Editorials
Looking Back On Four Decades of Michael Myers’ Many Masks
This October brings the iconic mask of Michael Myers full circle, as Oscar-winning effects artist Christopher Nelson meticulously designed the new mask to look like the original 1978 mask aged over 40 years. The withered, deteriorated look of the new mask is effectively creepy and simultaneously invokes the nostalgia of the 1978 classic. While the original mask was a simple retooling of a William Shatner’s Captain Kirk mask, chosen for its lack of distinguishable facial features, the sequels that followed tinkered with the concept over and over, and mostly with weird results.
Spanning forty years, six sequels, and Rob Zombie’s two remake iterations of the icon, the mask of Michael Myers was in a constant state of change. In celebration of Halloween’s 40th anniversary and in anticipation of David Gordon Green’s Halloween, we look back at the many faces of The Shape.
Halloween (1978)
If we’re looking back at the many faces of Michael Myers, then it’s only appropriate to begin with the very first: the clown mask worn by a murderous Michael Myers, as a kid. But for the grown version of Myers, John Carpenter gave production designer Tommy Lee Wallace the instruction that the mask must be simple. Wallace rounded up four masks, one of which was Don Post’s Emmet Kelley sad clown face mask with red frizzy hair added to it. This one was an appropriate callback to the opening scene, but ultimately Wallace adhered to Carpenter’s wishes for the plainest option: William Shatner’s Captain Kirk mask. The eyebrows and sideburns were removed, the eyes cut open more, the hair teased, and the face painted matte white. And thus a horror icon was born. In the film, Michael Myers steals this mask from the hardware store after his escape from Smith’s Grove Sanitarium.
Halloween II
Surprise, this is the same mask from the original film. It aged a bit in the few years between films; Debra Hill kept the mask under her bed and her heavy chain smoking yellowed the mask a bit. The original actor of The Shape, Nick Castle, also was known to have stuffed the mask in his back pocket when not filming during the original production. In Halloween II, Dick Warlock took over the role. Considering he was shorter and stockier than Castle, he filled out the mask differently. So while it appears to be a different mask on screen, it’s one and the same.
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Michael Myers was resurrected from retirement after Halloween III: Season of the Witch failed to resonate with fans. While this is one of the more fun sequels in terms of mythology and story, it, unfortunately, boasts some of the worst masks in the franchise. That’s correct; masks. The crew had to start anew with the mask, as Warlock took possession of the original after Halloween II production ended. They tried to recreate the look, with not so great results. The eye holes were smaller, the eyebrows thicker, and the mask’s expression incredibly odd. The “hero mask” was the main mask used during production; however, reshoots meant that two additional masks were used. The most glaringly noticeable is the mask that features a blond Michael Myers (a throwback to Ben Tramer’s mask, perhaps?). The second, seen in the scene where Michael Myers kills the sheriff’s daughter, features a mask that resembles the original a little better. Not much, though. The inconsistent masks and the weird design of them meant this sequel ranks among fans’ least favorite iteration of Myers.
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
In terms of story, this mask is supposed to be the same as the previous film. It’s clearly not. It’s also in the running for worst mask of the franchise. Director Dominique Otherin-Girard wanted to humanize Michael Myers, opting for a human interpretation of evil. An odd choice, considering that a large part of what makes Michael Myers feel like a true Boogeyman, or even a great white shark, is the emotionless mask. This version makes Michael Myers look angry, and the symmetrical tear-shaped eye holes are just weird.
Halloween 5 also marks a rare instance where Michael Myers wears an entirely different type of mask. In a car scene, Michael Myers kills a jerk teen and steals his mask, dubbed the Brute. He wears it for a very brief period before discarding in favor of his traditional mask.
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
Whether you love or hate the Cult of Thorn mythology introduced in this polarizing sequel, fans generally agree that this iteration of the mask is a major step up from the previous two entries. There’s a more obvious effort to return to the original look from the first two films in this mask’s design. The hair is a bit more wild and disheveled, but that’s okay. At least it’s not blond.
