it.

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    1. Thanks! Yeah it's from a behind-the-scenes photo of the ambulance scene, which was the only scene they put him in full face makeup for. I'll put up a post about it.

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  5. Insightful as always. Here I was thinking that the FvJ mask was built from the ground up. But sure enough, it has lineage to that original Jacques Plante mask that was cast so many years ago. Interesting that those fan casts are now retroactively part of the Friday the 13th production line.

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  6. So in a nutshell, it's basically the part 8 mask done right lol.
    The buckled leather straps would further the connection.

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