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 enjoying 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 with regards to embodying the slasher style as a complete.

However, not the entire masks are constructed equally. As the Halloween sequence progressed, numerous redesigns would trigger a Rise and Fall and Rise of types, and in the event you’re the type of one who deeply cares (the correct of individual) you’ll discover every one provides Michael a distinctly completely different vibe.

Halloween (1978): The Classic

Image: Compass International Pictures

The romantic ideally suited of the Michael Myers masks, the unique works so nicely primarily as a result of the director of the movie, John Carpenter, is so adept at understanding the place shadows are speculated to be. The cheekbones present slightly underline in darkish close-ups so it doesn’t appear like Myers is carrying a mayonnaise container on his head, and really 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’ve got a grade-A maniac masks, one that absolutely alienates the viewers from any kind of human connection or empathy.

Halloween II (1981): The Dye Job

Image: Universal Pictures

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 may look redder and even blonder. It’s additionally far more slicked-back right here, making Michael appear like he’s already carrying 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

Image: Trancas International Films

Story-wise, the truth that Myers would nab a masks that solely barely appears to be like like his authentic in a sequel set 10 years after is smart. At this level, the corporate producing them has in all probability modified fingers 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 to be like so low-cost and corny in each single shot as a result of in any other case, Return is a fairly nice Halloween film with a great deal of ambiance.

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

Image: Magnum Pictures

It’s a debate that’s raged for hundreds of years, or, ya know, no less than for the reason that ’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 fallacious ones. The neck is manner too massive, which means the rubber is left simply type of flapping across the stuntman’s throat. Meanwhile, the nostril is manner too skinny, which, when combined with the grungy hair, provides it an actual Timothée Chalamet vibe.

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

Image: Miramax

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 an alternative, it’s a puppy-dog innocence that appears like Michael Myers is having bother with a trivia query always. The confusion is smart, although — at this level within the franchise, the Halloween lore had spiraled uncontrolled, dropping the unique intent of faceless, unexplainable evil and as an alternative having Myers rework into an incestuous bull stud for a Celtic-themed doomsday cult.

Halloween H20 (1998): The Mixed Bag

Image: Dimension Films

Returning the franchise to its roots, ignoring the previous 4 sequels, and reintroducing Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode character to the sequence undoubtedly made for a sleeker expertise. If solely the masks might 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 throughout the iconic scene the place a horrified Laurie will get face-to-face with Michael by way of a tiny window, the outcomes are fairly uneven. The masks element is there, however with out Carpenter’s shadows (having the ability to see his huge 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

Image: Dimension Films

Perhaps essentially the most notorious movie within the sequence, Halloween Resurrection would kill off Laurie Strode in its opening sequence and introduce Busta Rhymes as a roundhouse-kicking actuality TV producer. In brief, it’s a bizarre watch. That stated, the masks used is just not 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, attractive teenagers that wish to acquire stardom in his childhood residence.

Halloween (2007): The Scarred Model

Image: Dimension Films

In reinventing Michael Myers throughout 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 never a frantic sprint to a Spirit Halloween. We get to see an in depth duplicate of the unique, too, within the movie’s first act — a quick nod to followers of the sequence earlier than Zombie goes and does no matter he needs with it.

Halloween II (2009): The Beard

Image: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

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 sequence is both a travesty or a testomony to an artist’s skill to divert from the supply materials. Zombie takes much more liberties when he has one among Myers’ victims claw off a tough third of the masks, leaving Myers with one seen eye and one below the masks. Visually, it appears to be like fairly rad, particularly when the masked eye is bathed in darkness, and is a pleasant steadiness 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

Image: Universal Pictures

Like Zombie’s weathered method, the masks within the direct sequel to the primary Halloween can also be aged. But this time, we’re provided just a few extra wrinkles and a ton of mud — which 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 essentially the most half, the masks works, and in contrast to 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

Image: Universal Pictures

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 aspect. In darkness, it appears to be like fairly cool — the little bits of charred rubber protruding from the aspect add some neat intricacies to what’s now the eleventh design within the sequence. Meanwhile, in plain sight, it’s nonetheless recognizably Michael. And because the sequence has confirmed through the years, that’s all you may actually ask for.