10 Most Shocking Horror Movie Unmaskings
And they'd have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids!
An iconic mask is the calling card of a horror movie franchise. From big name brands like Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, to underrated gems like Satan's Little Helper and The Furies, distorting a villain's face and letting them go wild really makes for some of the most unnerving sequences you can get in cinema.
That being said though, whilst a veil of anonymity is clinical enough to make cold-blooded slashers that extra bit unpleasant, it's the morbid interest in what's underneath that REALLY makes them scary. Who is this mysterious freak? Why are they hiding their face? Why have they chosen this particular get up? Hang on a second, are they even human!?
But as we all know by now: curiosity really does kill the cat, and that's about true for near every other poor soul that witnessed what lies beneath these malignant masks. Whether it's from a narrative left-turn, a monstrous visage, or a grisly pairing of both, these are the unmaskings far more shocking than anyone could have imagined - and that's really saying something considering the state of their ghoulish disguises...
10. Jason Voorhees - Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood
Big bad Jason has his fair share of unmaskings throughout his hefty franchise of movies, but I'm gonna stick with the seventh movie for the likes of this list purely for its iconic nastiness alone.
Where we've previously seen Jason as a child and in potential dream sequences with no mask at all, the first open choice for Jason to show what's lurking under his sports gear is in Part III, where he flips up the hockey mask to let Chris see an unnerving - and familiar - face. As if anyone could forget that mug.
Part VII comes after we see a far more squishy, supernaturally faced Jason in the preceding movies, so we already know we're not getting anything pretty should we get the standard, once-per-movie viewing reveal. And oh hell, do they double down on that when Jason bares all.
With his mask getting tightened by a telekinetic Tina, the thing splits in two just after he whips around to square up to his adversary, bringing what can only be described as a rotten satsuma of a head to the fore. It's a grisly reveal that revels in Jason's zombified grossness, and really - just makes us glad he wears a mask most of the time, to be honest.