Casual horror fans may not realize this, but William Shatner has had a major impact on one of the industry's longest-running stalker franchises, Halloween. How? The mask worn by The Shape, aka Michael Myers, in John Carpenter's original Halloween -- and several movies after that -- was a Shatner mask, specifically a $1.98 Capt. Kirk Star Trek mask, painted ghost white. Without Shatner, there is no Halloween. So when asked if Bill Shatner ever could show up in a Halloween movie, now that David Gordon Green and Danny McBride are bringing the series back to theaters, series producer Malek Akkad said:
We actually have one of the original impressions of Shatner in our office in L.A., so obviously we're really grateful to him, and in certain ways we've tried to reach out to him (to) maybe do an appearance? Lord know he's busy enough with Star Trek stuff...but you never know.
That would be an odd moment, to have William Shatner, potentially staring down a murderous psychopath who happens to be wearing the face of his next victim? To me, it seems like the timing for a William Shatner cameo in a Halloween movie has come and gone, no matter what producer Malek Akkad tells HalloweenMovies.com. Maybe it would have been a cute nod in the 1980s, when the series was finding its way and detouring down sequel paths that angered and confused fans of John Carpenter's original. I easily could see Shatner popping up in Halloween H2O, which came out around the time of Scream and the bulk of the meta, wink-wink horror movies that broke the proverbial fourth wall and let the audience know that everyone was in on the joke.
Today, though, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green are looking to wipe away the silliness that watered down the Halloween franchise over the years. Everything about this gritty continuation has looked mean, nasty, terrifying and way more in line with the original vision of John Carpenter. Just look at the most recent trailer, and try not to get too scared when Michael Myers drops TEETH into the stall of a filthy gas-station restroom.
It would be weird to see the one-time Capt. Kirk, and the current Priceline spokesperson, showing up in a movie of this caliber, right? I'd much rather see the producers and writers of Star Trek find a way to work William Shatner into that timeline, the way that they did with Leonard Nimoy in J.J. Abrams' reboot of the long-running series. Kirk deserves a fitting farewell for the franchise that made him a household name. That's a better fit than Halloween, which lifted Shatner's likeness, but turned Michael Myers into a monster who can stand on his own.
The new Halloween reaches theaters on October 19. Visit our Halloween preview page for all of the stories we ran from our recent visit to the movie's set in Charleston, South Carolina.
