From Halloween to Scream: The Origins of Horror's Most Iconic Movie Masks

They can be as simple as a store bought piece of sporting equipment or as elaborate as a memory from a Watership Down fever dream; when it comes to the most iconic masks in horror it doesn’t really matter what the boogeyman wears but the way in which he wears it — like certain other grizzly aspects of the genre, it's all in the execution.

From Michael Myers to Jason Voorhees to Hannibal Lecter, each of the horror movie masks that have stood the test of time have a story to tell — some of which involve the most skilled special effects people in the business, and others just timing and luck. Find out more about the backstory of eight of the most iconic of them in the list below.

Michael Myers

Chances are, if you know one story about an iconic horror mask it's probably the story behind Michael Myers’ from the 1979 slasher classic, Halloween.

The legend goes that director John Carpenter and his team (who were working on a budget of only $300,000) wanted something cheap and plain for their lumbering killer to wear. This led to a member of the make-up department simply going to a costume store and buying a novelty mask of Captain Kirk (William Shatner) from the original Star Trek TV show.

The production team removed the hair, widened the eyes, and painted it a ghostly shade of white — and so, a horror icon was born.

Jason Voorhees

Like a lot of things about the Friday the 13th franchise, the iconic hockey mask worn by Jason was not a part of the first movie. As anyone who’s seen Scream (or Crystal Lake) will tell you, Pamela Voorhees is the actual killer in the first instalment — both her and Jason's death are what inspire the lake dwelling monster to torment his camp counsellors for the next 40 years — and Jason only dons his iconic mask for the first time in Friday the 13th part III. 

The man responsible for this quirk of fate was effects supervisor Martin Jay Sadoff, who brought a Detroit Red Wings goalie mask to set one day — onto which a subtly menacing red triangle was added by the makeup team. 

Over the next eight movies in the franchise, Jason's mask would go through various iterations (including a famously shiny one in Jason X) but you can't beat the original.

Ghostface

While the movie artists behind Jason and Mike's costumes deserve credit for twisting perfectly innocent masks for their own menacing purposes, the makers of Scream can pat themselves on the back for simply taking a pre-existing one off the shelf and turning it into one of the most famous in cinema, hands down.

A company called Fun World began producing a "Ghostface” mask in the United States in the early ‘90s. This meant that the killer's mask was already familiar by the time the first Scream was released in 1996, and that vague uncanniness only added to the thrill. Like others on this list, the expressionless white face, which has the bonus of hiding the wearer’s mouth and eyes, too, became an instant Halloween classic — just add boots and a toy hunting knife and away you go, Sydneyyy.

Bonus points to Scary Movie for making the stoner version just as legendary.

Leatherface

Inspired by the serial killer Ed Gein, Leatherface is both one of the most recognisable characters in horror cinema and also the owner of a few of the genre’s most legendary masks.

Of course, for his first outing in Tobe Hooper’s 1974 masterpiece The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Leatherface switches it up for different occasions: the legendary “Killing Mask” is just one of three he wears in the movie, alongside an “Old Lady” version for when he’s doing chores and an eerily made up “Pretty Woman” version for the unforgettable dinner sequence.

All three were designed by special effects artist Robert Burns, who used human face moulds and real human hair to leave the viewer with the impression that the killer had fashioned them from his victims.

Donnie Darko

One of the most elaborate horror masks doesn’t even come from a horror movie at all. Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko is a melancholy high school drama with a sci-fi twist — a movie that probably has more in common with Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm than any of the chillers on this particular list. Yet the remarkable bunnyman costume designed by April Ferry and worn by Frank, the mysterious character who visits Jake Gyllenhaal’s protagonist in his dreams, is nothing if not haunting.

Kelly, who was only 25 when he directed the movie, later explained that the inspiration for Frank’s costume (a kind of rabbit/man hybrid, with a metallic finish on the mask and a full row of teeth) had come to him in a kind of fever dream after watching the British animated classic Watership Down. The results are unique and unforgettable.

Jigsaw/Billy the Puppet

Does Jigsaw's trusty sidekick count as a mask? In my defence of this addition, I’d argue that there are enough wearable versions out there to warrant a mention on this list. I'd also argue that "Billy", as he is supposedly known, is the most recognisable character to emerge from the horror genre this century thanks to the ten movies and counting in the Saw franchise, as well as the character’s excellent spoof appearance in Scary Movie 4.  

The tricycle riding puppet was created by the movie’s Australian co-writer and director James Wan (who claims to have sat beside it on his flight from Sydney to L.A., much to the discomfort of the air hostesses) using basic materials like papier-mâché and ping pong balls; with more advanced moving parts and animatronics only coming into play in later instalments.

The Polite Leader

With five movies and a TV show already out there, we could probably do an entire list of creepy masks from The Purge franchise. From that creepy cloth sack with the circle of human teeth in The First Purge to the wide range of politically charged masks in Election Year, Purge creator James DeMonaco and his various costume designers have always kept things fresh and interesting in the long-running horror series, but the their work on the 2013 original remains the most iconic.

For the first Purge movie, DeMonaco decked out his killers in eerily smiling masks to add to the movie's sadistic mood. He mixed it up with each subsequent movie in the franchise, but this original group, led by Rhys Wakefield’s Polite Leader, are still the best known. 

Hannibal Lecter

It’s a testament to both Anthony Hopkins’ eyes and his Oscar-winning gravitas in The Silence of the Lambs that Hannibal Lecter remains terrifying even when he’s muzzled and straight-jacketed — a look that instantly became a horror classic that still inspires countless Halloween costumes to this day.

The legendary muzzle worn by the character when he's transferred to a new holding facility was designed by Ed Cubberly, who based it on the lower half of a hockey goalie’s mask, like Jason’s in Friday the 13th, but with some metal bars over the mouth section for added menace. That the finished product arrived in a skin tone similar to one of Buffalo Bill’s creations was apparently just a welcome coincidence.