When MTV debuts Scream later this month, it will mark the latest big screen horror film to get a small screen reimagining. We recently got a peek at what the new killer’s mask will look like in all of its plain white glory, and new details have surfaced regarding its origins, which makes it sound quite a bit like another monstrous horror franchise: Friday the 13th. No machetes have been seen yet, though.
In an interview full of new and intriguing tidbits about this new approach to Scream and its masked murderer, co-showrunner Jill Blotevogel revealed to THR that the origin story of this villain – whose name is apparently Brandon James – matches up with that of Jason Voorhees, although she’s obviously not going to be the one to say that.
Our mask was a post-op surgical mask worn by a deformed teen who went on a murderous rampage two decades earlier.
We all know that Jason was a deformed youngin who was left to drown by some rude-ass camp counselors, and that he later went on many murderous rampages over several decades. Brandon James is called a “bullying victim,” and I’m pretty sure the ultimate form of bullying is “being left to die.” It’s not exactly a carbon copy or anything, but the motivations behind this killer are indeed far more comparable to Jason than that of any of the killers in the Scream films. Although one of the inciting incidents for the first film’s killers involved the absence of one of their mothers. It’s all related!
As far as the differences go, Jason's mask had nothing to do with an operation, and this new Scream killer actually has a (hopefully deep) mythology within the town where the show is set, as some characters are trying to figure out if a new series of murders is connected to those of 20 years previous. Blotevogel went on about how they wanted the mask to fit into this world without replicating the store-bought gimmick of the films.
We tried to create a look that shared some basic DNA with the original Ghostface mask but meshed with our long-running mystery story that will power the series ... Our killer likes to play games and wear masks in many ways — especially using technology — and is a chameleon of sorts.
I have no idea what she means by “many ways,” or how a mask can be used with technology, unless part of his plan is murdering people through a live Periscope stream. But maybe that’s what’s driving his look in the new trailer, which is similar to the first one but feels a little more punchy. Check it out below, and notice how the visuals get all digitized whenever the killer is show. It’s probably just a way to distort it so we can’t take screenshots, but still.
Scream will debut on MTV on Tuesday, June 30 at 10 p.m. I wonder if that Friday the 13th TV series will be anything like Scream 3 should it come into being.
