When it comes to slasher films, the iconography of the killer is often more important than the story. As long as fans are being given the chance to watch Michael Myers show up in his white-painted Captain Kirk finest to slaughter anyone who gets in his way, no one cares about trying to make sense of the the nonsensical and convoluted timeline of the “Halloween” franchise. Even people who have never watched a horror movie in their life could probably identify Jason Voorhees from “Friday the 13th” in his iconic hockey mask, or clock Leatherface from “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” even without his titular weapon. The look of a slasher villain should strike fear into the hearts of the audience … but it should also be memorable enough to be marketable.
It’s a delicate balance, and it’s not the easiest thing in the world to pull off. The basic “sackhead” look of Jason in “Friday the 13th Part II” is only memorable because it’s Jason, because when the design first emerged five years earlier in “The Town That Dreaded Sundown,” it didn’t hit with audiences. (It also didn’t hit when the film got a metafictional sequel in 2014, because the slasher was just … a guy in a sack mask). Even a “bad” slasher mask can still be memorable (I still love you, Fencing Mask in “Urban Legend: Final Cut), but if you want your killer to pack a punch, you gotta call in the experts.
One of the best in the business is Tony Gardner, whose design for the new Valentine’s Day slasher film “Heart Eyes” (read our review here) is already being hailed as one of the best slasher villain designs in years. This shouldn’t be surprising, considering Gardner has one of the most impressive genre film pedigrees of anyone working today in the makeup and special effects field.