Ghostface (Scream) - Concept and Creation

Concept and Creation

The Ghostface costume is the outfit worn by the main antagonists of the Scream franchise, consisting of a rubber white mask with black eyes, nose and mouth and a black, cloth-like material, hooded-robe with faux-tatters draping from the arms and a spiked-trim to the base of the outfit. In the movie, the costume is considered common and easily purchasable making identifying the buyers difficult and creating the possibility for anyone to be the killer. Despite its appearance as a solid piece of material, the robe is put on like a jacket, fastening with velcro-attachments down the front of the torso.

The Ghostface mask was first developed for novelty stores during the Halloween season between 1991 and 1992 by Fun World employee Brigitte Sleiertin as part of a series entitled "Fantastic Faces", the mask itself known as "The Peanut-Eyed Ghost". The final design was approved by Fun World vice-president Allan Geller. Craven claimed to have originally found the mask but later clarified that he had misremembered the event and that it was producer Marianne Maddalena who discovered it. She found it while inside a house during location scouting for the film and brought it to the attention of Craven who set about trying to obtain the rights to use it. Fun World Licensing Director R.J. Torbert joined Fun World in 1996 and was given the task of naming the mask prior to its film debut, deciding on "GhostFace" with the blessing of Fun World owners Stanley and Allan Geller. Torbert felt it looked like a "ghost in pain", believing it to be a unique design. The Ghostface design and title are owned by Fun World.

The design of the mask bears reference to Edvard Munch's painting The Scream, the cover of the Pink Floyd album The Wall and the ghostly characters that appeared in the 1930s Betty Boop cartoon. The mask is stark white and depicts a caracature of someone screaming and crying at the same time. Designer Sleiertin stated that the mask displayed different emotions, "It's a horrible look, it's a sorry look, it's a frantic look". Since the appearance of Ghostface in Scream, the costume has become the most worn and sold costume for Halloween in the United States.

The initial script labeled the main antagonist as "masked killer" with no specifications to their appearance, forcing Craven and his staff to produce the costume eventually worn by Ghostface as they were shooting. Craven asked Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger of design company KNB Effects to produce a mask specifically for the film based on the Fun World design but did not like the final result. After Fun World and Dimension Films were able to complete an agreement for the use of the Ghostface mask, Craven was able to use the original design as he wanted. The custom mask made by KNB Effects still appears in the scenes involving the murder of Casey Becker and Principal Himbry as filming of these scenes completed prior to the finalization of the deal between Fun World and Dimension Films.

The 1991-92 "Fantastic Faces" edition of the mask used in Scream is made of thin, white rubber with blackened eyes, nose and mouth. Despite being portrayed by Ulrich and Lillard, the costume is mostly worn by stuntman Dane Farwell who gave the character many of its mannerisms including the ritualistic cleaning of the knife blade following a kill. Craven wore the costume during the opening murder scene where the character is struck by a phone and by Ulrich only once during a finale scene where the character prepares to murder Randy. Despite Stu wearing the costume in the film, actor Lillard never actually wore the outfit. Scream 2 features a slightly redesigned version of the mask from the "Fearsome Faces" line, possessing slightly-altered eyes and an indented chin. Following Scream 2, the Ghostface mask became part of the "Ghostface" line of masks featuring several variations of the design including glow-in-the-dark models. The plain, white version of the Ghostface line mask is used in Scream 3 by Bridger. Another edition of the mask was developed, dubbed "The Deluxe Edition Mask" for use by Ghostface in Scream 4, again similar to the original Ghostface design but constructed of thicker rubber with a pearlescent finish.

Following the description in Williamson's script of a "ghost mask", Craven and designers had originally intended to use a white-motif, creating a white cloak and hood for the killer's costume. It was the intervention of Maddalena who felt that the cloak would be scarier if it was black, that resulted in the dark costume shown on screen. The cloak itself had to be custom-made for the film as the "Father Death" outfit identified in Scream as that of the killers did not really exist' the Fun World mask being sold as a stand-alone item. The cloak entered into retail markets only following the release of Scream. Each cloak was estimated to cost $700 to hand-produce by a seamstress and was made of a heavy, thick, black material with reflective threads woven throughout, creating a subtle glimmer. The cloak was created to help conceal the identity of the killers by covering most of their visible body, as it was believed that otherwise audiences would be able to guess which character was involved by their clothing and body-shape.

The knife used by Ghostface in the films is a custom prop knife based on the Buck 120 Hunting Knife that has since been discontinued by Buck. The knife blades are made of aluminium or chrome-paint-coated plastic with a rubber handle depending on the scenario for which they are needed. The handle is black with a silver, metal-appearance for the tip. The Buck 120 knife was chosen as the model for the Ghostface weapon because of the large blade it features, though the Buck 120 itself was discontinued due to customer complaints that the blade length was deemed "too big" for gutting animals.