This Scary Ass Mask Is Pure Nightmare Fuel [Video]

In the seminal 1987 motion picture Spaceballs, a feature-length parody of the original Star Wars trilogy, Rick Moranis plays the villain of the piece, a nerdy and irritable fellow cloaked in black armor. Instead of Darth Vader, he is called Dark Helmet. It’s the perfect later-period Mel Brooks travestying of an icon. On one hand, it’s an incredibly weak joke: no deeper meaning, wordplay, or even a common pun, without any particular affinity for imitating the George Lucas style. “Dark” sounds like “Darth,” and “Helmet,” uh, is what he wears. On the other hand, it’s a perfect expression of disdain: Yes, that’s pretty much the whole deal with Darth Vader, especially in the first Star Wars movie. He wears a dark helmet. In Brooks’ simplicity, he savages Lucas’s.

In 1987, helmets figured heavily into Star Wars, but they had their limits. Vader’s helmet was memorably removed during the climax of Return of the Jedi, at the character’s own insistence, revealing the …