‘What’s Your Favorite Scary Movie?’
I would die almost immediately in Scream. Ghostface wouldn’t have to so much lay in wait to catch me unawares. I’d already be waiting – in bed.
Ghostface has me shaking- but not with fear. And I’m not alone.
Ghostface had me the first time he uttered those two sweet-little-words, “little bitch”. Of course, he was talking to Casey Becker, not 16-year-old me, but I’ve been waiting by the phone ever since. Ghostface is the ultimate unattainable bad-boy and he’s been helping horror fans achieve the little-death ever since he sliced his way into popular culture in 1996.
Angela – not her real name – was “front and centre” when Ghostface chatted up his first victim, (played by Hollywood sweetheart Drew Barrymore), warming her up with flirtatious back and forth, before ratcheting the tension all the way up to psychotic, threatening to “gut (her) like a fish” if she hangs up.
https://twitter.com/Doodlesmthngoof/status/1445937213754183681
“I had to remind myself in the first scene that this was not a romantic comedy,” she told JOE, before explaining how her boyfriend at the time “was definitely concerned after I told him Ghostface was more my cup of tea than normal romantic leads”. Heartthrobs of the moment included Hugh Grant, Richard Gere, and the late Heath Ledger.
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For Angela, 46, that was it. She has”fancied” Ghostface ever since and is now eagerly awaiting Scream 5 which hits cinemas Friday more than 10-years after the character’s last bloodbath in the town of Woodsboro.
“I love romantic comedies, but they (the romantic leads) are just so boring, so attainable,” the mother-of-two said.
“You can’t really fantasise about romantic comedies because they could come true, but horror movies make me far more excited than films like Notting Hill.”
@nessie.ttk you like being humiliated though, don’t you? #cosplay #ghostface #fypシ #scream ♬ stop using this audio to make fun of people – Tik Toker
To be clear, I don’t find the act of murder erotic, snuff is not my stuff, but a little cat and mouse and some props and costumes and I’d happily throw myself through the cat flap of a garage door.
Ghostface, like all good lovers, likes a bit of foreplay… before the main course.
Just listen to him on the phone. There’s a reason all those women could never hang up. Ghostface is a charmer. Cheeky, playfully corny. He asks personal questions – like what is your favourite movie? – is complimentary – and even expresses vulnerability, asking, do you want a boyfriend? Then he changes gears, whips out his weapon, and ignites loins.
I think she's hot #ghostface #fanart #art #scream pic.twitter.com/LWI35tFJJH
— Saz (@Sazxle) November 7, 2021
The same bad-boy energy emanates around Joe Goldberg from Netflix’s YOU, Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, and who could forget Damon Salvatore in The Vampire Diaries. While some lustful fans might fantasise about fixing them, I want Ghostface just the way he is – homicidal and very hot with it.
He hits the G-hostface spot.
Killers have long had cult-like followings, and often the more kills they wrack up the more hearts they enchant, but they’ve never tickled my fancy. Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez, and Jeffrey Dahmer, to name just a few, have also been fetishised. The media loves the bad-boy narrative too. Remember a few lockdowns ago a police mugshot launched a modelling career for Jeremy Meeks, who has forever since only been known by his monkier – ‘hot felon’.
@mooni27art Had to jump on the ghostface trend #ThenNowForever #scream #ghostface #fyp #myart #foryou ♬ original sound – five is hot
Narcissism, Katherine Ramsland, a professor of forensic psychology, suggests fuels the attraction. She told Cosmopolitan in 2018 that “primarily the idea is that they want to get close to a violent person so that they can either participate in a fantasy life that involves them or actually become partners with them”.
Angela’s Ghostface fantasies, she explains, start where he begins his hunt – on the phone.
“They usually start with his phone call, then he gives me instructions, and well, I don’t need to elaborate much further,” she laughed.
Sexologist Jess O’Reilly says that Ghostface’s seduction methods probably play a big part in his appeal: “In the early movies, when he phones, his voice, and tone are a little playful – almost flirtatious like he’s building up to something that will be both exciting and scary.”
O’Reilly says the fact that “you don’t know what lurks below the surface” with Ghostface is part of the allure as fans are forced to “tune into other elements or attributes” like his voice and body language. “The unknown”, O’Reilly says, “creates anticipation, which is associated with spikes in dopamine”.
Sex expert Topher Taylor agrees: Ghostfaces’s costume leaves everything to the imagination, so the imagination runs wild.
“Hoods are really popular in adult retail, the idea of anonymity and hidden identity,” he told JOE. “Its gear that masks or alters your identity, almost into fantasy roleplay.”
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The vast web of unknowns with Ghostface provides a fantasy landscape, where O’Reilly says “there is a sense that we’re not entirely ourselves and we can act out of character”. That escapism element, the gold dust of the silver screen, allows viewers to leave behind the mundane and, in this case, unravel romantic fantasies all the way to a fatal climax.
“We may take risks and liberties that are more exciting and rebellious,” O’Reilly adds of the appeal.
Taylor believes that “it’s a multi-faceted bizarre sex appeal” with Ghostface. While fans know “he’s going to stab you up”, the Scream series, he says, is “almost sexy horror” and is anchored in that “early 2000’s era of sexy young actors in almost comic slasher films”.
On TikTok, videos of Ghostface are more likely to involve twerking than his best kills. In one clip, with 2.5 million views, an artist sketches a scantily clad Ghostface complete with abs, lots of skin, and of course, the obligatory bloody handprints. “Ghostdaddy could definitely get it,” reads one thirsty comment.
“Make me cream I MEAN CREAM sorry I mean Scream,” another fan commented beneath a video where creator Snitchery strips from Ghostface’s black cloak into lingerie
@slayeas I brought Mori & blood warden 🙂 #dbd #ghostface #streamer #scream #viral (ib: @snitchery ♬ original sound – Bye
In another particularly explicit piece of fanart, which depicts the killer practically naked and holding a blood-soaked knife, one person said “[you] can slash me anytime” while another commented, “I wanna be in the sequel”.
In the written world, fanfiction of Ghostface is alive and kicking – unlike Sidney Prescott who, let’s be honest, will die in the latest installment. On Wattpad, there are over 50,000 stories involving Ghostface doing just about anything you can imagine. One entry, titled ‘Call me, Babe’, describes a threesome between a male reader and two Ghostface partners. It has been read 111,000 times. On Pornhub, Ghostface plays the lead role in 33 videos.
Fancying a killer might seem crazy to some, but there’s a science to it.
“The connection between fear and pleasure can be highly erotic,” sexologist, O’Reilly explains.
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“When we feel fearful, we get a release of adrenaline. Heart rate and blood pressure increase, which can result in more blood flow to the genitals and other erogenous zones.”
That’s probably why horror movies are a dating staple. When it gets scary, things have a habit of getting sexy.
Expanding on that idea to Refinery 29 in 2019, sociologist Margee Kerr said: “The typical response to threat involves our sympathetic nervous system ramping our body into ‘go’ mode.”
On that note, if you are a man over 6ft who enjoys dressing up, knife play, and phone sex- hit me up, as I’ve already ordered the mask.
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