Horror trivia: William Shatner played Freddy Voorhees from the Halloween on Elm Street The 13th movie

At this point, it’s not even trivia anymore—everyone knows that William Shatner’s face became the face of Michael Myers in Halloween. Horror fans have repeated this story for almost half a century: John Carpenter’s low-budget film needed a mask, so the crew went to a store, grabbed a William Shatner Star Trek mask, slathered it in white paint, widened the eye holes, and—voilà—the Shape was born.

So, last night I stumbled across a nostalgic TikTok clip of William Shatner himself talking to Conan O’Brien back in the ’90s about this very thing. What should have been a fun exchange quickly turned into a painful mess. Shatner and Conan mixed up Jason and Freddy, the audience shouted out Friday the 13th when the real answer was Halloween, and Andy Richter, joking about being a “slasher movie connoisseur,” still couldn’t get the facts straight.

In fairness, this may not have been as WELL KNOWN in the 90s–perhaps it was more of obscure trivia compared to the amount of knowledge people have today of horror and the Halloween films.. but when your face is the base for a horror icon, you’d think you would have gotten it right? (This aired in November 1997)..

The whole segment is a horror fan’s worst nightmare—not because of Michael Myers, but because of how wrong everyone managed to be. It’ll make you wince, but it’s worth a watch..

For some more reading, check out our the fall of 2022 post about the aging Shape.. the fate of the original Myers mask and how it looked then.. It is falling apart..