In the battle of horror movie masks, Jason Vorhees of “Friday the 13th” and Ghostface of “Scream” don’t hold a candle to that progenitor of fear, Michael Myers.
The idea of donning the cold, pale, puffy, expressionless face of the greatest slasher of all time originated in John Carpenter’s 1978 classic “Halloween,” starring Jamie Lee Curtis as tortured suburban babysitter Laurie Strode. And his mug was instantly unforgettable.
In a review, Post reviewer Archer Winston described Michael, also known as “The Shape”, as “the embodiment of evil, Satan himself.”
And it was important that poor Laurie’s pursuer should have a look that matched his threat.
The surprising origin of Michael’s first mask is, oddly enough, the final frontier in a low-budget horror film. This is an altered Captain Kirk costume from “Star Trek”.
“It was a very simple case of taking an existing [William Shatner] mask and modifying it in some ways,” its creator Tommy Lee Wallace Told Shawn Clark of Horror’s Hallowed Grounds on Youtube.
“One good thing came from this, because none of us were prepared for the impact of this,” he said.
“It was an incredibly terrifying, visceral effect. And we knew we were in business – that we were going to have a scary movie even before we got to a scary story.
However, Shatner, nobody was very happy When he saw his rough reflection on the screen in Carpenter’s masterpiece.
“I thought, ‘Is this a joke? Are they joking?'” the 93-year-old “Star Trek” actor said on his YouTube channel.
At first glance when watching 1981’s “Halloween II” it appears that Myers’ mask has received an artistic revamp. But it’s actually the same piece that was used in the original, just with some wear and tear.
Legend has it that producer Debra Hill kept the item in a shoebox under her bed in the years between production.
The object turned yellow due to its heavy smoking.
Also, “The Shape” changed shape. The actor playing Michael was no longer Nick Castle, but Dick Warlock, a stunt performer with a very large head.
After a one-film break (No. 3, 1982’s “Season of the Witch” had a completely Michael-free storyline), 1988’s “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers” brought back the OG villain. Nonetheless, “Return” was and is controversial among fans.
The killer’s face turned ridiculously white, and for a moment the mask practically crossed over to Barbie land – turning pink with blonde hair. All this mess was caused by a factory glitch.
Makeup designer Ken Horn said, “I didn’t get a chance to see those masks until we actually got on set.” In a making-of video,
“I opened the box and there were six of them, and they were pink [blonde] Hair. And I was like ‘That’s not right! It is believed that it will be white with gray hair. And I told the manufacturer that it should be replaced.
Ultimately, “I actually had to repaint the mask white and draw stripes on the tip [blonde] The hair was dyed brown to make it look like Michael Myers, upside down,” Horn said. “And that’s why it had a bumpy texture.”
But that bright and colorful mishap was accidentally spoiled in one quick scene.
“I remember at some point someone said ‘Michael Myers’ hair isn’t blonde! The mask is brown!'” Scream queen Danielle Harris, who played young Jamie Lloyd, said in the video.
“And there was some kind of scuffle and fighting going on.”
The Shape returned to action in 1998’s “Halloween H20: 20 Years Later”, when Curtis returned to the franchise. The audience absolutely hated Myers’ new accessory.
“It became a nightmare,” Curtis admitted during a conversation on stage Years later.
“If you ever watch ‘H20,’ the truth is that we shot the entire movie, and [then] In the final weeks of filming Miramax called and said they hated the masks. And I think we reshot 10 days of work to make the mask look different. And it became a crazy, frantic process.”
The extra work didn’t help matters. And, today, Curtis sides with the film’s detractors.
“You watch the movie and, excuse me, it stinks!” He said. “Not the film, but the mask.” Not feeling good. They chose the wrong mask.”
Then came Rob Zombie’s “Halloween” and “Halloween II”. Both were panned by critics and rejected by audiences, but audiences have generally appreciated the adoption of the slasher’s iconic appearance.
“It was my decision to maintain and create the classic Michael Myers mask [the setting] Haddonfield and Dr. Loomis and all this stuff,” Zombie told Cinema.com“I kept trying to think about it as a fan.”
However, in 2018 everyone was on board for David Gordon Green’s acclaimed franchise reboot.
For the movie whose name was — wait for it — “Halloween,” makeup artist Christopher Nelson took charge and wanted the coverings to be appropriate not only for the actor, but also for the new story.
“The mask is 40 years old in the context of this story, so I studied a lot of 40-year-old masks, and how they warped, and how they decayed, and how they deteriorated, and just wanted to do that. Tried to take a cinematic license, and bring that character back to life,” Nelson told Entertainment Weekly,
“This slip is made of latex, like all Halloween masks are. So, we went old school. “We wanted it to be a Halloween mask and it is.”
Just as that trilogy was coming to a close with 2021’s “Halloween Ends,” Nelson again took a visual left turn.
“When it came to The Mask, I definitely didn’t want to just recreate 2018 or ‘Kills,'” he said in a DVD featurette.
“Michael Myers has a completely different vibe in this movie. With this it was harder because you can easily go too far and have debris of a mask and debris of a character that blends into the background. You have to maintain a look that fans can recognize. So the idea for me was to strip it down to bare latex.”
And, to think, five decades of memorable scares began with the captain of the starship Enterprise.
