How Halloween Kills’ 1978 Michael Myers Mask Was Remade

Behind-the-scenes video shows the immense effort that went into making Michael Myers’ Halloween Kills mask look like the 1978 original. The masked and silent killer originally called The Shape made his memorable debut in John Carpenter’s seminal horror masterpiece Halloween.

Of course Carpenter’s masterful filmmaking technique was a big part of why Halloween went on to become a classic of horror. But one particular choice made during filming actually played a big role not only in the movie being horrifying but in its bad guy becoming one of the most iconic horror characters of all time. That choice of course was the decision to make Myers wear a pale and expressionless mask, giving the already menacing character an even more frighteningly inhuman dimension. Famously, the mask chosen for Myers was a simple latex Star Trek prop made from William Shatner’s face.

When it came time to bring Michael Myers back to screens again in 2020’s Halloween Kills, the make-up VFX designers were tasked with crafting a new mask that looked as much like the iconic original as possible. A new behind-the-scenes video from Universal Pictures All-Access in fact shows the incredible level of detail featured on the finished masked, right down to the air bubble in the corner of the mouth. See the clip in the space below:

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Audiences most likely would not have noticed had Halloween Kills’ Michael Myers mask not recreated the original down to each individual air-bubble and hair-swirl. But it’s still definitely good to know that the filmmakers put that much care into the creation of the mask, as they set out to bring one of the most iconic of all horror villains back to life one more time. All those efforts paid off too as the follow up to David Gordon Green’s Halloween reboot pulled in $131 million worldwide including $92 million domestic despite being available on Peacock at the same time it hit theaters.

Of course the journey is not over for Michael Myers after the carnage he unleashed in Halloween Kills, as another sequel Halloween Ends is already happening. Indeed it’s rather amazing to think that a horror villain spawned in a low-budget 1978 film, wearing a repurposed William Shatner mask, is still going strong on screens all these decades later. The denizens of Haddonfield may have set out to make sure that evil died in Halloween Kills but it’s clear that they did not succeed, as evil will continue to live in the form of Michael Myers for at least one more movie (with the possibility remaining open for still more sequels down the road).

Source: Universal Pictures All-Access

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