[FrightFest 2025] FILM REVIEW: The Red Mask

The Red Mask - FrightFest World Premiere Review

Director: Ritesh Gupta

Starring: Kelli Garner, Jake Abel, Helena Howard, Inanna Sarkis, Carly King

Written by: Samantha Gurash, Patrick Robert Young

Produced by: Isen Robbins, Aimee Schoof, Atit Shah

Cinematography by: Powell Robinson

Synopsis:

Queer screenwriter Allina Green is hired to write the final Red Mask slasher. Under pressure and facing death threats, she and her fiancé retreat to a secluded Airbnb. A twisted game spirals into a deadly fight when uninvited guests crash.

Thoughts:

Horror fans are the greatest fans in the world; we here at Fright Club sure know that, as we get to share our love for the genre with like-minded fanatics in the community. Unfortunately, like any collection of people, there’s always going to be some bad apples in the bunch. Trolls, “self-righteous fans”, people who think they know better than the creators of whatever horror franchise they’re a fan of. Horror is luckily one genre that will happily reflect how their audience is feeling, for example, the 'Scream' franchise has always worked on a meta level of both the characters in the film and their audience knowing the “rules” of horror movies. The 'Scream' movies even take on the idea of “fans” trying to control the narrative and 'Scream 5' shows us what can happen when extreme fans don’t like the idea of reboots or remakes. This brings me to 'The Red Mask', which takes that idea of psycho killer fans and runs with it...well, not run but more like, leisurely stroll with it. 

'The Red Mask' is a fun premise. Alli is a Hollywood writer tasked with writing the reboot of the beloved horror franchise “The Red Mask”. Think 'Halloween' or 'A Nightmare on Elm Street', it’s popular but has gone on for so long and had too many bad sequels that the studio has finally decided to reboot. Alli has rented out an Airbnb to write, with her fiancé Deetz by her side, as the public response to the hiring of Alli has become life threatening. Death threats, hate campaigns and petitions have been started to get the project cancelled.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUT YOUTUBE CHANNEL

In the real world, it’s not very often a screenwriter gets singled out like this, it’s often the director or the studio but for the proposes of the movie, I get it. Helena Howard and Inanna Sarkis, who play Alli and Deetz respectfully, do a serviceable job in their roles. They aren’t given enough unique personality traits to set them apart, which often led to me being confused with who was who when the slasher aspect starts to kick in.

The characters also make an incredibly dumb decision that no human would ever make and is clearly only there because it was the only way for the plot to advance. This is a massive problem in the script; things just happen because the story demands it with a weak explanation. There’re multiple times where the movie could have leaned into the slasher tropes (twist killers or call backs to the in universe original Red Mask) but the story telling is all one dimensional. The alternative title for this movie is “Rough Draft”, and that’s exactly what it feels like. 

Kelli Garner and Jake Abel are clearly having a lot of fun in their roles but they’re basically playing Jack Quaid and Mikey Madison’s roles from the end of the fifth 'Scream' movie. There’s even a shot for shot scene of how Mikey Madison dies in that film with how a character dies in this film. They namedrop 'Scream' multiple times, so the director Ritesh Gupta, clearly knows what he’s doing. The practical effects for the horror scenes are great at times but the movie ends with two really bad looking visual effects shots, which made me laugh out loud when they were clearly meant to shock. The effects looked rough and incomplete, I don’t know if that’s a time or money issue, but I maybe would have stuck with something a little simpler.

LISTEN TO THE DISSECTION PODCAST

'The Red Mask' is well made enough that it wasn’t a slog to watch, but there was so much potential here with the premise that just wasn’t explored. It’s a surface level horror film that thinks it’s saying something brave and profound yet doesn’t dig in deep enough to actually say anything worth listening to. 

Verdict: ⭐️⭐️½

-Adam Neeson

'The Red Mask' received its World Premiere at FrightFest '25 on August 23rd