Film / Masquerade (2021)

The ultimate disguise in terror

Masquerade is a home invasion thriller, released in 2021. It was written and directed by Shane Dax Taylor.

A young girl named Casey (Alyvia Alyn Lind) must fend for herself when two masked intruders break into her house and murder her babysitter Sofia. Her art broker parents Daniel and Olivia (Austin Nichols and Mircea Monroe) are on their way home from a high society event, having been offered a ride by a waitress named Rose (Bella Thorne). However, this is not an act of kindness as Rose is seemingly in league with the thieves and perhaps even the mastermind.

With the power and alarms disabled and no means to call for help, Casey plays a deadly game of hide and seek with a psychotic male criminal and his reluctant female accomplice. Things become even more desperate when the broker couple return home, and it becomes evident Rose has her own deadly agenda.

Not to be confused with the 2012 movie by the same name.

A trailer can be viewed on Youtube.

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Masquerade contains examples of:

• Ambiguous Ending: Casey-Rose stands over Daniel whom she stabbed multiple times and then looks at a picture of his family. She thinks about all the events that led up to her being where she is now and then stares straight at the camera. The end credits roll, but it's unknown if Casey-Rose finished Daniel off or not, or whether she even got away scot-free.
• Ax-Crazy: The male burglar is established as violent almost immediately when he bludgeons Sofia to death with a hammer, repeatedly striking her until the floor is covered in blood. His female accomplice is clearly horrified, even though her face is mostly concealed.
  Woman: Stop it. Stop! This is not part of the plan.
  Man: It's changed.
• Big Bad: Initially it seems Rose is the one in charge as she's apparently giving instructions to the burglars. Ultimately Daniel is the main villain, responsible for murdering Casey's parents and setting her on a darker path.
• Bound and Gagged: Rose knocks out Olivia in the kitchen and leaves her bound with zip ties and gagged with insulation tape.
• The Caper: It's revealed early on that Rose is working with the thieves. Except this is actually a narrative bluff, and Rose (the grown up Casey) is really in league with Sofia's sister to avenge her murdered parents.
• Cool Mask: The art thieves are dressed all in black (naturally) and wear fencing masks. After she's driven the brokers home, Rose masks up for action too.
• Darkness Equals Death: After the burglars cut the power to Casey's house, Sofia wandering downstairs to investigate in the dark was never going to end well.
• Decoy Hiding Place: The intruders check everywhere for Casey, but somehow never find her. In fairness, she does relocate, sometimes even using previously searched spots to throw the villains off.
• Domino Mask: Daniel and Olivia wear eye masks — along with the other guests — for a social event at the beginning of the film.
• Dramatic Unmask: All three intruders get one by the end:
  • Rose is arguably the least dramatic, since the viewer already knows who she is. Or at least they think they do. However, it's Daniel's reaction that sets the final act reveal in motion.
    Daniel: It's you.
  • The female intruder — played by Skyler Samuels — unmasks herself to gain Casey's trust. More of an emotional impact example as she is never named in the movie itself or the credits.
  • Most dramatic of all is the male intruder who is revealed to be a younger Daniel from an art heist that occurred many years previously.
• The Ending Changes Everything: There are two separate narrative strands in the movie: a young Casey-Rose hiding from art thieves who've broken into her home and murdered her parents and Sofia, and a grown up Casey (now calling herself Rose) planning revenge against the man responsible. The viewer's interpretation of events will be completely different on subsequent viewings.
• Evil All Along: Daniel is not the nice guy he initially seems, but the male thief who broke into Casey's home and murdered Sofia and her parents years earlier. It's left ambiguous whether Olivia was involved in his scheme to fence stolen artwork.
• Eye Scream: When Casey shoots the female burglar, the bullet goes through her mask and straight into her eye. The aftermath is shown later when Daniel kneels beside her body.
• Floorboard Failure: Casey — cowering in the attic — does a good job of avoiding this by tiptoeing along the stronger wooden support beams, but eventually missteps and falls through the ceiling. She's able to climb back up, but still tips off the burglars to her hiding place.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: After The Reveal, it's not clear whether Rose is Casey's middle or family name. The news clipping of the home invasion reveals Casey's family surname is Morgan, and her full forename is Casey-Rose.
• Genre Savvy: Casey has clearly taken her horror movie viewings to heart. She doesn't choose the obvious hiding places and keeps moving around to evade the intruders. And she knows not to step on weak floorboards — though she does make a mistake eventually.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Unlike the brutal male intruder, the woman burglar attempts to bond with the terrified Casey. After things go wrong, she throws up in the toilet — so her concern appears genuine. Casey ends up shooting her on reflex when she runs towards her.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Besides her fencing mask, Rose wears a leather jacket and tight-fitting black pants for the second half of the movie.
• Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films: The post-credits scene shows two terrified adults in the woods. This is later revealed to be a movie, with Casey and Sofia watching. Sofia comments that it's too scary for kids, not long before Casey has a real-life nightmare to deal with.
• Malevolent Masked Men: The two fencing masked art thieves, and later Rose.
• Masquerade Ball: In keeping with the movie title and recurring mask theme, Daniel and Olivia attend a high society gathering where the attendees wear eye masks.
• No Name Given: The female burglar is never named in the movie itself or the credits.
• One-Word Title
• Protect This House: Casey vs. two hostile intruders. She starts off as a terrified girl, but becomes much braver by the climax.
• Psycho Knife Nut: Rose stabs Daniel repeatedly with a kitchen knife, and there are several lengthy shots of the leather-clad intruder holding the blood-smeared weapon just to emphasize how crazy this woman is. Subverted with the reveal that Rose is doing this out of revenge for Daniel killing her family.
• The Reveal: The plot is about two home invasions, with the second an act of revenge carried out by the victim of the first.
• Rewatch Bonus: On repeat viewings, it seems obvious that Rose and the burglars never cross paths and Rose's conversations with her accomplice are one-sided cellphone calls. That's because there are two home invasion plots and not one as first seemed.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Sofia gets just enough screen time to come across as sympathetic before she's murdered by a masked intruder.
• Samus Is a Girl: Unlike most movies with masked female criminals, this one is a subversion. Perhaps intended with the female thief, but even with the voice disguiser it's fairly obvious she's a woman.
• Secret Identity Vocal Shift: The burglars use voice disguisers. This is especially effective with Daniel. Also, the fact that Rose doesn't disguise her voice is a hint she's not part of the same crew.
• Stranger Behind the Mask: The female intruder turns out to be a previously unseen woman.
• Time-Shifted Actor: The movie's final scene shows the wounded Casey-Rose crawl from her house with a look of steely determination. This blends into a close up of the adult Rose (now her alias), having carried out her own break-in and revenge years later.
• Tomato Surprise: Rose knows she's working with Sofia's sister to avenge the murders committed by Daniel during the art heist. The narrative structure makes it seem only one home invasion is happening in the movie, when there are in fact two separate events occurring years apart.
• Two Aliases, One Character: Casey-Rose.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: When the female burglar vomits into a toilet, this is shown from a side angle.
• Wham Line:
  Daniel: Goodbye, Casey-Rose.
• Would Hurt a Child: After Casey shoots and kills the female intruder, the masked male thief has no qualms shooting the young girl back.