Masked villain

{{Short description|Character type}}

File:Hooded Terror.jpg, which defined the "masked mystery villain" type]]

File:Darth Vader - 2007 Disney Weekends.jpg, the masked villain from Star Wars]]

A masked villain, also seen as masked mystery villain,{{cite book |last=Van Hise |first=James |date=1990 |title=Serial Adventures |publisher=Pioneer Books |page=46 |isbn=9781556982361}}{{cite book |editor1-last=Lupoff |editor1-first=Richard A. |editor2-last=Thompson |editor2-first=Don |date=1970 |title=All in color for a dime |publisher=Arlington House |page=92 |isbn=9780870000621}} is a stock character in genre fiction. It was developed and popularized in movie serials, beginning with The Hooded Terror in The House of Hate, (1918) the first fully-costumed mystery villain of the movies, and frequently used in the adventure stories of pulp magazines and sound-era movie serials in the early twentieth century,Brasch, I., & Mayer, R. (2016). Modernity management: 1920s cinema, mass culture and the film serial. Screen, 57(3), 302-315. as well as postmodern horror films{{cite book |last=Heller-Nicholas |first=Alexandra |date=2019 |title=Masks in Horror Cinema: Eyes Without Faces |location= |publisher=University of Wales Press |pages=52, 68, ? |isbn=978-1-78683-496-6}} where the character "hides in order to claim unsuspecting victims".{{cite book |last=Jess-Cooke |first=Carolyn |date=2009 |title=Film Sequels: Theory and Practice from Hollywood to Bollywood |location=Edingburgh |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |page=56 |isbn=978-0-7486-2603-8}} They can also appear in crime fiction to add to the atmosphere of suspense and suspicion. It is used to engage the readers or viewers by keeping them guessing just as the characters are, and suspension by drawing on the fear of the unknown.{{rp|135}} The "Mask" need not be literal (although it often is), referring more to the subterfuge involved.

The masked villain originated in early 20th-century French literature and cinema. Key early examples include Zigomar, created by Léon Sazie in 1909, a masked criminal who led the "Gang of Z" and inspired three films directed by Victorin Jasset: Zigomar, roi des voleurs, Zigomar contre Nick Carter and Zigomar, peau d'anguille.{{Cite book |last=Gaycken |first=Oliver |url=https://www.google.com.br/books/edition/Devices_of_Curiosity/7fJgBwAAQBAJ?hl=pt-BR&gbpv=1&dq=zigomar+serial+Victorin+Jasset+1913&pg=PA159&printsec=frontcover |title=Devices of Curiosity: Early Cinema and Popular Science |date=2015-05-01 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-027325-5 |language=en}} Another major figure is Fantômas, created by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre in 1911, a master of disguise who became a cultural icon through five silent serials directed by Louis Feuillade: Fantômas (1913), Juve contre Fantômas (1913), Le Mort Qui Tue (1913), Fantômas contre Fantômas (1914), and Le Faux Magistrat (1914).{{Cite book |last=Gaycken |first=Oliver |url=https://www.google.com.br/books/edition/Devices_of_Curiosity/7fJgBwAAQBAJ?hl=pt-BR&gbpv=1&dq=zigomar+serial+Victorin+Jasset+1913&pg=PA159&printsec=frontcover |title=Devices of Curiosity: Early Cinema and Popular Science |date=2015-05-01 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-027325-5 |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Kehr |first=Dave |date=2010-09-17 |title=When Fantômas Held All of Paris in His Criminal Thrall |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/movies/homevideo/19kehr.html |access-date=2025-04-28 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

They are the often main antagonist of the story, often acting behind the scenes with henchmen confronting the protagonists directly. Usually, the protagonists must discover the villain's true identity before they can be defeated.{{cite journal |last=Bah |first=Aisha |date=2018 |title=Cultural Transgression and Subversion: The Abject Slasher Subgenre |url=https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1093&context=the-mall |journal=The Mall |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=72–83 |access-date=2021-04-19}} Often, the villain will turn out to be either one of the protagonists themselves, or a significant supporting character. The author may give the viewer or reader clues, with many red herrings, as to the villain's identity - sometime as the characters find them and sometimes for the audience alone. However, the identity is not usually revealed to the audience before it is revealed to the characters of the story.