Michael Myers is one of the most popular villains not only from the horror genre but in cinema in general, and he’s best known for his peculiar mask, which he never takes off – but there have been a couple of times throughout the Halloween franchise where Michael Myers has been unmasked, and he looked very different each time. Halloween is one of the most successful franchises in the horror genre, and while it has gone through different retcons over the years, the most recent one a reboot trilogy, it continues to be quite popular with the audience, and Michael Myers’ reign of horror in Haddonfield, Illinois always finds a way to continue.
The Halloween franchise began in 1978 with John Carpenter’s Halloween, which introduced the audience to Michael Myers. On Halloween night, 1963, six-year-old Michael Myers killed his older sister, Judith, and was sent to Smith’s Grove Sanitarium, where he became the patient of Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) and never spoke again. Fifteen years later, Michael escaped and returned to Haddonfield, where he started stalking Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her friends on Halloween night. Laurie was the only survivor of Michael’s killing spree and became the franchise’s main final girl, even if the subsequent retcons replaced her with her own daughter, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), a group of contestants in a reality show, and a different version of her in Rob Zombie’s Halloween remakes.
Although Michael Myers has remained the antagonist through all the retcons and remakes in the Halloween franchise, he has also gone through a couple of changes: Michael Myers’ iconic mask has changed through the years, different actors have portrayed the famous slasher, and his story has also changed according to each movie’s narrative, either making him Laurie’s brother or the victim of a cult and a Celtic ritual that makes him not only evil but also hard to kill. Now, even though Michael Myers is known for wearing an expressionless mask with black eyes (though in some versions his eyes were clearly visible), he has been unmasked a couple of times, and the face behind the mask has also changed every time. Here’s every time Michael Myers has been unmasked in the Halloween franchise and what he looked like.
The first time the audience saw Michael Myers unmasked was in John Carpenter’s Halloween. After killing his sister in 1963, Michael Myers stepped out of the house while still wearing his clown mask, and the police removed the mask. Fifteen years later, back in Haddonfield, Michael got the mask he’s now known for and targeted Laurie Strode and her friends, killing them all and saving Laurie for last. At the end of Halloween, Laurie fights Michael after stabbing him in the eye with a coat hanger and in the chest with his own knife, and she manages to pull his mask off. Although Nick Castle played Michael Myers throughout all of Halloween, unmasked Michael was played by Tony Moran, and keeping up with the continuity of the movie, his left eye is visibly wounded. Michael quickly puts the mask back on and Loomis arrives right on time to shoot him and throw him off the balcony.
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers saw Michael Myers going after his niece, Jamie Lloyd, as Laurie died in a car accident between the events of Halloween II and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. At the end of Halloween 4, it was revealed that he and Jamie had a telepathic link, which led to Jamie stabbing her foster mother, and she was sent to Haddonfield Children’s Clinic as a result. Jamie eventually escaped and agreed to help Loomis stop Michael Myers, so they came up with a setup at the old Myers house to lure him back to his childhood home. After Michael killed the deputy protecting Jamie, he chased her through the house, arriving at the attic. Jamie called him “uncle”, which stopped Michael from killing her and led him to remove his mask. Michael Myers was played by Don Shanks in Halloween 5, and even though his face was hidden in the shadows, his wounded eye is briefly visible.
Although Rob Zombie took the plot of John Carpenter’s original movie and gave it his own style, he made big changes to it, especially to Michael Myers’ backstory. Halloween spends a lot of time exploring Michael’s childhood and his time at Smith’s Grove following the murder of his sister (and his mother’s abusive boyfriend, Ronnie White) and sees a young Michael making a bunch of papier-mâché masks before getting his final mask 15 years later. Halloween doesn’t see a grown-up Michael Myers unmasked, but it does see a young Michael without his self-made mask when his mother, Deborah (Sheri Moon Zombie), runs to him after he kills a nurse. Michael is out of control and screams at his mother, which then leads her to kill herself. Young Michael Myers was played by Daeg Faerch, and that’s what this unmasked Michael Myers looked like: a young boy with long, blond hair.
Rob Zombie’s take on Halloween continued two years later with Halloween II, which saw a grown-up Michael Myers unmasked. Just like he did with the previous movie, Zombie took the basic premise of Halloween II and made significant changes and additions to it, especially when it comes to Laurie (Scout Taylor-Compton) and how she dealt with the aftermath of her first encounter with Michael. Just like in the original Halloween II, Zombie’s remake revealed Laurie is Michael’s youngest sister, which led Michael to continue haunting her. Michael took Laurie to an abandoned shed, where Loomis arrived and tried to reason with Michael, but it was useless. Michael and Loomis started to fight, and right before Michael stabbed his former doctor to death, he took off the mask. In Zombie’s Halloween II, Michael Myers was played by Tyler Mane, who was wearing long hair and a long beard and mustache – and unlike the previous versions of unmasked Michael, this one had no facial wounds or scars.
The first movie in the Halloween reboot trilogy is a direct sequel to Carpenter’s original movie, and as it ignores all movies that came after it, in the reboot timeline this would be the second time Michael Myers was unmasked. Halloween catches up with an old Michael Myers at Smith’s Grove Psychiatric Hospital, where true crime podcasters Aaron Korey (Jefferson Hall) and Dana Haines (Rhian Rees) are looking to speak with him. Michael is obviously unmasked as he’s at the hospital, but the camera only shows him from behind or slightly to the side, only to reveal his wounded left eye. Michael Myers is once more played by Nick Castle in Halloween, alternating with James Jude Courtney, but unmasked Michael is played by Castle.
The second entry in the Halloween reboot trilogy is Halloween Kills, which begins right where the previous movie ended. Michael Myers survived the fire and explosion at Laurie’s house, and he continued his killing spree. During the third act of Halloween Kills, Lonnie (Robert Longstreet), Cameron (Dylan Arnold), and Allyson (Andi Matichak) arrive at Michael’s home, where they are attacked. As Michael is about to kill Allyson, Karen (Judy Greer) arrives, stabs him with a pitchfork, and takes off his mask so he would follow her outside, leading him into the mob waiting outside. Once more, there's no clear look at Michael’s face, hiding him in the shadows, showing him out of focus, and only showing his wounded eye. As Halloween Kills takes place minutes after the end of Halloween 2018, Michael Myers is also played by Nick Castle, so he looks the same as in the previous movie: with very short, white hair, and a very visible scar across his left eye.
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