“Halloween” To Use An Aged Myers Mask
Michael Myers’ mask has undergone some changes over the course of the various films, starting out originally as a painted William Shatner mask to undergoing numerous tweaks in the sequels and remakes.
With the upcoming film, a direct sequel to the original 1978 movie which ignores all the other sequels, the plan is to both go back to the original and shake things up with a couple of ageing effects. Make-up artist Christopher Nelson spoke with
Halloween News Daily and revealed how they approached the mask’s look for the new film:
“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 forty-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 forty 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 [director] David [Gordon Green] about how we were going to shoot it, and being very careful about it, very strategic about it, looking back at [original film director John] Carpenter and [director of photography] Dean Cundey and how they did that. That’s how I approached the mask.
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.”
We’ll see the mask in full action when the movie opens on October 19th, though we should get a glimpse of it long before then when the film’s first trailer comes out sometime this Summer.
