‘Scream’: The origin of the Ghostface mask that made a costume shop a millionaire

Villains are fundamental in the cinema, but when we talk about horror films and the cult around their titles, everything takes on an even greater scope and, pushed by the premiere of the wonderful ‘Scream VI’, it is time to investigate about the origin of the Ghostface mask that made a costume shop a millionaire.

“A hilarious horror movie, as fresh as an adventure that starts from scratch but with the heart of an iron legacy controlled by its own followers,” says our review of ‘Scream VI’, emphasizing the importance of a fandom that is it has remained faithful despite the inevitable (and not terribly pronounced) ups and downs.

And it is that, although Wes Craven managed to rejuvenate the slasher in the mid-90s with the magnetic ‘Scream. Watch Who’s Calling’ (1996), the difficult thing is to understand how that film about masked stabbing has managed to reach its sixth installment in top form, something that our ranking shows with the ‘Scream’ films ordered from worst to best. Almost three decades of gloomy occult calls and with a ghostly rubber mask as the main icon, a symbol embraced by its unconditional fans that, however, had a most impersonal and fortuitous beginning..

The Peanut-Eyed Ghost

“‘Scream. Watch who’s calling’ was a new way of making a horror movie, a deconstruction”, explains the own Kevin Williamson, author of the script that started it all and that defined his villain with a simple “masked murderer”which gave Craven and his costume designer, Brigitte Sleiertin, as much freedom as possible to find the right profile.

While scouting locations for the film, producer Marianne Maddalena ran into a house with the ghostly effigy of a sad desperate cry that we now know and, after showing it to Craven, the director decided that it would be the base from which to start.

First developed for Fun World costume and gift shops during the 1991 Halloween season, It was part of a collection entitled ‘Fantastic Faces’ (fantastic faces) and had been baptized ‘The Peanut-Eyed Ghost’ (The ghost with peanut eyes).

a desperate look

With the licenses obtained, and those in charge of Fun World enthusiastic about the idea, Craven and his team began to make different versions of the original. “He has a horrible look, it’s a pitiful look, a desperate lookrecalls Sleiertin.

Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger, from the design company KNB Effects, got down to work but nothing seemed to beat the mask that had been selling for five years in the North American chain.

The shoot began using one of the designs modified by KNB Effects, with the eyes more closed and the triangular nose.. After shooting the murders of Casey (Drew Barrymore) and director Himbry (Henry Winkler), Craven was still somewhat unhappy with the result when the good news reached him: Dimension Films and Fun World had reached an agreement whereby he could definitely use the any version of the skin you wanted, including the original.

“We had an assortment of skins that looked like Ghostface. Out of that entire collection, that face was the strongest. The design definitely had something that made it stand out from the rest.“says Sleiertin.

ghostface everywhere

It was Fun World’s licensing director, RJ Torbert, who was tasked with naming the skin before its theatrical release. That ‘The Peanut-Eyed Ghost’ thing was funny but it didn’t seem too appropriate for a serial killer outfit.

Torbert opted for ‘GhostFace’ (ghost face) because that desperate expression that seemed to him a “ghost in pain”. Halfway between a spectrum and the famous painting ‘The Scream (Skrik)’ by Edvard Munchthe design and title of ‘Ghostface’, owned by Fun World, has had few changes throughout the saga, beyond different improvements in terms of its crafting materials.

The ease of finding it in stores, both in reality and in fiction, has plagued movie theaters with masks with the gloomy face with empty eyes, becoming the most used and sold costume for Halloween in the United States since the mid-90s. .