With Rob Zombie’s terrifying new vision of HALLOWEEN opening in theaters soon,
and previews of the theatrical trailer plus an exclusive scene shown at Comic Con,
the buzz of expectation about this killer horror film continues to rise. While actors
Daeg Faerch and Tyler Mane will play Haddonfield’s hometown slayer, Michael Myers,
it’s time to meet the real man behind the mask: renowned make-up and special
effects artist Wayne Toth.
Even while growing up as a kid in the 1970s, Toth demonstrated an early love for the
scarier side of pop culture entertainment, which grew into recreating such dark
denizens in simple make-up tests. “I had an interest in monsters for truly as long as
I can remember, and started playing around with stuff by at least age ten or eleven.”
Echoing the fondness for classic characters shared by his longtime creative partner
Rob Zombie, Toth says, “Frankenstein was and remains my favorite, it is a classic
icon that was the perfect match of designer and actor.”
Wayne also credits another legendary make-up artist for his interest in the art: Rick
Baker, creator of numerous classic characters in films ranging from STAR WARS and
AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON to THE RING and HELLBOY. Toth says of the
multiple Oscar-winning artist, “Rick Baker was incredibly influential, his design and
execution were always very clean and detailed.”
Though Wayne was a young kid in 1978 when director John Carpenter and cowriter/producer Debra Hill unleashed their original HALLOWEEN upon cinemas to
terrify a generation of moviegoers, the film remains an important milestone for Toth,
who states “I wouldn't say it influenced my career, but I do love the original movie.”
This passion for movie monster making prompted his own early efforts to
demonstrate his skills. Toth reflects, “I couldn't tell you what my first mask was,
though it was most likely a zombie. My brother and I made a lot of Super 8 films,
using time lapse, animation, makeup – you name it. They weren't really ‘films,’ just
a bunch of experiments really.”
So began a stellar career in make-up and special effects which now exceeds thirty
major film credits. While known most recently for his bloody good work in previous
Zombie-directed films HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES and THE DEVIL’S REJECTS, Toth
has contributed to an expansive list of genres and franchise titles including
TRANSFORMERS, THE HAUNTING, MEN IN BLACK, SPAWN, THE FACULTY, ARMY OF
DARKNESS and films in the HALLOWEEN, NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and FRIDAY
THE 13TH series.
Even with such extensive experience, providing Rob Zombie’s HALLOWEEN with a
new look for Michael Myers while remaining loyal to the original design of The Shape
mask was a big creative challenge. Though as Toth explains, this huge project
started out very small: “My involvement actually started in early 2006 when I
created three 18-inch maquettes for Rob to take to his pitch meeting with
Dimension. I did a new rotted mask version of Michael, a child version with clown
mask, and an Asylum version which turned out to be extremely accurate to the way
Tyler looks in the film!”
With his maquettes helping Zombie get the chance to direct HALLOWEEN with a fresh
start, Toth eagerly started work on designing a new mask for Myers – in the past, a
long and often controversial process endured by the original franchise’s many
sequels. That series suffers from wild inconsistencies in their Myers mask designs
since the original store-bought mask used in John Carpenter’s 1978 original was
thereafter tied up in licensing conflicts with Don Post, the prop’s original
manufacturer. Toth’s mission would be to make something old look and work like
new again: “It was indeed a pleasure to have the chance to do a new take on such a
huge icon in the world of horror films!”
Both he and Rob Zombie agreed on the approach for the new design: “The mask I
did was intended to be very close to the original, with the exception of the dirt and
rotted areas the mask has later in the film. I think it came out pretty close, and I
was also able to inject a little bit of my own style to the character.”
But getting the recognizable and iconic details of the old mask right in a new version
wasn’t easy, as Toth states, “I did not use any molds or other versions of the masks
for reference.” Using only the original 1978 mask as the ‘bible’ for this new design,
he explains, “I intentionally limited my reference to photos from the first film, which
by the way are not ideal reference due to the lighting and the flimsiness of the mask,
which caused the look to change from shot to shot.”
Working solely from two-dimensional images of the original production mask,
studying and recreating its customized design could have taken weeks, but once
greenlit HALLOWEEN’s schedule deadlines arrived rapidly. “I had about a week to
sculpt the mask due to the limited pre-production time,” says Toth.
Quite unlike the mass-marketed Captain Kirk mask bought in a Hollywood magic
store by the 1978 HALLOWEEN’s production designer, Tommy Lee Wallace, the mask
in Zombie’s film had to be custom created for Tyler Mane, the X-MEN actor playing
2007’s Michael Myers. “The mask was sculpted on a head cast of Tyler Mane to
ensure correct eye placement, neck length, distance of his eyes from the mask, and
so on.”
