Halloween Kills: Does New Film Feature Unmasked Michael Myers?

Spoilers for Halloween Kills follow! With its release this week, Halloween Kills marks the 12th movie in the horror film franchise and one with plenty of surprises for fans of the series, including a mask-less Michael Myers. Though it’s not the first in the series to unmask its mysterious killer (the first film actually did it and the 5th movie famously marketed itself as “unmasking” the boogeyman) it does feature more unmasked MIchael Myers than any other film in the series. As we saw in the trailer for the film, Judy Greer’s Karen Strode unmasks Myers and taunts him with it in the streets of Haddonfield, but it should be noted that every shot of Myers without his mask is obscured by something or almost entirely out of focus.

Those eager to see what Myers looks like without a mask though are in luck as photos from the production do exist. Stuntman/actor James Jude Courtney wears the jumpsuit and William Shatner mask for Halloween Kills (and its 2018 predecessor), and it’s his face that’s seen out of focus in each shot of Halloween Kills where Michael Myers isn’t wearing his mask. Courtney previously shared a photo of himself on set, in costume (milky eye injury included), and sans mask, which you can find below to get a good idea of what Myers looks like beneath his visage in the continuity of the new films.

Speaking in an interview with Vanity Fair about the 2018 Halloween, Courtney opened up about his preparations for playing The Shape by revealing he learned a lot from a real hitman.

“Years ago, I met a real hit man through a mutual acquaintance – he wanted his life story written, so he was living with me. He had just left a safe house and served in a penitentiary up in the Northwest. I absorbed his life just by hanging out with him every day. I took him to see a film I was in called The Hit List. We walked out of the screening, and he said to me, ‘Jimmy, it’s a really nice movie, but that’s not how you kill people.’…There’s a stealth efficiency to the way an actual trained killer works. Movies tend to dilute that quality with dramatic pauses and dialogue, which a true predator would never waste time doing. That efficiency is what I took to the part of Michael Myers.”

Halloween Kills is now playing in theaters and streaming on Peacock. If you haven’t signed up for Peacock yet, you can try it out here. 

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