MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: Michael Myers almost wore a clown mask in Halloween.
One of the fascinating aspects of Halloween is just how much of a low budget that John Carpenter and his crew made the film on. The new version of the film followed the spirit of the original in a lot of ways, by trying to do everything with a sort of "homemade" spirit.
As I noted in the last Movie Legends Revealed, John Carpenter and his crew had to each work multiple jobs to make the 1978 horror film such a surprise success.
One of the people who had to take on a number of different roles was Tommy Lee Wallace, who was the editor on the film as well as the production designer. Everyone knows that Wallace, as part of the "no frills" approach of the film's production, took a storebought William Shatner Captain Kirk mask and adapted it to create the iconic mask that Michael Myers ("The Shape") wears in the film...
However, that was not Wallace's first pick at all.
As an aside, it is fascinating how the story of how the famous "Ghostface" mask from the Scream films was found (something I detailed in an old Movie Legends Revealed) is so similar to the story of how the Michael Myers' mask was found. In both cases, it was just taking something that was once just offered on a shelf at a store and turning it into an icon.
Anyhow, Wallace actually went out and bought FOUR masks from the store. As you may or may not recall, when Michael Myers committed his first murder in Halloween, he is a little boy and he is dressed as a clown for Halloween (he is then put into a criminal asylum until he breaks out years later to go on a Halloween killing spree to evoke his boyhood murders)...
Therefore, Wallace thought that a CLOWN mask could have been the way to go. He bought a Don Post Emmett Kelly mask, like this one here...
And messed around with it to make it a distinct-looking mask, like addigng frizzy red hair to the mask.
The other masks Wallace bought besides the famous Captain Kirk mask were a Mister Spock mask...
and a Richard Nixon mask...
The Kirk mask was the ultimate "winner," as everyone involved liked the way that it was the least emotive, thus making it the most unsettling.
Man, how different would the film have looked had Michael Myers been dressed as a clown!!!
The legend is...
STATUS: True
Be sure to check out my archive of Movie Legends Revealed for more urban legends about the world of film.
Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com.