What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the movie Scream? Probably the Ghostface mask, right? It's one of the most iconic horror images of all time, but MTV's new Scream TV series will be going for something entirely different.
A few weeks ago, fans began to freak out when it was reported that MTV's Scream would not feature the Ghostface mask at all. At the time, the rumor was that it was a rights issue and that The Weinstein Company for some reason didn't have the rights to the Ghostface mask.
That's apparently not true, but the Ghostface mask still will not be appearing in the TV show as a creative decision.
According to Entertainment Weekly, MTV executive Mina Lefevre said they wanted to reinvent the movie for TV and do their own thing. "We wanted to get a nod and a wink to what the original was, but we definitely wanted to make it more on par with what horror is now, which is darker," she said.
Lefevre described the new version of the mask as darker, more grounded and more evolved. She said that if the movie's mask is the plastic version, this will be the more organic version.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the rumor is the new mask might actually be made of flesh, which would be pretty insane.
So the decision to leave Ghostface out was a matter of trying to do something new and fresh with the show rather than some sort of weird rights issue. And it seems that the Ghostface mask appearing at some point hasn't been ruled out, with Lefevre saying it's too early to say that the mask will never appear.
On the one hand, a lot of fans are probably going to be disappointed not to see the main, iconic thing about Scream in the new series. It would be kind of like seeing a new Friday the 13th without the hockey mask or a Nightmare on Elm Street without Freddy's gloves. On the other hand, it's kind of admirable that the creative team doesn't want to just give us Scream again, and that they seem to genuinely want to make it their own and do something fresh.
What seems to be the most concerning though is Lefevre's emphasis on the show being darker, which she says a few times in her Entertainment Weekly interview. Scream wasn't a comedy, but it definitely didn't take itself too seriously and had a lot of fun with the premise. It sounds like there could be a danger here of this new version taking itself way too seriously and being unnecessarily dark, as is the case with a lot of recent horror reboots.
Scream will revolve around a group of high school kids and a viral YouTube video which is the catalyst for a murder. It stars Willa Fitzgerald, Amy Forsyth, John Karna, Carlson Young, and Amadeus Serafini. A 10 episode first season is set to premiere next October.