Why Michael Myers’ Burnt Mask In Halloween Kills Makes Him Even Scarier

After Michael Myers (Nick Castle/James Jude Courtney) gets trapped in Laurie Strode’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) burning house in 2018’s Halloween, his burnt mask will represent how brutal he will become in the upcoming Halloween Kills. Halloween Kills aims to amp up Michael Myers’ killing spree four decades after Laurie Strode faced him for the first time and shortly after she thought she had finished with him for good. Aside from a slew of returning characters, the trailer for the 2021 sequel showed an updated look for the famous killer.

The Halloween franchise is most famously known for two things: its ominous score and Michael Myers’ expressionless mask. The iconic mask hasn’t changed much across ten movies and multiple comic books, video games, and novels (except for the terrible mask from Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and Rob Zombie’s stylized reinvention). The eleventh cinematic installment, however, will bring an evident change to this aspect.

Unlike most of the previous movies, Halloween Kills promises to take Michael Myers out of the shadows and pit him against a large mob of Haddonfield residents, who know about his unspeakable crimes. He will be both vulnerable to the united forces of the angry mob and determined to get rid of them, which will require him to stop holding back when tormenting his victims. Director David Gordon Green has emphasized the intense violence of the sequel, which will include even more gore than Halloween 2018. The burnt mask is the perfect symbol to show how Michael Myers isn’t around to play games.

Michael’s invulnerability was a big factor regarding the horror of every previous Halloween movie, but it also became a trope that took away some credibility after so many inexplicable returns. It’s time for him to finally manifest that he has something to lose – if not his life, then his opportunity to keep killing. By making Michael Myers visibly vulnerable, the Halloween franchise gets to move the source of its horror from the slow dread of an unstoppable force to the brutality of a desperate maniac who has been pent-up for years.

Besides, the face of the franchise could also evolve for a new era. The stoic, blank stare all horror fans know by heart could make space for an increasingly scorched monstrosity, in harmony with a considerably more violent killer for the climactic culmination of Halloween Ends. Rob Zombie’s Halloween movies tried something similar, but they strayed too far away from John Carpenter’s style. In short, Michael Myers’ iconic mask can be visually shocking on its own. The next two Halloween movies will certainly bring great changes to the franchise, and a more graphic look for Michael Myers is the perfect way for Halloween Kills to depict a different kind of horror.

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