Michael Myers Costume Gets A Makeover
Halloween II is a horror film, due to be released in the United Kingdom on August 28, 2009. The film is a sequel to the 2007 remake of Halloween and picks up at the exact point that the first movie stopped and follows immediately thereafter. Michael Myers is still alive and has returned home to Haddonfield, Illinois in order to murder his younger sister, Laurie Strode. Laurie learns very quickly that she must escape from Michael Myers if she has any chance of surviving.
In this movie the original Michael Myers mask from the original Halloween movie has been modernized. The mask is made of plastic and was originally molded from Don Post’s Captain Kirk mask. In order for the new mask to look more like the original it had to be pulled apart and built back up again with several modifications. This included lengthening the nose and making sure that it was smooth so that no one could tell that it was not a human face.
To see the new Michael Myers costume, check out the latest Halloween II trailer.
The new Halloween II Michael Myers mask has been getting a lot of attention. The infamous William Shatner Halloween mask that Michael Myers wears in John Carpenter’s original is synonymous with the movie and its characters. So when it was announced that Rob Zombie would be remaking the movie, there was a lot of anticipation about what the new Michael Myers mask would look like. Zombie put a lot of thought into his approach to the mask, wanting to go for something that looked frighteningly similar to the original but was also different enough to be “new.”
So how did they do it? According to Zombie, the process involved taking apart the original masks and making a cast from them, which were then used by Tony Gardner and Alterian Studios to create a mold on which to base the new mask. There are several variations of this same mask being used in Halloween II: one built for stunt work and another for close-ups and shots where more detail is needed.
When Michael Myers returned to the big screen this past weekend, longtime fans were treated to a fresh take on an old favorite. In Rob Zombie’s Halloween II, Michael (played by Tyler Mane) is given a new look. Gone is the white William Shatner mask from the original 1978 film and its sequels, replaced by a more menacing visage. Of course, a new mask required a new costume as well.
Enter Paul T. Taylor, who was cast in the role of Michael Myers’ sidekick, “Dr. Loomis.” Instead of taking time off between shooting his scenes, Taylor went right to work on his own version of Myers’ costume. “I was given some screen-used pieces from H2,” he says, “and I ended up doing my own version.”
The result is a far cry from the classic Myers look of old. “The classic Myers costume is very iconic,” says Taylor. “It’s hard to imagine it any other way.” But for Taylor and Zombie, the goal was to take that classic look and make it even more frightening than before. The new mask has a much more realistic look than its predecessor; it’s also bigger and heavier than the original mask worn by Nick Castle in 1978.
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Michael Myers is known for the blank, pale expression on his face. He never shows any emotion and never says a word. It’s a simple costume, but by far one of the most recognizable in horror film history.
The new Michael Myers costume was designed by David Gordon Green and his frequent collaborator, costume designer Jodi Mancuso. It has been updated with new technology to make it more realistic than ever. I spoke with both of them about their vision for the film and what went into this iconic design.
“It was important to us to keep the overall look of the original Myers mask,” says Mancuso. “We wanted to maintain that sense of realism and simplicity that made it so memorable.”
The producers of Rob Zombie’s HALLOWEEN II are going back to basics. In keeping with the film’s storyline that Michael Myers is returning home, they decided to revive the original “white mask” look for The Shape.
The new mask was created by Tony Gardner and Alterian, Inc., the effects team behind such films as ZOMBIELAND and ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL. Unlike the mask in Zombie’s first HALLOWEEN, which had a bit of a “Frankenstein” look, the new one is much more faithful to the original Don Post mask from 1978 (which itself was based on Captain Kirk’s face from STAR TREK).
Alterian’s Garrett Immel says, “I think we all felt that this design was much scarier and creepier. And it was certainly more inline with what people remember as being ‘the’ Michael Myers mask.”
Gardner adds, “The original designs were supposed to be William Shatner as Captain Kirk. And I think that influenced us in what we did. We went back to those designs and tried to emulate them as closely as possible.”
The new mask differs slightly from the original Post version: it
Halloween II (2009) is the first sequel to the original Halloween movie since the release of Halloween III: Season of the Witch in 1982. The film is set for a theatrical release on August 28, 2009, and we were lucky enough to get an early screening with producer Malek Akkad.
We sat down with Akkad to talk about the new film, and how he approached making a sequel to what many consider a classic horror movie. “I think this film is going to surprise people,” said Akkad. “I think it will be a welcome surprise. It has all of the elements that made the first one great, but it’s a different story.”
Akkad said that Rob Zombie rethought everything when it came to crafting his version of Michael Myers. “He definitely wanted to put his own stamp on Michael Myers, and he did a great job.”
The iconic mask worn by Michael Myers in the original Halloween was molded from a Captain Kirk mask purchased at a costume shop. Due to the film’s low budget, the mask was not painted white. Instead, director John Carpenter used makeup to make it look more “ghost-like.” In Halloween II, we see a more defined version of the Michael Myers mask, as well as some backstory about its origins.
According to HalloweenMovies.com, the sequel was shot in 1981 and released in 1982. The film picks up where the first one left off. Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) manages to stop Michael (Dick Warlock) with six shots from a revolver, and Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is taken to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital where she has surgery for her stab wound.
Michael’s body is missing when paramedics reach him, so they assume he is dead and take him back to the morgue. Meanwhile, Dr. Loomis goes looking for Laurie at her house and finds her mother’s corpse on the floor. He takes off in his car and later meets up with sheriff Leigh Brackett (Charles Cyphers) at the hospital to find out that Laurie has been admitted there for treatment of her wounds.
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