October 8, 2015

It was Halloween weekend of 2003 while I was attending the 25th anniversary convention in Pasadena that I first became familiar with this epic photograph of Freddy with Jason, Leatherface and Michael Myers. Until then, I was completely unaware of its existence, or even the fact that these legendary titans of terror had ever been in the same room together! As a horror fan-boy, I’ve always speculated who would win in a fight. Freddy? Or Jason? And what if the winner went up against Leatherface? Or even Michael Myers?

As I stepped up to the table for George Wilbur, who portrayed Michael Myers in both HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS and HALLOWEEN 6: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS, I scanned over the wide array of 8 x 10 photos the famed stuntman had on display and that’s when I first saw this bad-boy. It was fairly obvious from his mask (and the fact that he was selling the photo) that he was the man playing Myers for the photo shoot circa the release of HALLOWEEN 4. It’s fairly easy to identify Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger as the actor is so indelible as the “bastard son of a thousand maniacs.” This must’ve also been around the time of FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD, because the John Carl Buechler make-up design for Jason Voorhees looked very much to be from that particular sequel. And also, there’s no mistaking Kane Hodder’s body language and stance when he’s playing Jason. You can just tell that’s Kane. The only question up for debate was who is Leatherface in this photo?

When I purchased it off of George Wilbur, he wasn’t sure who was donning Leatherface’s skin mask, but at quick glance, and considering the time period of the other horror icons, my bet was it was the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 version of Leatherface. Bill Johnson, who played Leatherface in that Tobe Hooper helmed sequel was at the convention! So I went over to him to sign it, and he claimed that although it was in fact his mask, it was not him in the actual photo. Regardless, he signed the pic for me anyways. Now my goal was two-fold. To get this signed by everyone in the pic, which included Gunnar Hansen since he is the original Leatherface AND to find out who the hell was Leatherface in this pic!

A few years later, it was Kane Hodder who shed some light. He told me that it was in fact George Wilbur as Michael Myers, Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, himself as Jason Voorhees and the man behind the Leatherface mask was stuntman Bob Elmore, who happened to do the stunt work on TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2. Ah ha! Finally, the connection makes sense. By this point, I had already had Gunnar sign it, and a few short months after that, the great Robert Englund completed it with his signature. I partially wish I didn’t get it personalized, but then again, the photo is just for me, nicely framed and hanging in my living room hallway.

But alas, where the hell did this photo come from?

With a little bit of research and through the help of my friend Jared Rivet, we tracked down the source. This photo shoot was actually part of an article that ran in People Magazine, Volume 30, Number 19 dated November 7th, 1988! It was intended to tie in with that years Halloween season and indeed was around the time that NIGHTMARE 4, FRIDAY VII, TEXAS CHAINSAW 2 and HALLOWEEN 4 had slayed the box office. There’s a few fun quotes from each of the performers about the trials and tribulations that come with playing a movie maniac, but the coolest thing about the piece is they managed to get all these guys in the same room together in full make up for this historic photoshoot.