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
This sequel wins the prize for most masks used in the film. When most of the films had one to two main mask used during production, this sequel had 4 or 5. There was a mask recast from the mask used in The Curse of Michael Myers, a mask designed and created by KNB FX, a Stan Winston company designed mask brought in for reshoots, and the embarrassing CGI mask.
Luckily, the CGI mask was used in only one scene of the film, and Winston’s version is the one seen in most of the film. H20 wins for having the worst mask continuity of the series, with Michael Myers’ look fluctuating throughout, but there’s some good mask work to be found within.
Halloween: Resurrection
On the one hand, this mask clearly hearkens back to the original. But on the other, this mask looks like Michael Myers might have taken to applying makeup. The design is similar to the 1978 iteration, but it looks like someone applied contouring and eyeliner to really play up Michael’s features. But hey, it’s still a step up from the masks in part 4 and 5.
Rob Zombie’s Halloween
As divisive as Rob Zombie’s remake is, the mask is universally loved. Though there are clear departures in narrative, this iteration of the mask feels very in line with the original. In this remake, Michael Myers obtains this mask right away, taking it from his sister’s boyfriend and wearing it while he murders her. When he retrieves it 15 years later from beneath the floorboards, it’s damaged and dingy in an effective way. This iteration of Michael Myers also had a penchant for making his own paper mache masks during his stay at the mental hospital.
Rob Zombie’s Halloween II
This mask’s design is a continuation from the previous film, showing even more wear and tear. It’s decayed, blood covered, shredded, and torn. Sounds great in theory, but it winds up revealing far too much of the human behind the mask. Considering the whole point of a mask is to hide the face wearing it, and that the mask is a big part of what makes Michael Myers so unnerving, you can bet this one wasn’t popular with fans.
The penultimate season of Tales from the Crypt (1989–1996) aired its first three episodes on October 31, so it’s understandable that at least one of those three stories is set on Halloween.
Sandwiched between “Let the Punishment Fit the Crime” (Russell Mulcahy, Ron Finley) and “Whirlpool” (Mick Garris, A. L. Katz & Gilbert Adler) is the most severe episode of the bunch. Maybe the entire series? William Malone and Dick Beebe’s “Only Skin Deep” traded the show’s typical sense of fun for startling amounts of bleakness and kink.
“Only Skin Deep” is, apart from the Crypt Keeper’s intro and outro, noticeably unfunny. There are no considerable attempts at making the viewer laugh. Come to think of it, if those bookends had been replaced, and there was more of a sci-fi element in the story, HBO could have easily squeezed this tale into that successor anthology, Perversions of Science (1997). In Crypt, though, “Only Skin Deep” is much too grim for an audience that had become accustomed to campiness and levity.
What makes “Only Skin Deep” feel dark, among other things, is its protagonist. Showing up to a Halloween party where he’s not welcome, and where his former girlfriend (Diane DiLasco) is attending, Carl Schlag (Peter Onorati) first comes across as your standard bitter ex. You soon realize it’s much worse than that, once Carl threatens Linda (“You know, silly me, thinking I gave you what you deserved. If I’d have done that, I’d have killed you”). Now, I haven’t forgotten that Tales from the Crypt was teeming with vile men who did women harm. Yet Carl’s brand of misogynistic menace hits differently—it borders on being too realistic for this kind of series.
Mike Vosburg’s EC-style comic cover for “Only Skin Deep”, as seen in the Tales from the Crypt episode.
Despite donning a party mask for much of the episode, Carl can’t ever mask his true nature. The invitation did say “come as you are”, after all. That inability to change and be better, however, is why Carl ends up in such a karmic predicament. His outburst of anger at the party attracts the attention of one loner partygoer named Molly (Sherrie Rose, who was also in Season Four’s “On a Deadman’s Chest”). Her bone-white, featureless “mask” and body-bag costume don’t initially register as too strange, especially on a night like this. But at a party chock-full of colorful, cartoonish, and lighthearted ensembles, it does look out of place.
