Michael Myers lookalike serves up scares this Friday the 13th
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Liam Brewer, right, teaches Michael Myers to pull espresso at Chicco Baccello in Washington Thursday morning. Antonio Garcia will appear as Michael Myers throughout Canonsburg and Washington today, Friday the 13th, and through the end of October.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Antonio Garcia puts on his homemade Michael Myers mask after an interview with the Observer-Reporter earlier this week. Garcia stays in character while interacting with the public, but does offer kids (and scared adults!) fist bumps, high fives and even a silly dance to break the ice.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
For the last week, Antonio Garcia has been appearing locally as Michael Myers in a mask he made himself, to the delight and, sometimes terror of residents. Garcia grew up watching horror films and figured it would be fun to dress up and spread spooky season smiles as the character that most terrified him when he was young.
Friday the 13th brings to mind black cats and spilled salt, haunted houses (the real kind), and the terrifying Friday the 13th franchise antagonist Jason Voorhees.
But this Friday the 13th, another spook will be out and about in Washington County.
“Michael Myers … I was absolutely petrified of,” said Antonio Garcia, who has recently begun appearing throughout Washington County dressed in a homemade Myers mask and costume, to the delight and terror of residents. “You have your Freddy Krugers, you have your Jasons, you have your Leather Face. Those are all nut jobs in themselves, but they also have a supernatural twist to them. Michael, he is ordinary. It could be anybody on planet Earth. He’s an ordinary dude. He’s the embodiment of evil. That’s what makes him so scary.”
Garcia, however, is not. He’s a fun-loving 23-year-old, a doting father and Halloween enthusiast who enjoys art, particularly making masks, and spreading joy.
For Garcia, joy is dressing up and wandering Washington (with the permission of local police), hearing “Hi, Michael!” and being stopped for selfies, watching people’s faces light up when they see one of their favorite scary movie characters in the flesh.
Garcia is true to character. He’s perfected the stiff Michael Myers walk and remains silent during interactions with the public, breaking character only to offer a robotic wave or fist bump kids.
“I’ve danced for a couple people,” Garcia laughed. “When I tell people aren’t having a good time, I kind of just try to walk away as quickly as possible while staying in character. I’m not here to disrespect anybody. If I can’t break the ice … I rip off the mask. Thankfully, I haven’t had to do that a lot, so my identity is, for the most part, still concealed.”
Since he began appearing locally as the “Halloween” franchise’s horrifying main character about a week ago, Garcia’s Michael Myers has blown up on social media. Before his first Facebook page was taken down for reasons unknown, Garcia had amassed nearly 2,500 followers from Washington County and beyond.
His new page, Stay Spooky, has almost 1,000 followers, and people post photos of themselves with Garcia’s Michael Myers, share Myers sightings and send messages requesting his presence at everything from local hot spots to kids birthday parties.
“Never did I imagine that I’d be … having people stop me left and right, doing birthday parties, little scare setups, all that stuff. Somebody wanted me at a football game. That stuff’s so flattering. It’s pretty neat,” Garcia said.
Part of the draw is Garcia’s authenticity. Along with the movements, he’s nailed the Michael Myers look, thanks to a jumpsuit he purchased from the company that created Myers’s signature outfit for the films and a homemade mask.
“This mask in particular cost me about maybe four weeks of work,” said Garcia, who stripped down a pre-made Michael Myers mask and hand-painted it based off reference pictures to give it the authentic, gritty and intimidating look. “There’s little minute details that a lot of nerds like myself, that right there sells it for me.”
It sold the manager of Spirit Halloween, where Garcia was invited recently to take photos with staff and shoppers. The Washington Walmart has also invited Michael Myers to lurk in its aisles, and folks have offered to buy Garcia’s Michael Myers hot dogs at Shorty’s or breakfast at area restaurants.
“McDonald’s, I made it on the front page of the Washington McDonald’s page,” Garcia said. “There’s this cute little 7-year-old that wants to meet me and give me a knife that has Michael Myers’ face on it. Seeing the kids happy just tickles my soul. I have a 3-year-old and she absolutely adores it.”
Earlier this week, Garcia’s Michael Myers trekked to UPMC in Pittsburgh to visit a woman undergoing surgery, after she reached out on social media to request a visit from one of her favorite horror characters.
“She reached out to me the first day of me doing this. She’s been in there since August. She’s a big Halloween person. My heart went out to her. I was like, I can’t have her missing a little bit of festivities,” said Garcia.
On Thursday, Garcia dropped into Chicco Baccello in Washington to pull espresso for a delighted customer. Today, Friday the 13th, he’ll be creeping about Canonsburg and Washington and scaring the daylights out of folks at a local haunted trail.
“You know what kills me? People think that, ‘Oh, Michael Myers, Friday the 13th!’ A gentleman (asked), ‘Hey, you’re Michael Myers from Friday the 13th, right?’ It makes me chuckle a little bit under the mask,” Garcia said. “I’ll be around on Friday the 13th.”
He’ll be around through the end of spooky season, too. Garcia is booked for appearances at local businesses, trunk-or-treats and events throughout October and at Washington Park’s Dark in the Park the last weekend of this month.
He understands dressing like Michael Myers is a risk in today’s world, but it’s a risk he’s willing to take, if only to transport people to a more carefree, pre-COVID time when folks got into the spirit and theatrics of Halloween season.
It isn’t about the attention or the scares, Garcia said. It’s about spreading spooky season joy on Friday the 13th and beyond.
“I’m just being a goofball,” Garcia said. “Halloween’s always been my favorite time of the year, ever since I was little. It’s that one time of year where everybody can let their kid side out. I enjoy the season. If I can make somebody’s day, that’s what’s worth it to me.”