Line #46 Main/MurderousMask


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12	[[quoteright:350:[[Film/BlackSunday1960 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blacksunday11.png]]]]
13
14	A mask that through magical or mundane means, kills the person wearing it. The mask does this by smothering, strangling, suffocating, crushing, or poisoning its victim. Most of the time, it's both a CruelAndUnusualDeath.
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16	A SubTrope of ArtifactOfDeath and possible ArtifactOfDoom. Related to EvilMask, which is both sentient and malevolent. Contrast with FaceHugger which, unlike the Murderous Mask, is often sentient and able to apply to the unwilling victim's face all by itself.
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18	See also ClingyCostume.
19	----
20	!!Examples:
21
22	[[foldercontrol]]
23
24	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
25	* ''Manga/{{Inuyasha}}'' features a mask with a piece of the MineralMacGuffin embedded in it. It latches onto people's faces to take over their bodies, which then quickly begin to rot.
26	* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' Dio initially believed the Stone Mask was used for ritual sacrifices after seeing it sprout spikes when blood got splashed on it. It technically does kill people this way, but it also immediately revives them as superpowered vampires.
27	* In ''Manga/{{Judge}}'', a group of people are abducted and forced to wear animal masks with poison spikes on them. Whoever takes it off before the time allowed will get pricked and killed.
28	[[/folder]]
29
30	[[folder:Comic Books]]
31	* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'':
32	** One comic features an African tribal mask that, when donned, scratches the wearer with a needle coated with a drug. The drug drives the wearer into a berserker rage that eventually causes their heart to explode.
33	** Roman Sionis, the villain better known as Black Mask, has been known to kill or disfigure his victims with toxic masks. His own mask [[DependingOnTheWriter might]] be one of these.
34	* ''ComicBook/DoctorFate'', wears a helmet that forces its user to wear it for life, and then absorb their life force into it. The first volume of ''ComicBook/TheBooksOfMagic'' has a part where the young hero is taken into a possible future where the mask has gone full on evil, and it lives up to this trope far more. Especially when it forces a servant to attach the mask to his face, and then only a few minutes later take it off... which requires the poor guy to ''tear his own face off''.
35	* In ''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}'', one bum almost got smothered when he donned Al's mask for a joke.
36	* In ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'', the Decepticon Vos has a removable ''face'' which is lined with retractable spikes and hooks on the inside. Being a sadist and TortureTechnician, he likes to force his victims to wear it.
37	* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'':
38	** Nina Close, the Mask, is so known because she locks her victims in masks rigged to fatally poison them if they tamper with them or she remotely activates them.
39	** In issue #80, "The Mask of Mystery!", Wonder Woman falls asleep one day (near a pond, no less), then wakes up to find herself stuck in a mask that's rigged to explode.
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
43	* ''Film/TheAbominableDrPhibes'' features a constricting frog mask [[CruelAndUnusualDeath that gradually crushes the head of its wearer]].
44	* The page image is from ''Film/BlackSunday''; the mask is spiked on the inside and rather brutally ''hammered'' onto the victim's face.
45	* The lethal masks from ''Film/HalloweenIIISeasonOfTheWitch'' are textbook examples; they are just like any other mask, but if its wearer sees a certain commercial, all hell breaks loose.
46	* ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'':
47	** A recurring trap in the series is the Reverse Bear Trap, which, while meant to be a DeathTrap to escape from, is placed on a victim like a mask.
48	** ''Film/SawII'' has the aptly-named Death Mask, although its structure goes beyond the face. In addition of a metal mask with a spiked interior, there's another panel of the same nature aimed towards the back of the head, which, alongside the harness in the neck and shoulder area, makes the trap function like an iron maiden.
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Literature]]
52	* The Creator/GrahamMasterton horror novel ''Literature/DeathTrance'' features a scene where one of the bad guys, a psychotic Vietnam vet, puts on a full-head demon-mask featuring a leyak, an Indonesian evil spirit. He writhes in agony, to the accompaniment of screams and crunching noises, as his buddies try to get the mask off, but when it finally comes free, the dead man has no head left. Something has eaten his head while he was wearing the mask...
53	* Creator/NKJemisin's ''Literature/InheritanceTrilogy'': People in ''The Kingdom of Gods'' are falling victim to ceremonial masks that are enchanted to kill their wearers and [[OurZombiesAreDifferent animate their corpses]] to go on killing sprees. They're being made by the BigBad, the [[spoiler:Godling of [[{{Revenge}} Vengeance]], who [[WhyAmITicking detonates]] thousands of them at once to destroy the WorldTree of Sky in a bid for true Godhood.]]
