Every Halloween, we ask ourselves the question, “why does Michael Myers wear a mask?” Here at Ready Steady Cut, we attempt to give as many answers to this question as best as we possibly can.
As far as slasher movies go, one of the most obvious tropes is the visage of the monster involved in the killings. If you were to ask a selection of horror movie fans who their favorite recurring teenage murdering psychopaths were, it’s likely you would hear the majority of voices echoing the likes of Jason, Clown Face, or Leatherface, and one of the main attributes they have is an iconic mask.
Often these masks can vary wildly from the mundane to the horrific, but there is one masked killer that manages to combine both, Michael Myers from the insanely enduring Halloween franchise is almost instantly recognizable, yet his mask is pretty much just a normal, if pale, human face. It makes you wonder why he even wears it at all, but there may be reasons within the Halloween Universe, as well as the real world, that requires Michael to wear a mask. Let’s explore.
Why does Michael Myers wear a mask?
For the sake of context, most of the suppositions within this article will predominantly focus on Halloween and Halloween 2 from writers and directors John Carpenter and Debra Hill.
In the first instance, it should be noted that on the fateful night that Michael murders his sister, he does it while wearing a Halloween mask on, obviously, Halloween night. The mask is a store-bought traditional clown mask, the kind that lots of kids would wear to Trick or Treat, and the reveal to the audience in that opening scene comes when the mask is taken off his face by his stunned parents.
The mask here reveals Michael to be the killer, and despite an overly long take where nobody seems to do anything, it is the unmasking that shows the viewers, and the other characters, the horror of the recent events.
When Michael eventually escapes the sanitorium where he has been housed for 15 years, it would seem that one of his first instincts, apart from killing everybody, is to get another mask.
As the plot of the first Halloween unfolds, we see Michael stalking Laurie on October 31st. It is quite clearly daylight, and we see various scenes with Michael walking through Haddonfield.
What would happen if Michael Myers did not wear a mask?
Without a mask, it would be easy for people to identify Michael. Bear in mind he has just escaped from his asylum, and Donald Pleasance is on his trail, so wearing a mask will conceal his real face from the authorities, and as it is Halloween, people may not give Michael a second look, assuming he is in costume, celebrating the festival as people do. From a storytelling point of view, this is another reason Michael would choose to wear a mask in the movie.
Michael seems pretty keen on exacting some kind of terrible vengeance on the locals, he steals Judith’s tombstone from the graveyard, so he seems to have some kind of plan in mind. If like Dr. Loomis states Michael is “pure evil” then wearing a disconcerting mask will add to the terror that his victims will feel when he confronts them.
It would seem that Michael knows he will have more power over his victims if he is wearing a mask that will compound his victim’s terror.
So, it seems that the internal logic of the screenplay would have always dictated that “the shape”, as Michael was originally known, would always wear a mask of some kind to help protect his identity, allow him to operate more easily at Halloween, and instill more terror in his victims, but what about the thought process at the writing stage?
Why did the directors want Michael Myers to wear a mask?
With slasher films still in their infancy in 1978, there was really no rule book about this kind of thing. So why did Carpenter and Hill decide on a mask, and why such an oddly designed one? Well, there’s quite a lot of documentation on the mask itself.
First of all, we should remember that the film had a very small budget, and every aspect of the production had to be carefully controlled. Carpenter was still inexperienced and had been offered the project after the success of Assault on Precinct 13. He agreed to craft a horror movie for Irwin Yablans and Mustapha Akkad, but he would only take the job if he had full creative control.
This was of course given, and Carpenter and Hill started work. With such a small budget, props had to be found wherever they could, and with the script specifically stating that Michael would wear a mask that would be both scary, and still human-looking, production designer Tommy Lee Wallace had to be very prudent.
Eventually, the mask would be bought for under $2 in a Hollywood costume shop, and Wallace would widen the eye holes and spray paint it white with a blueish hue. Done as more of a money-saving technique, the mask, originally a William Shatner mask, would become iconic and synonymous with the franchise.
It would seem that from a production and writing standpoint, Michael was always going to wear a mask.
In Hill’s own words “the idea was to make him humorless, almost faceless–this sort of pale visage that could resemble a human, or not.” The third act of the film also shows that the mask would always be relevant to the plot.
During the final struggle, Laurie buys herself time by ripping the mask from Michael. As he takes time to replace the darn thing, she manages to get out of the way allowing Dr. Loomis to shoot Michael. who falls from the upstairs window, straight into Halloween 2. The film is essentially bookended with Michael’s mask being taken from him, and in both instances, it is integral to the storytelling.
Why is Michael Myers’ mask important?
In conclusion, what we can assume is that the mask was always an important part of Halloween, and the real genius was the interpretation of the description given in the original script.
Perhaps it would have been easier to go more traditional and use a clown mask, or even a monster mask, but with the script specific about the look and Wallace’s need to stay within budget, the serendipity of the situation would result in one of horror’s most terrifying images coming to life.
Within the Halloween universe, Michael’s horrific tale began with him wearing a mask, so the character would have always found himself wearing one. It makes sense that he would wear a mask, so he does, and would continue to do so long after Carpenter and Hill would leave their creation in the hands of other filmmakers.
Why do you think Michael Myers wore a mask? Comment below with your theories.
