Halloween Kills Trailer Unmasks Michael Myers

The trailer for Universal Pictures’ and Blumhouse’s new Halloween Kills arrived tonight and with it plenty of details about the upcoming slasher movie sequel. Chief among those reveals is that there will be at least one moment where the evil Michael Myers has his mask stolen while in the middle of his killing spree. One moment in the trailer has Judy Greer’s Karen (the daughter of Jamie Lee Curtis‘ Laurie Strode) striking Myers from the back and then removing his mask, taunting him with it. Myers’ sensitivity to his mask was first alluded to in the 2018 Halloween movie and arguably was one reason he broke out and went on the prowl once again.

As fans of the franchise may recall, Myers has been unmasked a handful of times throughout the series including in the 2018 movie. Myers can also be seen without his mask, in fact revealing his full face, two times in the series. One scene in the 1978 original has Myers without his mask after its removed by Curtis’ character, while another scene in 1989’s Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers has him mask free yet again, face in view (that sequel was in fact promoted as “finally unmasking” the character when it was released on VHS despite the inaccuracy).

The opening scene of 2018’s Halloween also has “The Shape” unmasked, though he’s only seen from the back without his trademark William Shatner visage. Stuntman James Jude Courtney plays Myers in that sequence, revealing the slasher to be an old man with buzzed hair. The scene goes have a tease of Myers’ milky eye though which was caused by Curtis’ character in the 1978 original just to bring it all full circle.

Courtney, who hails from a stunt background, previously said that he “learned how to kill” from an ex-mafia hitman.

“I learned how to kill from a mafia hitman who lived with me when he got out of prison,” Courtney said of his approach to the slasher. “I was writing his life story, so he went to see the movie I did: it was called The Hit List. It wasn’t a big movie or anything, and when we walked out he was like, ‘Jimmy, it was a really nice movie but that’s not how you kill people.’ I’ve been complimented many times here on set on how efficiently I kill, and all I did was take what he taught me.”

Halloween Kills hits theaters on October 15th with another film, Halloween Ends, a new finale for the series, scheduled to hit theaters on October 14, 2022.