54	* ''Literature/NewJediOrder'': Somewhat related is Yuuzhan Vong vonduun crab armor. If worn by a non-Yuuzhan Vong, it will repeatedly attempt to kill its wearer.
55	* In Creator/DianeDuane's Literature/{{Rihannsu}} ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novels, Romulan starships are frequently named ''Rhea's Helm''. The titular, legendary helm was the product of a sorcerer-smith who was asked to create a helmet that would make the wearer impervious to all harm. When the helm was donned, the demon she'd bound into it ''bit the wearer's head off''--nothing can harm a dead person.
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
59	* In the ''Series/DepartmentS'' episode "The Man Who Got a New Face", an assassin sneaks into the home of a wealthy man and glues a comedy mask to his face. The target dies of a heart attack from overexertion in his vain attempt to remove the mask.
60	* ''Series/LoveAndRedemption'': The Loveless Mask. Its wearer must never feel any emotions, and if they do the mask's curse will kill them.
61	* In an episode of ''Series/RelicHunter'' a cursed mask causes its last wearer to have his/her face disfigured and then contract a wasting disease that will kill the victim if the curse is not passed to another person. The mask used to belong to a French executioner and the only way to permanently stop the curse is for Sidney to find the executioner's tomb and return the mask there.
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Mythology & Religion]]
65	* In Myth/CelticMythology and French folklore, [[TheEvilPrincess Princess Dahut-Ahès]] of the legendary Breton city of Ys used to take a different lover to bed every night and provide the lover with a black mask to wear during their intense evening of pleasure. However, at the first rays of dawn, the drawstrings of the mask would tighten and strangle the unfortunate suitor.
66	[[/folder]]
67
68	[[folder:Podcasts]]
69	* ''Podcast/ThePenumbraPodcast'''s appropriately-titled episode "[[CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase Juno Steel and the Case of the Murderous Mask]]" features an [[{{Precursors}} Ancient Martian]] death mask . . . that kills any human who puts it on by trying to mold their head to the shape of the {{Starfish Alien\|s}} cranium it was built for.
70	[[/folder]]
71
72	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
73	* An old ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' monster invokes this: called the Executioner's Hood, it's a flat membrane that lives on the ceiling, dropping down on the heads of unsuspecting adventurers to suffocate them.
74	[[/folder]]
75
76	[[folder:Toys]]
77	* ''Toys/{{BIONICLE}}'': Played with the [[MaskOfPower Kanohi Ignika]], the Mask of Life. As only [[OnlyTheChosenMayWield destined beings can wear it]], any other being that so much as touch it will [[ArtifactOfDoom get cursed]]. While none affected have directly died from the curses, they either suffer FateWorseThanDeath or get CursedWithAwesome or BlessedWithSuck. The chosen wearer, on the other hand, does have to die to use the mask, as its power requires the sacrifice of their entire life force by converting their physical mass into energy. The exception to this is Mata Nui, who doesn't ''technically'' wear the mask during the 2009 story -- [[SoulJar his spirit is bound to the mask]] and his body is an artificial facsimile created by its power, meaning he is a mask that "wears" a body rather than the other way around.
78	[[/folder]]
79
80	[[folder:Video Games]]
81	* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' and ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', clothing/armor/equipment including hoods and helmets can be enchanted to slowly damage the wearer over time. They can be taken off at any time, but by planting one on an enemy they can be tricked into wearing them, and [[ArtificialStupidity won't take them off of on their own limited initiative]].
82	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'';
83	** The titular object, in addition to possessing its wearer, plans on killing a lot of people with ''[[ColonyDrop the moon]].''
84	** The Blast Mask is also capable of killing you with its explosions, though given that its use is entirely voluntary and a shield can block its damage, it is a significantly downplayed example.
85	[[/folder]]
86
87	[[folder:Web Original]]
88	* ''Website/SCPFoundation'' [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-035 describes a mask]] that compels anyone nearby to put it on so it can kill them and possess their body. The mask has expressed interest in 682, since the beast's AdaptiveAbility and HealingFactor would provide it with an eternal and powerful host body.
89	[[/folder]]

Context Main / MurderousMask