Howdy folks! We’re nearing the halfway point of this year’s Countdown to Halloween and I’ve been having a blast! Today’s vintage monster mask ad comes from issue #39 of Fangoria (published in 1984) and features a couple different sets of Don Post Studios masks…
Up top there are three masks designed in tandem by DPS and Rick Baker. They’re replicas from the Nazi werewolf dream sequence David Naughton’s character has in An American Werewolf in London. This sequence is probably one of the most over-the-top and violent in the film, not to mention one of the more scatological bits (though there are some ties between wolf iconography and the Nazis I guess.) I think it’s interesting that these were even produced as they’re a very small part of the flick and though memorable not the first thing one would think of when recalling it. I guess they’re the most straightforward in terms of translatable, affordable masks though. I’m sure a full-fledged AAWL werewolf mask that looked like Rick Baker’s work would have been too cost prohibitive.
Down below int he ad is a series of concept drawings of masks from the movie The Last Starfighter. These were probably the biggest part of the film’s merchandising outside of the novelization, comic books, and lunchbox. It’s kind of weird that there were so many cancelled products for the film including an action figure line and the most obvious tie-in, an arcade game. Interestingly enough, there are some people working to get that arcade game into the public though…
Anyway, come back tomorrow for more mask tomfoolery, and if you’re looking for a ton of Halloween content all through the month of October, make sure to stop on by the official Countdown to Halloween site and check out the list of participating blogs for 2011. You’ll be glad you did!
