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Scream's Ghostface mask was inspired by Betty Boop
More like Betty Booooo-p!
It's not often that the worlds of horror movies and classic cartoons collide, but when they do, we're going to talk about it! The Ghostface mask from Scream was long assumed to have been inspired by Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream, but the artist behind the mask revealed that the true inspiration was actually Betty Boop.
Brigitte Sleiertin-Linden was the designer for Fun World, a novelty company specializing in Halloween costumes, and she actually developed the mask before the creation of Scream. Sleiertin-Linden was tasked with creating ghost masks and created designs based on Fleischer cartoons. In an interview with Scream & Fun World Mask Collector's Guide, she said, "As an animation junkie, I loved the old Max Fleischer cartoons and Betty Boop was one of my faves. Those faces were inspired by the ghosts from some of those old 1930's black and white cartoons."
The cartoons that specifically inspired the mask were Betty Boop's "Snow White" and Columbia Cartoons' "Scrappy's Ghost Story". Sleiertin-Linden drew sketches of ghost faces based on the cartoon ghosts, handed them off to the Fun World product managers and sculptors, and Ghostface was born - except back then, the mask was listed as the "Peanut-Eyed Ghost Mask" in the "Fantastic Faces" collection.
Meanwhile, during the pre-production of Scream, producers were working with designers to create an original serial killer mask for the movie. Twenty designs in and nothing felt right for the character, but the mask fatefully found its way to them. Screenwriter Kevin Williamson said that the mask was discovered on a location scout.
"No one could agree on a mask, and I remember we were on a location scout and we found Ghostface...in a box of stuff in a garage." Williamson said that director Wes Craven saw the mask and said, "This is like the famous Scream painting."
Craven made the same connection as everyone else who saw the mask, but now you know it was really Betty Boop and Fleischer Studios who inspired Halloween's most famous mask.
