For how all other horror movies would be made, Halloween was a masterpiece of American cinema that was copied over and over again.  Little did John Carpenter and Debra Hill know back in 1977 while making this movie, they were making the benchmark for all horror movies to come.  Director's like Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper would go on record as saying that Halloween was the standard that they tried to live up to.  Even if your not a fan of horror movies, you will be mesmerized by young Carpenters cinematic genius.  Carpenter made a true horror movie out of Halloween with virtually no blood and guts in these movies.  Carpenter gave us a feel of the horror movies of the 50's and 60's where you got a good scare without a monster pulling off someone's face in plain view.  Among the best in horror!

          Sometime in 1977 Tommy Lee Wallace strolled into Burt Wheeler's Magic Shop on Hollywood Boulevard with $1.98 and walked out with a considerablepiece of modern horror history. Working under John Carpenter as production designer for Halloween, Wallace's job was to track down what the script vaguely refers to as a large full head rubber mask, not that of a monster or a ghoul but "the pale neutral features of a man weirdly distorted by the rubber."
          The original idea was to use one of those sad looking Emmett Kelly hobo/clown masks, but after purchasing a cheap latex Captain Kirk mask, painting it white, pulling off the sideburns, and carving larger eye holes, Wallace found himself with an undeniable face for the shape, arguably the second most notorious visage in modern horror history.
          Ironically, in the original Halloween, the mask itself is shot sparingly and usually soaked in shadows or obscured by foggy windows. The mask in Halloween 2 was the grumpiest looking of the designs, still similar to the first but with meaner eyes and drawn cheeks. But the Boogman's return in Halloween 4 takes Wallace's dime store design new and ridiculous territory. Wearing the worst, way-too-white, mask ever, George P. Wilbur looks like a disgruntled government mime or an evil Bill Cosby-Myers set to destroy all who refuse to buy Puddin' Pops or Kodak film. (And what's up with the slick afro?)
          Considering Halloween 5 and Halloween 6's amazing neck that never seems to stay tucked-in, and H20's alien-sized eye-sockets, it looks like Myers' disguise for Halloween: Resurrection could be the best since Dick Warlock donned the gear in Halloween 2.
          We shouldn't get ahead of ourselves though, because as long as Moustapha Akkad and Co. keep crackin' out the sequels, I'm sure the Shape will shift again. All the same, thanks the Tommy Lee Wallace who, sometime in 1977, created the face of Shapes to come.