Ghostface (Scream)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Scream character
Image:Ghostface.jpg
Ghostface
Location Woodsboro, California
Weapon of Choice: Hunting knife
Enemies Sidney Prescott and her friends and family.

Ghostface is the name of a fictional character and the main antagonist in the Scream trilogy. There have been five people to assume his mantle (from Scream, Scream 2 and Scream 3). A serial killer, he (or she) often dresses up as a variation of a ghost, or the Grim Reaper (The name given to his costume in the film is 'Father Death'). He is voiced by Roger L. Jackson.

Ghostface is named after the rubber mask under which he hides his face, a mask inspired by the Edvard Munch painting The Scream. He is also known as the Woodsboro Killer, after the town where he commits his murders.

Ghostface often calls his victims on the phone, taunting or threatening them before stabbing them to death with an 8 inch hunting knife. Even though he is usually known for asking his victims horror film trivia while stalking them, he only does this five times in the Scream Series. (Casey in Scream, Call to Sidney in Scream, Randy's call in Scream 2, Cici's call in Scream 2, and Sarah's call in Scream 3)

[edit] Identity

In the first film, the killer is in fact two people; Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) and Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard). Billy murders Sidney Prescott's mother prior to the events of the movie because she had slept with his father, prompting Billy's parents to divorce. Stu never gives a motive except for "peer pressure".

Minutes before Sidney's mother is murdered, she has sex with Cotton Weary; which in turn makes the scene appear to be a rape/murder crime, framing Cotton. Billy and Stu then proceed to try to murder Sidney and most of her friends as revenge.

In the second film, the person behind the killing turns out to be Billy's mother, Mrs. Loomis (Laurie Metcalf), who wants revenge for the death of her son. She recruits a psychopath named Mickey Altieri (Timothy Olyphant) to do the actual killing while she poses as a local reporter. Randy Meeks and Casey "Cici" Cooper, since Mickey is already at the party, are the only victims to be killed by Mrs. Loomis.

In the final film, the killer is Sidney's half-brother Roman Bridger, who secretly manipulated the killings of the last two movies by revealing to Billy his father's affair.

[edit] Parodies in Other Media

Ghostface from Scary Movie.
Ghostface from Scary Movie.

In the films Scary Movie and Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth, there is a killer based on the Ghostface character.

In Scary Movie, a gimmick is that his mask can change facial expressions. In a direct parody of his inspiration, he calls his victims on the phone, but often with nonsensical phrases. One particular encounter leads to a variation of the "Whassup?" commercials from Budweiser. He also likes to rap and smoke marijuana. In the climax of the film, the killer was revealed to be both Bobby Prinze and Ray Wilkins. However, it turns out they wanted to be copycat killers of a killer that already existed. The real killer was Doofy Gilmore, a policeman who had been faking mental retardation.

In Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth, the killer's mask is not originally that of Ghostface, but begins as a hockey mask which resembles the one worn by Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th series. After being set on fire (when the killer tried to smoke a cigarette), it melted to resemble Ghostface. In this film, unlike the Scream version of Ghostface, he constantly fails to kill anyone with a speaking part; the various kills are accidental, or people in the background with almost no part in the plot. In the climax of the film, the killer turns out to be Doughy's long lost twin cousin. He is accidentally shot by Hagatha, who was using a gun as a mirror to touch up her make-up. He later attempts to escape, after waking up in a mockery of the usual horror shock endings, only to be shot many times by Doughy and beaten up by a mob of cops who mistake him for being black. He still survives, and is revealed in a where-are-they-now segment, he apparently settled down. At the end of the film, it turns out that another has taken up the guise of Ghostface (and is apparently more improved, attacking his victims with ninja-like tactics).

Roger L. Jackson reprises his role of Ghostface in the Robot Chicken episode "That Hurts Me." as one of the movie killer contestants in a show that parodies "Big Brother". He portrays the token black character so often seen in reality shows. He launches a prank war on Pinhead, purposefully shrinks Freddy Krueger's sweater in the wash, and when given a free cell phone call, he calls Drew Barrymore to threaten her and complain that the Charlie's Angels sequel sucked. When both he and Michael Myers were set to be eliminated, Ghostface gave a heartfelt speech about how he'd cherished his time on the show and wouldn't hold any grudges over being eliminated, which saved him from elimination, as opposed to Michael, who simply stabbed Freddy repeatedly as a response (which didn't even make Freddy bleed, but instead merely annoyed him).

Ghostface has also made a cameo in Tripping the Rift as the judge in the episode when Chode sells his soul to the devil and finds a way to sue him.

In the film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Shannen Doherty and Wes Craven provide cameos as themselves making the non-existent Scream 4, but Doherty objects when Ghostface turns out to be played by the orangutan, Suzann.

[edit] References


Languages