Darkness attracts darkness as Carl ditches the party and accompanies the mysterious Molly to her place. Which, by the way, should have been an immediate red flag. But perhaps she’s so hot, he doesn’t seem to mind the serial killer aesthetic. Resembling a warehouse that has been converted into living spaces, but never then decorated to remove the cold, industrial look, Molly’s home (or lair) is as gloomy as this whole episode feels. It’s like the set of a grungy music video, albeit a tad cleaner. The environments in a typical Crypt episode tend to be small, overfilled, and broken-in. Warm, regardless of any weird goings-on. All that empty space in Molly’s hovel, on the other hand, elicits a creepy feeling that Carl was unwise to ignore.
Tales from the Crypt featured more sex than it didn’t, but hands down, “Only Skin Deep” boasts the steamiest scene in the show’s history. Pushing it over the line, in addition to Onorati showing bare buns and the camera never turning down one of his pelvic thrusts, is the twisted dirty talk. Carl stays in the moment, whereas Molly unleashes charged lines like “the hurt, the anger, give it to me” and “take it out on my flesh like you want to”. It’s all quite kinky, as well as tied into the story’s theme of pain.
How else “Only Skin Deep” differs from other episodes is its twists. Or rather, its lack thereof. Nothing comes as a great surprise here, particularly because the deuteragonist’s ulterior motives are so obvious. By no means is Molly a wolf in sheep’s clothing; her face is a fright mask, she practically reeks of death, and she lives in what can best be described as a serial killer’s hideout. That last-act revelation of Molly’s mask really being her face is also nothing shocking. Cleverness is certainly not this episode’s strength.
A page from “…Only Skin Deep!”, as seen in EC Comics’ Tales from the Crypt.
While “Only Skin Deep” isn’t the most universally loved episode of Tales from the Crypt, it’s an interesting preview of William Malone’s future as a director. Most notably, he went on to helm House on Haunted Hill (1999) and FeardotCom (2002), the former of which was co-written by Dick Beebe, this episode’s writer. Dark Castle Entertainment, that genre house founded by Crypt producers Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler, was instrumental in bringing out Malone’s gruesome, over-the-top vision in House on Haunted Hill. However, FeardotCom and Malone’s Masters of Horror episode, “Fair-Haired Child”, are the most stylistically compatible with “Only Skin Deep”.
As one might guess, this episode is nothing like its source material. The “…Only Skin Deep!” found in the pages of EC Comics is set during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and save for its last couple of pages, is pretty sweet in nature. There, a man named Herbert is enamored with a woman he met five years prior to the present-day story. Every year, he has come down to Mardi Gras to see Suzanne, who’s always dressed as a hag-faced witch. Well, this time, Herbert plans on popping the question and marrying someone who is, for the most part, a total stranger. Suzanne accepts his proposal, but with one condition: they stay in costume until they’re officially hitched. You can probably see where this is going…
Once they are married, Suzanne remains incognito, even when she and Herbert have consummated their vows. A semi-predictive nightmare then rattles Herbert; he dreamt that Suzanne’s real face was as wizened as her mask. Finally, in his haste to find out the truth, Herbert winds up killing his new wife. Faceless and well on her way to bleeding out, the dying Suzanne manages to say she never wore a mask.
For more traditional EC-style ghastliness, your best bet is reading the comic. It’s wickedly sad. For something less conventional, as far as Tales from the Crypt goes, the role-reversing adaptation is worth watching. It’s not the best this show had to offer, although Malone’s visual style, plus the sexual abandon, does set the episode apart. If nothing else, “Only Skin Deep” leaves an impression that, even years later, shows no signs of fading.
Season Six of Tales from the Crypt can be streamed on Shudder, starting on June 5.
Tales from Tales from the Crypt celebrates the show’s Shudder premiere by singling out one episode from each season. So don’t even think about changing that dial, boys and ghouls. More spot-“frights” are to come.
Carl discovers Molly’s collection of human ‘masks’ in the Tales from the Crypt episode, “Only Skin Deep”.
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