The best and worst Michael Myers Halloween masks

For over 40 years, the Halloween franchise has been related to one character and one masks: Michael Myers and his clean, white visage. (He even seems within the stand-alone Halloween III: Season of the Witch courtesy of a “Heh heh. Get it?” business taking part in on a TV.) Famously the results of taking a William Shatner Star Trek masks and retooling it to supply much more senseless evil, that masks is true there with Jason Voorhees’ infamous hockey masks in terms of embodying the slasher style as an entire.

However, not the entire masks are constructed equally. As the Halloween collection progressed, varied redesigns would trigger a Rise and Fall and Rise of kinds, and for those who’re the form of one that deeply cares (the proper of individual) you’ll discover each provides Michael a distinctly completely different vibe.

Halloween (1978): The Classic

Michael Myers in his original white mask leans over a stair bannister and holds a knife ominously in Halloween.

The romantic very best of the Michael Myers masks, the unique works so properly primarily as a result of the director of the movie, John Carpenter, is so adept at understanding the place shadows are imagined to be. The cheekbones present slightly underline in darkish close-ups so it doesn’t appear to be Myers is sporting a mayonnaise container on his head, and very hardly ever do you see Michael’s precise eyes, lending him that inhuman high quality of “The Shape.” Combine that with the slight tussle in his hair and you may have a grade-A maniac masks, one that absolutely alienates the viewers from any type of human connection or empathy.

Halloween II (1981): The Dye Job

Michael Myers in his old-school mask, but now with redder hair, walks toward the camera menacingly in Halloween II

The masks in Halloween II isn’t too dissimilar from the primary, however there’s one key distinction: The hair has been given a brownish contact, and relying on the sunshine, it could possibly look redder and even blonder. It’s additionally rather more slicked-back right here, making Michael appear to be he’s already sporting a toupee to relive his glory days from three years earlier. It’s not a nasty masks, however simply as a lot of Halloween II is the franchise working extra time to maintain up with the slasher wave that it helped encourage, it does really feel like a rushed product.

Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers (1988): The Bland One

An endless array of Michael Myers, in his emotionless white mask and holding a knife, in a mirror in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.

Story-wise, the truth that Myers would nab a masks that solely barely appears like his authentic in a sequel set 10 years after is sensible. At this level, the corporate producing them has in all probability modified arms a few occasions within the Reagan ’80s. The masks has had the entire cool particulars eliminated and now has the “bought it at CVS Pharmacy at 6:04 p.m. on Oct. 31 in a panic just before trick-or-treating” look. It’s a disgrace it appears so low-cost and corny in each single shot as a result of in any other case, Return is a reasonably nice Halloween film with a great deal of environment.

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989): The Bottom of the Barrel

A shaggy Michael Myers stiffly extends his arm above his head, ready to stab a kneeling woman in a white dress, in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.

It’s a debate that’s raged for hundreds of years, or, ya know, no less than because the ’90s. Which masks is worse: the one from 1988 or 1989? Return’s is bereft of any menacing options to an ironic extent and Revenge has options, however all of the flawed ones. The neck is approach too massive, that means the rubber is left simply form of flapping across the stuntman’s throat. Meanwhile, the nostril is approach too skinny, which, when blended with the grungy hair, provides it an actual Timothée Chalamet vibe.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995): The Goofball

Michael Myers’ mask in Halloween VI, with a blank expression and not much visibility into the eyes.

After a six-year hiatus, the Halloween franchise would return with a masks that’s slightly higher than the one within the earlier two installments. This one has scruffy hair and a clean expression, however that expression doesn’t exude pure unreasonable malice; as a substitute, it’s a puppy-dog innocence that appears like Michael Myers is having hassle with a trivia query always. The confusion is sensible, although — at this level within the franchise, the Halloween lore had spiraled uncontrolled, shedding the unique intent of faceless, unexplainable evil and as a substitute having Myers remodel into an incestuous bull stud for a Celtic-themed doomsday cult.

