The mask that Wes Craven’s Scream forever immortalized as Ghostface was originally a mass-produced mask that bore the name “Peanut-Eyed Ghost.” Inspired by Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream,” the mask was released by Fun World in the early ’90s, and the story goes that Scream‘s production team stumbled upon it in a house while they were scouting locations. While Craven had tasked KNB EFX with designing some alternate options, Fun World and Dimension ultimately joined forces, and the “Peanut-Eyed Ghost” became Ghostface.
The rest, as they say, is horror history.
All these years later, Fun World have remained the right holders of the classic Ghost Face mask, frequently releasing official merch that’s not actually branded Scream. That merch includes everything from Easter Bunny Ghost Face masks to knife blocks and even an Elf on the Shelf-inspired Ghost Face product, with an official Ghost Face Vodka on the way soon.
But now Los Angeles effects company Alterian Ghost Factory is claiming that they actually made the mask before Fun World did back in the early ’90s, and a legal battle is underway.
The Hollywood Reporter explains, “The rights to the iconic Ghostface mask has sparked a legal battle, with Spyglass and Paramount Pictures suing a Los Angeles-based special effects studio claiming ownership of the droopy-eyed horror visage. In a lawsuit filed on Friday in California federal, the companies say that the Alterian Ghost Factory is threatening copyright infringement litigation ahead of the release of the next installment to the Scream franchise. The suit seeks a court order, which would bar the special effects studio from suing, establishing that it’s on solid legal ground.”
The complaint from Paramount and Spyglass reads, “Alterian has never legally established that it owns the rights to the Ghostface mask, and it will not be able to prove it now in this litigation. And seeking to disrupt the release of a completed motion picture mere weeks before its release—the seventh installment of a franchise that Alterian watched grow in silence for three decades—is an outrageous attempt to shake down.”
Alterian’s argument? THR notes, “Fun World had no right to license the mask, saying that it created the underlying design first, which was later copied by Fun World, the suit says.”
Scream 7, slashing into theaters February 27, has been mired in headline-making messiness from the very beginning. From the firing of Melissa Barrera to the exit of Jenna Ortega and the recent use of AI as part of the marketing campaign, much of the chatter about Scream 7 thus far has been less than positive. We’ll see if that changes once the film is unleashed.
Stay tuned for much more on all things Scream 7.