As imposing a figure as Mane is in real life, the 6’ 10” actor turned out to be an ideal
subject for Toth’s sculpting requirements. “Luckily, for as large of a guy that Tyler is,
he is very proportionate and does not have an overly large head! If he did, I would
have been forced to make a mask that may have looked oversized in order to fit him,
and it would not look like an average sized mask, which was a big concern of mine
before sculpting began.” But Toth’s work was only beginning with the lifecast sculpt.
Given the story requirements, Wayne had to produce two consistent but very
different versions of Michael mask for the two timelines, which in the end doubles
the horrifying impact of The Shape on screen. “I sculpted the clean mask first and
then did the rotted version from a clay copy of the clean one,” notes Toth, who
painstakingly created eighteen years of decay on the Adult Michael version of the
mask. “The rotted holes and torn edges were actually sculpted into the mask so the
different copies we had to produce for the film would remain consistent. The rest of
the aging was done with paint and was matched by hand from mask to mask.”
Yet Toth ensured both versions of his mask would retain the iconic, menacing look of
the original version, even down to the materials used. “We tried to use hair similar
to original, consisting mainly of crepe hair, so it would have the matted appearance
that the original had.” To faithfully replicate the modifications Tommy Lee Wallace
made to the 1978 mask, Wayne elaborates, “I sculpted in the glue lines from where
the sideburns were removed on the original mask as well as the seam lines on the
sides of the neck.”
This devotion to details from Carpenter’s original Shape costume prompted me to
ask if the new story similarly placed the origin of Young Michael’s mask as the nowinfamous Captain Kirk Halloween mask. Either cryptically or matter-of-factly, Toth
replied, “There is no explanation of the mask’s origin in the film.”
Another design challenge for Toth to solve was one obvious difference in Adult
Michael’s appearance from that in Carpenter’s original film: as a Smith’s Grove
inmate, Myers’ shaggy mane of hair continued to grow wild, which the make-up
artist had to accommodate both practically and dramatically.
“One thing we did on the masks Tyler wore most of the time was to glue hair on the
inside of the neck that would hang down, since Michael has long hair by the time he
escapes the asylum,” Toth explains. “We did this so Tyler would not have to wear a
hot rubber mask on top of a big hairy wig (which he was not fond of) every time he
shot.”
While Mane appreciated not wearing the wig, one person who wasn’t fond of the wig
‘cheat’ was director Rob Zombie himself. “Rob seemed a bit leery of the idea at first
since it sounded like one of those novelty biker hats for old bald guys, but he found it
made a lot of sense and saved a good amount of time on set.” Toth’s solution was
not only practical, but in the end necessary since “in tests, using the wig under the
mask distorted the face and changed the look we were after anyway.”
Still, enacting nearly his entire performance inside the mask even without a wig
wasn’t always easy or enjoyable, since authenticity of look was the prime
consideration. As Toth notes, “the only comfort feature was a terrycloth towel glued
to the inside top of the mask!”
While fans have already seen many photos and the HALLOWEEN teaser trailer to
view Toth’s mask at work here at The Shape of Fear, the theatrical trailer and film
clip previewed at Comic Con further demonstrate how frighteningly effective the
mask works to create Michael Myers’ character, and why this silent psychopath
conjures such dread in audiences. The look is classic but chillingly enhanced, the
icon honored and yet expanded upon at the same time.
Toth finds professional and personal satisfaction in such all-encompassing and high
profile projects: “I've had the pleasure of working on a lot of great stuff, a lot of
which are favorites for different reasons. It was a pleasure to create some live action
robots for TRANSFORMERS which used almost all of our shots — a great thing
considering it could have easily been entirely CG.” But the challenge of reimagining
a horror genre legend for HALLOWEEN holds unique value for this talented artist, as
he admits, “It's always the best feeling to create a complete character, like Dr. Satan
and the Professor from HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES, and Michael Myers.”
No doubt after The Shape has Laurie Strode and cinema audiences screaming in
theaters on August 31st, Wayne Toth will encounter his own Legion of Michaels
pursuing him with one question: where can I get the mask from the movie? While
Toth couldn’t expand on the full details yet, he offered, “There will be a commercially
made rubber mask available that is being produced by NECA toys from my original
molds, at the very least.” Fans can expect the new mask from HALLOWEEN to arrive
on store shelves in time for Halloween the holiday later this year.
Meanwhile, fans can peruse much more of Wayne Toth’s work at HalloweenTown, a
retail space and online shop which just relocated to their new, huge location in
Burbank, CA. Visit HalloweeenTown by clicking the banner below to view their online
catalog, which includes many exclusive items from Rob Zombie’s films, plus a
cryptful of hauntingly monstrous props and decorations to bring Halloween home all
year long.
And as always, stay tuned here at The Shape of Fear for continuous news updates,
interviews and more as we count down to HALLOWEEN’s theatrical release – it would
kill you to miss out on it!