You can’t have a Halloween movie without the iconic Michael Myers mask. Blumhouse’s new Halloween film, a direct sequel to the original, will of course feature the spooky mask, but it won’t look exactly the same as it did in the 1978 classic.

Christopher Nelson, the special effects make-up artist behind the new David Gordon Green film, recently spoke with Halloween Daily News (h/t IGN) about his work on the sequel. He told the site about bringing the iconic killer back to the screen and, most importantly, how his mask will look. Don’t expect it to be in good condition, but visibly show the wear-and-tear of the passage of time. And while the shape and coloring of the masks from the sequels and Rob Zombie re-imaginings varied, the new film’s mask will be specifically designed based on the original:

The film takes place 40 years later, so you’re not going to have that same mask, it’s not going to be this pristine, beautiful thing that it was in 1978. You have to approach it from that standpoint. I had 40-year-old masks that I studied and looked at how they broke down, how they wrinkled, how they did this and how they did that. I also took into account the context of the film. Where is the mask now and where has it been for these 40 years? Without revealing anything, I took that into context. I had hundreds of photos and books.

The new Halloween will be a direct sequel to the John Carpenter film, retconning everything that came after (and thus, ignoring Laurie Strode’s Resurrection death). The sequel, directed by Gordon Green and written by Danny McBride, will follow Laurie (with Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her famous role), along with her daughter (Judy Greer) and granddaughter. The new Halloween hits theaters just in time for the original’s 40th anniversary on October 19, or else you have full permission to chop off Jason Blum’s hand.

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