“Want to see something really scary?” That line still sends shivers down the spines of horror fans everywhere when 1996’s Scream rebooted the entire genre. The Scream phenomenon resuscitated a dormant world of scary movies spawning a ton of copycats and setting the bar for a new generation of horror. Now MTV has announced that the network that used to show music videos has picked up SCREAM: The Series but it is without one key element: the iconic Ghostface mask. It is hard to think of Scream without thinking of the simple but terrifying mask that worked so well for four feature films.
Entertainment Weekly scored a scoop that in an attempt to create a whole new Scream experience, the series has come up with a mask of its own to redefine the mythos of the series. According to MTV’s senior vice president and head of scripted development Mina Lefevre, regarding the mask:
“It’s a darker, almost more grounded, evolved version of the mask. It’s something we’re constantly talking about. How did that mask become that mask? What’s its purpose? How did it evolve? If the Scream movie mask was the more plastic version, for a lack of a better description, this one is a more organic looking and frankly darker version.”
Rumors have been swirling that the mask for the series will be made of flesh but no confirmation on that just yet. Devotees of the franchise are probably wondering how you can have Scream without the Ghostface mask and this reporter agrees.
There were rumors that the new series did not have the rights to the iconic mask but Lefevre puts those concerns to rest. She assures fans that the spirit of director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson’s original vision will remain intact. She goes on that in order to reinvent the series for TV and keeping the main elements that made it such a hit franchise, they needed to keep a lot of what originally made Scream such a hit to begin with. Unfortunately in order to redefine the new SCREAM, that means getting rid of the original mask and trying to deliver the chills and thrills via a whole new look more tonally in touch with what modern horror has evolved into.
The series will once again be set with a high school backdrop with the typical eclectic mix of teenage characters. That means we’ll see the jock, the cheerleader, the tech nerd, the social climber and of course a mysterious new kid. Scream is set to debut on MTV in 2015. Here’s hoping that the original Ghostface mask has not been completely ruled out just yet…