Halloween H20 (1998): The Mixed Bag

Michael Myers in H20, with much larger eye holes in the mask, looks at a scared person.

Returning the franchise to its roots, ignoring the previous 4 sequels, and reintroducing Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode character to the collection undoubtedly made for a sleeker expertise. If solely the masks may sustain. There are a number of masks used all through H20, together with CGI ones. But if we needed to grade it on the principle Myers masks, the one which seems through the iconic scene the place a horrified Laurie will get face-to-face with Michael via a tiny window, the outcomes are fairly uneven. The masks element is there, however with out Carpenter’s shadows (with the ability to see his extensive eyes so clearly on a regular basis does no favors for Michael’s mystique) and with an onion-tuft of hair, there’s little in the best way of outcomes.

Halloween Resurrection (2002): The EVIL One

Michael Myers, surrounded by flames, wears a mask with arched eyebrows and a more distinct nose. He holds a bloody knife.

Perhaps probably the most notorious movie within the collection, Halloween Resurrection would kill off Laurie Strode in its opening sequence and introduce Busta Rhymes as a roundhouse-kicking actuality TV producer. In quick, it’s a bizarre watch. That mentioned, the masks used isn’t too dangerous, so long as you want your Michael to look very visibly evil. The extraordinarily arched eyebrows, painted shadows, and sad cheeks make Michael look downright crabby, an previous man now in his seventh installment having to place up with vapid, sexy teenagers that need to achieve stardom in his childhood dwelling.

Halloween (2007): The Scarred Model

Michael Myers with shaggy hair wears a orange mask that’s all roughed up with cuts and slits

In reinventing Michael Myers through the horror remake arms race of the mid-aughts, director Rob Zombie layers his Myers masks with dust and blemishes. It’s the results of having been left below some floorboards for 15 years, and it doesn’t look so dangerous — on the very least, it seems to be the product of an precise artist and not a frantic sprint to a Spirit Halloween. We get to see an in depth reproduction of the unique, too, within the movie’s first act — a quick nod to followers of the collection earlier than Zombie goes and does no matter he desires with it.

Halloween II (2009): The Beard

Tyler Mane’s bearded face peers out from behind a tattered Michael Myers mask in Halloween II.

With much more scarring and actor Tyler Mane’s huge beard poking out of the neck of it, the masks from Rob Zombie’s second go-round with the collection is both a travesty or a testomony to an artist’s potential to divert from the supply materials. Zombie takes much more liberties when he has one in every of Myers’ victims claw off a tough third of the masks, leaving Myers with one seen eye and one below the masks. Visually, it appears fairly rad, particularly when the masked eye is bathed in darkness, and is a pleasant stability to all of the occasions Zombie decides to only have Michael stroll round maskless, having fun with the autumn breeze.

Halloween (2018): The Old Man

The masked Michael Myers in the 2018 film Halloween, looking quite haggard and glancing to the right.

Like Zombie’s weathered method, the masks within the direct sequel to the primary Halloween can be aged. But this time, we’re provided a number of extra wrinkles and a ton of mud — that means that this masks, like Michael, has been locked away to be forgotten about. Of course, that doesn’t occur, and Michael is again to strolling round Haddonfield like within the good previous days. For probably the most half, the masks works, and not like Michael’s final (now non-canonical) household reunion with Laurie Strode, it retains the eyes hidden and the expression impenetrable.

Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween Ends (2022): The Two-Face

Michael Myers emerges from a burning house in Halloween Kills. The background is mostly flame.

Thanks to a fireplace on the finish of the 2018 movie, Michael’s masks in Halloween Kills (and the upcoming Halloween Ends) has a Harvey Dent-esque burn down one facet. In darkness, it appears fairly cool — the little bits of charred rubber protruding from the facet add some neat intricacies to what’s now the eleventh design within the collection. Meanwhile, in plain sight, it’s nonetheless recognizably Michael. And because the collection has confirmed through the years, that’s all you’ll be able to actually ask for.