While the design of the white mask worn by iconic HALLOWEEN slasher Michael Myers would change slightly from film to film depending on which special effects artists were making it, the mask usually looked pretty clean and unblemished. Unlike the mask of fellow slasher Jason Voorhees, Myers' mask didn't tend to wear and tear or take much in the way of battle damage. Even if a mask were destroyed at the end of one film, Myers would find a nice new one in the next.
That changed in Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN remake, where Myers put on a cracked and rotted mask after hiding it away in less than ideal conditions for fifteen years. In Zombie's HALLOWEEN II, the thing was so rotten and ripped that it was falling off the slasher's face.
This October we'll be getting a new entry in the HALLOWEEN franchise, and while it serves as a direct sequel to the original 1978 film, ignoring the events of every HALLOWEEN sequel and reboot that came between, co-writer Danny McBride has said that the sequel will have nods to the films its story is ignoring. We've seen proof of that – the hospital from HALLOWEEN II and a sign from HALLOWEEN 4 have both been referenced in images from the set.
Apparently there will be a nod to Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN in that Michael Myers will not be wearing a nice, clean new mask in the new film. Wherever Myers has been in the 40 years since the first movie, he didn't lose track of his mask while the decades passed. When he returns this Halloween, the mask he'll be wearing will be presented as being the same mask he wore when he stalked babysitter Laurie Strode back in 1978.
This information was revealed to Halloween Daily News by effects artist Christopher Nelson, who said,
The first order of business, of course, was the mask. I have a strong working knowledge of the original mask, and what the second one was about, and all the masks (of the sequels) and who did them and what they looked like. The point was to get back to the original, and to bring Michael Myers to life again, to bring that character, that feeling that you get – I really approached it more as a feeling than I did trying to copy the original mask.
The film takes place 40 years later, so you’re not going to have that same mask, it’s not going to be this pristine, beautiful thing that it was in 1978. You have to approach it from that standpoint. I had 40-year-old masks that I studied and looked at how they broke down, how they wrinkled, how they did this and how they did that. I also took into account the context of the film. Where is the mask now and where has it been for these 40 years? Without revealing anything, I took that into context. I had hundreds of photos and books.
I mostly really wanted to capture that feeling you got when you saw Michael Myers. I was also talking to David about how we were going to shoot it, and being very careful about it, very strategic about it, looking back at Carpenter and Dean Cundey and how they did that. That’s how I approached the mask. I’m very happy with it. I think it’s going to be cool. I wanted to create the character of Michael Myers, not just the mask. You’re not creating just a mask. You’re creating a character. You’re creating a feeling that you get that does have an expression. The mask does have an expression, but also the mask looks completely different in every single angle it’s ever been photographed at, and I wanted that feeling too. I wanted the feeling that when you saw Michael Myers, it morphs, it changes, it looks different from every single angle, like the original one did. I can safely say we accomplished that."
The new HALLOWEEN was directed by David Gordon Green, who wrote the script with McBride. Jamie Lee Curtis returns to the role of
Laurie Strode, who comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.
Michael Myers is played by stuntman James Jude Courtney and original Myers performer Nick Castle. They are joined in the cast by Judy Greer as Laurie's daughter Karen; Andi Matichak as Karen's daughter Allyson; Miles Robbins, Virginia Gardner, Dylan Arnold, and Drew Scheid as Allyson's Haddonfield High classmates; Will Patton and Rob Niter as police officers; Rhian Rees as a character named Dana; and Diva Tyler as a caretaker.
Original HALLOWEEN director John Carpenter served as an executive producer on this sequel and is composing the score.
The new HALLOWEEN is set to be released on October 19th, but hopefully we'll be getting a look at Michael Myers' aged mask well before then.
If you want to see what the actual mask from the original film looks like now, you can see that HERE.