John Carpenter's original Halloween is the first installment in one of the most famous and successful horror movie franchises in film history. Halloween's popularity has endured since it was initially released in 1978, and it has been cemented within the horror genre as one of the pillars on which slasher movies stand.
The classic Halloween Michael Myers costume is now one of the most recognizable costumes in all of horror history, but across the many films, there are many details of all of the Halloween costumes that one probably didn't notice on the first viewing.
Updated on May 28th, 2021 by Melody MacReady: There are a total of eleven films in the Halloween franchise with four canonical timelines including the Rob Zombie reboot timeline. The upcoming Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends will make thirteen. With that many films with different writers, directors, and producers: the production on nearly every film of the series has been a rollercoaster. Even for the costume department, things don't always go right and as a result, things ended up becoming part of the Halloween legacy, even the mistakes. Also, there are plenty of details about costumes that many still end up missing years later or have become even more noticeable due to the quality in Blu-ray/4K releases getting better and better.
They Asked For Help From A Mask Making Company
Obviously, the mask that Michael Myers wears in Halloween is one of the most important aspects of the movie as a whole. Having the exact right mask for Michael Myers' debut in Halloween is an essential part of making this horror movie actually seem scary.
So it's no surprise that the producers of Halloween solicited the help of a mask-making company to create the perfect villainous face from scratch. They asked a company called Don Post Studios for their help and offered back endpoints on the movie's profits in exchange for that help, but the company declined.
The Mask Could Have Been Other Celebrities
The importance of choosing the right mask for Michael Myers certainly cannot be overstated. It could have been the difference between creating one of the most frightening and iconic movie villains of all time and creating a villain that feels like more of a joke than a real threat.
And although one particular celebrity face wound up being the face of Michael Myers in the end, there were other masks of famous people that were under consideration. The producers of Halloween considered using a Richard Nixon mask, an Emmett Kelly mask, and a Spock mask before deciding on their final choice.
The Same Mask Was In Halloween II
Common misconception viewers have is that Michael's mask changes between films. This is not true: the mask only appears different due to the actor's different facial structure and the worn nature of the mask. The mask in Halloween II is the same prop used in the first film.
In the time between films, the mask had been collecting dust under producer Debra Hill's bed. Even some of the paint had worn off and when Dick Warlock took over, it was stretched to fit him.
The Costumes Were The Cast's Clothes
Although Halloween is now one of the most famous, successful, and long-running franchises in the history of horror films, no one had any idea that it would become the success it is now. The movie was initially being produced on an ultra shoestring budget of about $300,000, which meant that there was basically $0 available to buy a wardrobe for the cast.
But since the cast is mostly populated by average people living average lives, the production just had the cast members use their own clothes as their on-screen wardrobe. It was certainly the cheaper and more convenient choice for the production.
Jamie Lee Curtis Bought Laurie's Clothes At JC Penney
The cast members of Halloween provided their own wardrobe for the movie because the production just didn't have even a couple of hundred dollars to shell out on costumes for the characters, but the film's lead actress Jamie Lee Curtis went slightly above and beyond what the producers had asked and expected of the cast members.
In order to create a specific character style for Laurie Strode, Jamie Lee Curtis went shopping for her own wardrobe. And even though Jamie is the daughter of superstars Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, she went to the department store JC Penney to shop for all of Laurie's clothes.
Laurie's Wardrobe Cost Under $100
Obviously, we need to look at the cost of Laurie Strode's on-screen wardrobe relatively, because in the late 1970s a hundred dollars was worth a lot more and went a lot further than it does today. But even in that era, it was pretty impressive to score an entire wardrobe for a lead character in a movie for under a hundred dollars.
Jamie Lee Curtis was presumably raised in a world where money was no object, but apparently, she really knows how to get a lot of bang for her buck, especially since she was literally the one paying for the clothes she wore in the movie.
Five Different People Donned The Michael Myers Costume
Michael Myers is an incredibly effective movie villain for a lot of reasons, but the biggest is probably that he is literally the boogeyman in real life. He's a silent, diligent, and inscrutable killer who doesn't even have a face or anything to distinguish himself as a human.
