Masks(2011)

Pooper:
Stella kills Kaspar and confronts Gdula and his other accomplice, Lenka. Though the ending is ambiguous, it appears that Stella hallucinates being the most respected actress in the world while, in actuality, she has been captured and is being bled to death.

Long Ending:
The film opens in the 1970s with an acting troupe performing a scene before their instructor, Matteusz Gdula. The actress is deemed unconvincing, so the other students (at Gdula’s urging) rip off her fingernail to get her to reach new levels of emotion.

Jumping to the year 2011, an actress named Stella (Susen Ermich) is auditioning for a play. She is told by one of the casting directors, Kaspar, that she has not been cast. He then recommends she attend a small acting school to help hone her craft. Her boyfriend Florian drives her there and she is accepted. On the drive, they witness a student named Britt fleeing the school in a panic. That night, Britt and her friend are killed by a masked assailant who is clearly associated with the school.

Stella learns the school was founded by Gdula. She watches a documentary on Gdula and sees the actors engaged in extreme method acting that involves drugs and inflicting violence on each other. One student, Lenka, is interviewed saying that she loves Gdula and would do anything for him.

Most of the students are very mean to Stella, and the instructors constantly criticize her unwillingness to let emotion take over. She meets and soon bonds (and develops a romantic attraction to) a guest student named Cecile (Julita Witt). Stella comments that Cecile “shines” as an actress and acts circles around the others. As the two grow closer, Stella learns that Cecile was physically abused by her sister growing up. Stella also notices that Cecile often has cuts and suction bruises on her body. One night, Cecile confides in Stella that she is receiving secret private acting lessons at the school, which are very brutal but have greatly improved her acting. That night, Cecile disappears.

After Cecile disappears, Stella is approached by the headmistress, Roza (Magdalena Ritter), and asked if she’d like to receive the private lessons Cecile had been receiving. Stella agrees without hesitation. Roza tells Stella to cut ties with all others, takes her cell phone, gives Stella drugs, and has her move in to an abandoned part of the school. It is clear that Stella is being taught using the Gdula method. Simultaneously, a reporter who was investigating Britt’s disappearance and the school is killed by the masked assailant after he breaks in. Before being killed, the reporter learned that Gdula was disgraced after five of his students were found dead, hanging upside down, at his school.

The drugs, mixed with heavy regression therapy and physical abuse, cause Stella to finally come to terms with the fact that her mother had physically abused her as a child. Though brutal, the Gdula method is effective. Stella is cast as the lead in her school play and she outshines all of her castmates. Florian tries to get Stella to leave the school, but she declines and dumps him. A depressed Florian ends up going home with Valeri, one of Stella’s jealous classmates.

As the Gdula Method gets more intense, Stella realizes that she will eventually die if she continues. She steals back her phone and leaves a message for Florian to help her. Stella then attempts to escape but, before she can, she hears Cecile being tortured. Stella attempts to rescue Cecile, but is captured. While both are in drug-induced states, they fight each other and Cecile knocks Stella out. Simultaneously, Florian and Valeri are killed by the masked assailant when they go to the school to try and rescue Stella.

When Stella recovers, she finds Cecile in a deliriously ecstatic state, bound, and hanging upside down. The masked assailant comes in accompanied by a wheelchair-bound Gdula. Gdula pronounces Cecile “ready,” so the assailant removes his mask and is revealed to be Kaspar (who had told Stella to attend the school). Kaspar then slices Cecile open and uses a suction machine to drain her blood (explaining the cuts and suction injuries Cecile had). Gdula gleefully drinks Cecile’s blood. While they are distracted, Stella sneaks up and kills Kaspar. It is later revealed Kaspar was a former student and like a son to Gdula.

Gdula flees and Stella gives chase. When she corners him in his office, Gdula explained that Russian scientists during World War II theorized that drinking the blood of youths could extend longevity. Gdula discovered that being young was not enough, however, the youth also had to have their blood filled with emotion. He then developed his acting method to ensure that his students were perfectly emotional so that he could drain their blood to extend his life.

Stella stabs him in the hand. Gdula screams out that Stella is “ready” and his old student Lenka emerges, armed, from the shadows. Stella and Lenka scream and charge at each other, brandishing their weapons.

The film then cuts to a dream sequence where Stella is performing onstage. She gets a standing ovation. In the crowd are Cecile, Roza, and even her mother. The film then cuts to reality where it appears (but is somewhat unclear) that Stella is hanging upside down. Blood then covers her face, suggesting that she lost the battle and Gdula is draining and drinking her blood.

Order of Deaths: