The Day of the Dead is approaching! Furthermore, October is an excellent month to see Halloween movies. As a viewer of slasher horror flicks, your thoughts are quickly drawn back to Michael Myers mask, a defining characteristic of the killer throughout the franchise’s history.
Many children and adults dress up as Michael Myers in the mask for Halloween. Why does Michael Myers wear a mask? And how long has he been doing so? Continue reading to find out more.
What exactly does Michael Myers’ mask mean, if it signifies anything?
There are several factors that contributed to Michael Myers hiding behind a mask. In the original Halloween film, Michael stalks Laurie during the day on October 31st, looking for her.
He wore the mask to conceal his identity as the stalker and to go about his killing business undetected. He also escaped away from the asylum in the film, thus concealing his identity beneath a mask was a wise choice.
In his hands, the mask had developed into an intimidating weapon. A symbol that will frighten his victims, even more, giving him even more influence over them. When Laurie takes his mask off, he temporarily quits fighting to put it back on.
Although Scream has done an excellent job of uncovering the hidden mysteries behind the town’s continual mayhem, the biggest and most successful horror franchise, Halloween, has remained silent on the identity of its main nemesis, Michael Myers. This has been accomplished in two ways: first, Myers’ true identity has been concealed by the use of a pale white mask; and second, the killing spree itself has remained a mystery.
The mask also implies that Myers’ true nature is far more diabolical than meets the eye and that he is merely a mask for something far more terrifying. In other words, Myers’ mask came to represent everything bad about him. This is most likely why Michael is billed in the film as “The Shape.”
“I spent eight years trying to reach him and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I knew what was residing behind that boy’s eyes was entirely and utterly horrible,” Loomi says in one of the films.
How long has he been hidden beneath his mask?
Michael’s love of masks most likely extends back to the 1978 release of the first Halloween picture. The killer in the first film gets to try on two masks. First, in 1963, he disguises himself as a clown in order to murder his sister. As part of his clown costume, he wears a wide rainbow-colored blouse over his mask.
After being locked up for 15 years, he eventually slips out and goes to a hardware store, where he purchase a number of stuff, including a white Halloween mask.
Michael does not wear a clown mask in Rob Zombie’s 2007 adaption, but rather a regular white mask provided by his sister’s lover. After that, he dons the mask and murders his sister and girlfriend in quick succession. He returns to his old residence fifteen years later, looking for something and discovering the mask concealed beneath the floor.
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