David Arquette shares the story of how the original Ghostface mask came to be in Scream. This Friday, beloved slasher franchise Scream returns to the big screen with a new installment that promises to bring it all back to the beginning. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the film returns to Woodsboro as a new Ghostface starts picking off victims one by one. The reemergence of the masked killer pulls original trio Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Dewey Riley (Arquette), and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) back to town so they can teach the newest generation how to survive a horror movie.
Not only is the franchise making a resurgence on the big screen, Scream hit a special milestone last year when its 25th anniversary rolled around. The original film was helmed by the late, great Wes Craven, working off a script by Kevin Williamson. At the time of release in 1996, Scream was a revelation for the horror genre as it specifically called out and mocked tropes that populated prior films. It also shocked audiences right from the opening scene when it killed off its biggest star, Drew Barrymore, within minutes.
In a fitting, full-circle moment, Campbell, Arquette, and Cox stopped by The Drew Barrymore Show on Monday to talk all things Scream, both then and now. During their conversation, Arquette opened up about the funny way the Ghostface mask was chosen. Not realizing it would become a popular image, the creative team looked in a rather innocuous place. Arquette said:
I remember them coming back - it must've been right toward the beginning of shooting, and like, they had gone and found the mask. They said they found it in the back of this toy store. Wes didn't like any of the masks he was seeing, and he said, "Do you have anything old in the back, like under something?" And then they found the mask.
Nowadays, the Ghostface mask is such a pivotal part of Scream, it's given the franchise's killers their names. In a way, it's actually rather brilliant that Craven and the rest picked a random mask from a costume store. It's simple, but very unnerving when looming over victims. Plus, it fits the original Ghostfaces, Billy Loomis and Stu Macher. They were two teen boys who took pleasure in terrorizing Woodsboro, but they weren't rich criminal masterminds. A store-bought mask would suit their purposes just fine.
Billy and Stu got things started, but it remains to be seen who is behind that Ghostface mask in the new Scream. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett have gone to great lengths to keep Ghostface's identity a mystery, so audiences will have to find out for themselves by going to see the movie. As for the future of the franchise, that's equally mysterious. Should Scream live on, though, there's already something we can predict about the next one: That mask is coming back.
Source The Drew Barrymore Show
