poster for John Carpenter’s 1978 slasher “Halloween” is scary, subtle, and quite brilliant. It was painted by artist Bob Gleason, and his original poster design sold for $84,000 at an auction in 2016. As Business Insider reported in 2022, Gleason explained in a special auction letter that a hidden symbol in the poster wasn’t supposed to be there. If one looks closely at the fist on the poster, one might be able to make out a face in the knuckles and veins. The second knuckle looks a little bit like a nose, while the third and fourth knuckles might be seen as lips (with the veins resembling worms crawling out of the face’s orifices).
Gleason assured buyers: that wasn’t his intent.
Speaking to Fangoria Magazine in 2022, Gleason explained that he came up with the “Halloween” poster design while working for the Santa Monica-based graphic design firm B.D. Fox and Friends. He noticed that the grooves that circumvent a pumpkin could be shadowed in a jagged, knife-like shape, an image he could use in conjunction with an actual knife. The poster, you may note, shows the hand of iconic “Halloween” killer Michael Myers holding a large, curved kitchen knife, melting into a repeated pattern that forms the face of a jack-o’-lantern.
Gleason’s managers weren’t too fond of his idea, feeling that Myers’ white-faced mask should be placed front-and-center, not the knife. Shortly later, though, Gleason’s managers came around and let him make the poster he wanted. (It took him three or four days.) 44 years later, Gleason returned to paint the poster for David Gordon Green’s 2022 film “Halloween Ends,” having also painted the posters for John Carpenter’s “The Fog,” Chuck Norris’ “Force Vengeance,” and Bruce Lee’s “Game of Death” in the meantime.