But even fans of the movie have no idea how indistinct his character really was because a grand total of five different people donned the Michael Myers costume for different scenes. One actor did do the majority of his scenes, but sometimes they just slapped the costume on any random person who was on set and available to do it.
H20 Had A Lot Of Trouble With Masks
For one reason or another, there are several masks used throughout Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. In the prologue, Michael wears a reused mask from Halloween: The Curse Of Michael Myers. Then throughout, the filmmakers used an unflattering mask that made Michael look similar to a grey alien.
Many scenes were reshot to that closeups featured a much more appealing mask. Once seen, it's pretty noticeable how many times Michael's mask seems to morph just between cuts. However, this was not the most egregious mask issue in H20.
There Was a CGI Mask
Yes, this actually happened and it is baffling for many fans. Due to being unable to refilm one scene with the better mask, the actor instead filmed the scene without a mask altogether. What was their solution? Digitally implement a mask over the actor's face and it is painfully fake.
The lighting doesn't match and the fidelity makes it look like a scene from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Thankfully, the CGI mask is only used for one scene but it remains one of the more infamously mocked aspects of H20.
Halloween 4 Also Had A Mask Problem
The main mask in Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers is mocked as well. However, fans overlook it since the film is still a cult gem of the many sequels. Little do many know that there was a mask error in one scene where Loomis is attacked.
When Michael attacks Loomis, Michael is wearing a pink mask with bleach blond hair. This was simply the result of a mistake that made the first batch of masks come out the wrong color. Since there wasn't any time to rush and make new masks, they filmed the school attack scene with the pink mask.
The Mask Was Almost A Clown Mask
The decision on what exact mask that Michael Myers was going to be wearing throughout Halloween was one of the biggest and most thought-out decisions for the entire movie. The blank white face that everyone now recognizes as Michael Myers was obviously the mask that the producers chose in the end, but one of the biggest contenders for the mask was a clown mask.
It was an understandable option, as many people were already afraid of clowns, and putting Michael in a clown mask would give a kind of deranged and gleeful attitude to this silent and stony killer.
Which Was Why Michael Was Dressed As A Clown
One of the reasons that the clown mask was such a strong contender as the mask of Michael Myers in Halloween is because of Michael's first murder. When Michael is just a little boy, he inexplicably murders his older sister on Halloween night.
And because it's Halloween, Michael is in a costume, more specifically a clown costume. So aside from the general fear of clowns and how creepy their masks can be, the creators of Halloween considered making the Michael Myers mask a clown mask as a call back to Michael's very first murder. And while the connection made sense, their final choice was clearly the best one.
Rob Zombie's Halloween Used The Clown Mask Idea
Though Tyler Mane's Michael Myers does end up with the iconic mask, he wears a few others throughout Rob Zombie's Halloween. In the asylum in which Michael and Loomis have their years of sessions together, Michael constructs several masks of his own.
One of them is a clown mask and a genuinely creepy one too. There was also a pumpkin mask which could be interpreted as a reference to the Silver Shamrock pumpkinhead mask from Halloween III: Season Of The Witch.
But It's Actually A William Shatner Mask
This one is strangely unsettling, but the creepy blank face that Michael Myers has worn through a million different Halloween movies is actually that of William Shatner. The mask that was used was specifically a mask of Star Trek character James T. Kirk.
This rubberized copy of Shatner's face has become one of the scariest and most iconic masks in horror history. But necessity is the mother of invention, and it was undoubtedly very convenient that this low-budget film managed to make a scary mask out of a cheap Star Trek Halloween mask.
And The Mask Has Been Modified
James T. Kirk may be the obvious face that is hiding within the classic Halloween mask, but clearly, the mask itself has been modified to the point where no one would recognize it as William Shatner unless it was pointed out to them, to begin with.
The most obvious modification is that it's been painted white, but it has also had its eyebrows and sideburns removed, its hair has been painted brown, and the holes for the eyes have been cut out to be even larger. And this mask was ultimately chosen because when they tested it out with the crew it was pretty much unanimously considered to be the creepiest option.