Dispute 2

Who physically turned the Kirk mask into the Michael Myers mask?

The production designer says he did it at home. Don Post Studios has said the filmmakers paid it to do the work, and a federal court wrote that version into its findings of fact.

Disputed

Account

Tommy Lee Wallace, at home

He bought two masks, took the Kirk home and altered it himself.

FIRST-HAND
Wallace, 2008: "I took it home and doctored it a little, cut the eye holes bigger, yanked off the sideburns, darkened the hair and spray-painted the whole thing dead white." Asked directly about Don Post, he said the original film mask was his work, using the Kirk mask as the base. 1
FIRST-HAND
Wallace, 2016: the same steps again, plus "mussed the hair." 2
FIRST-HAND
Carpenter, 2015: "the art director went up to Bert Wheeler's magic shop… he got two masks… So we spray-painted it, altered the eye holes and just did a couple things with the hair." 3
DOCUMENTARY
In 2014 Wallace demonstrated the conversion step by step on camera for the Halloween: The Complete Collection box set. 4

Account

Don Post Studios, for $150

The filmmakers asked the studio to modify a Kirk mask to their instructions.

DOCUMENTARY
Facts §II of the 2000 opinion: the Halloween representative asked Don Post Studios to modify "a mask of Captain Kirk"; the studio "delivered it to the filmmakers" and "was paid $150.00 for its work on the mask," and "did not assert, nor did it reserve any rights to the mask at that time." 5
CAVEAT
Per the opinion's citations, Don Post testified and neither Wallace nor Carpenter did. The same judge found Don Post's testimony on other points "simply not credible." 5
USER-SUBMITTED
Don Post Jr. has also told a different version publicly: the filmmakers asked for a custom mask, couldn't afford it, and were told to refurbish existing Kirk masks, with his profit "less than $100." That doesn't match the court's version. 6
FAN RESEARCH
Collectors call this "the Don Post theory" and mostly reject it, citing amateur glue lines and paint on the hero mask and Wallace's consistent account. 7

What’s missing

No third party has corroborated either side on the record. Debra Hill, who was in the production office, is not on record on this point in the sources found. The court did not hear from Wallace or Carpenter.

Safe wording

State Wallace's account as the primary one, and note that Don Post Studios has claimed a role and that a federal court recorded that claim as a finding of fact.