Ghostface cosplayer sparks panic in California town centre

A cosplayer sparked panic in a California town centre this week.

Sonoma City locals were startled to catch a glimpse of Ghostface, the antagonist of the Scream movies, on Monday morning. The seemingly random appearance of the cosplayer dressed as a fictional murderer caused some to panic, and the police were called.

The horror cosplayer was reported as standing at 1st Street East and East Napa Street, which put them right next to the busy Sonoma Plaza. Sonoma police, as reported by NBC Bay Area, were alerted to the presence of Ghostface and responded to the scene.

However, there was nothing malevolent to be worried about as the cosplayer was actually a hired hand. Paramount had paid the individual to dress as Ghostface in order to promote the new Scream VI movie.

“Thank you for everyone’s concern, it’s been addressed,” local police said in a Facebook post in regards to the Scream-themed panic.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, some of the scenes from the original Scream movie were actually filmed near Sonoma Square and across Sonoma County.

Scream VI marks a decisive tone-shift from its predecessors, directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have revealed – and fans should expect a more “visceral” experience this time around.

The sixth movie in the long-running horror franchise, and the follow-up to the 2022 reboot  Scream, is due to be released March 10 in cinemas. Moving the action away from the fictional town of Woodsboro to New York City, trailers for the movie have shown sisters Tara (Jenna Ortega) and Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) once again facing off against masked serial killer Ghostface.

“Scream VI is set shortly after the events of Scream 5, and follows how [the characters] deal with the massacre in Woodsboro [in Scream 5],” co-director Matt Bettinelli-Olpin told NME, speaking via Zoom from the edit studio where he and Gillett are currently finishing the new film. “It follows them to New York, and then Ghostface enters the picture and everything goes off the rails.”

His fellow director, Tyler Gillett, added: “It has all of the ingredients, all of the things that we love about the franchise but it has an attitude that’s a little bit different. We think people are going to be really excited about it.”

‘Scream VI’ will be released in cinemas on March 10.

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