TheScreamfranchise not only covers movies, as it expanded to TV in 2015, but one of its biggest differences with the movies was that it used a completely different Ghostface mask. In 1996, Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven brought the horror movieScream, which revitalized the slasher genre.Screamwas a huge success and it launched a film series, with the first four movies directed by Craven, and the final three being a reboot trilogy. BetweenScream 4andScream2022, the saga branched out to TV with a TV show simply titledScream, which premiered on MTV.
TheScreamTV series isn’t part of the continuity of the movies, instead being a standalone series. The first two seasons ofScreamtook viewers to the fictional town of Lakewood, Colorado, to follow Emma DuVal (Willa Fitzgerald), a teenage girl linked to disturbing past events in town. The third season,Scream: Resurrection, broke continuity and turned the series into an anthology, and followed Deion Elliot (RJ Cyler), a football star tormented by his past. A huge difference between the show and the movies was that the former didn’t use the classic Ghostface mask until its third season.
The Scream Show’s New Mask Was A Creative Decision
It Sets The Show Apart
In 2011, Sidney Prescott’s (Neve Campbell) story with the Ghostface murders seemed to have ended withScream 4, but that wasn’t the end of the franchise. In 2012, aScreamTV show was announced to be in development and finally premiered in 2015. However, in addition to being unrelated to the movies, theScreamTV show had its own Ghostface mask.This mask looked less like a ghost and more like a personbut kept the black eyes and open mouth though more in an “o” shape.
The team behind the TV show needed to stand out and didn’t want to mislead the audience with the original mask.
Executive producer Jaime Paglia toldEWin 2015 that they opted fora new “Ghostface” mask for the show to let the audience know this isn’t the sameScreamas the movies.As the Ghostface mask became synonymous with the movie series, the team behind the TV show needed to stand out and didn’t want to mislead the audience with the original mask. In that same interview, Wes Craven said the new mask was “cool and scary” while taking the series in a new direction.
Months earlier, speaking toTHR, MTV saidthe new design was a creative decision to take the TV show in a darker and more modern direction. The new mask in theScreamTV show surely fulfilled its purpose of setting the show apart from the movies, but many viewers, mostly fans of the movies, weren’t on board with the modernized design. The design itself isn’t bad – the problem was that it was attached to the name of a franchise with one of the most recognizable masks in film history.
Rights Issues Must’ve Also Prevented Scream From Using The Ghostface Mask
The Scream TV Show Might Not Have Been Able To Use The Original Ghostface Mask
Before MTV explained that the new mask was for creative reasons and to make theScreamTV show stand out from the movies, it was speculated that it wasn’t using the Ghostface mask due to budget problems.The creators and thus official licensor of the Ghostface mask fromtheScreammoviesis Fun World, so it’s likely that MTV didn’t get their permission to use the Ghostface mask for the TV show, forcing them to design their own (and come up with an official reason not related to rights issues).
Why Scream’s TV Show Brought Back The Classic Ghostface Mask In Season 3
But Still Doesn’t Make The Show Part Of The Movies
As part of the completely different plan for the third season ofScream, the Ghostface mask finally made an appearance. As mentioned above,Scream: Resurrectionwas a reboot of the TV show, with a new cast, a new story, and a new mask. In 2017,the Ghostface mask was confirmed to be part ofScream: Resurrection, and with it also returned Roger L. Jackson, the voice of Ghostface in allScreammovies so far.The reasonwhyScreamseason 3 used the original Ghostface maskis a deal with Fun World.
Still,Scream: Resurrectionis unrelated to the movie series, its only link being the original Ghostface mask. Unfortunately, despite its potential with a new cast and story and the Ghostface mask,Scream: Resurrectionis the lowest-ratedScreamseason onRotten Tomatoeswith only 40%.Scream: Resurrectionproved that the show’s weakness had nothing to do with the killer’s mask, and it was more of a narrative issue and it not being able to shake off the legacy ofScream, while also not being able to live up to the movies’ quality.
53%
92%
40%
Sources:EW,THR.
Scream: The TV Series
In the town of Lakewood, a masked killer’s spree exposes dark secrets among a group of teenagers, particularly Emma Duval, who is linked to the town’s past tragedies. As the body count rises, Emma and her friends must unmask the murderer before becoming the next victims.
