A decent chunk of people who saw Happy Death Day probably don’t remember who the killer was — there’s a reason “Tree,” played by the wonderful Jessica Rothe, provides a recap in the trailer for Happy Death Day 2U — but they do remember the killer’s mask. The baby face is no Ghostface from Scream (not until Scary Movie 6 comes out, at least), but it’s certainly a memorable, and memorably creepy, sight. However, director Christopher Landon revealed that the murderer almost concealed their identity with a very different mask.
“When I was in early early pre-production [on Happy Death Day], I was trying to figure out what would be that sort of iconic mask. I feel like all great slasher films have that very memorable mask and at the time my partner and I we were pregnant with our first child. I think I had baby on the brain,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “So, I went to our mask designer, Tony Gardner, and I… pitched him actually two things.” The first was the baby; the second, a pig:
“I thought that Tree’s character, she was a bit of a selfish pig, so I thought that could be funny. But when I received the prototype for the baby, I knew that was it. It kind of struck the perfect balance of it being creepy, weird, slightly funny, but ultimately scary. And so it seemed to fit the tone of our movie better than anything else.”)
The pig mask has also been done before in every single Saw movie and, according to the helpful Saw wiki, Saw: The Video Game and Saw II: Flesh & Blood, which is also a video game (there is not a Saw III video game). But if Landon had gone with the pig, a potential lawsuit might have been avoided. TMZ reports that the “guy who created that freaky King Cake Baby character — the New Orleans Pelicans mascot — claims the movie Happy Death Day jacked his freaky face… and now he’s suing to get revenge.”
The man behind the suit is Jonathan Bertuccelli — an artist who created the intentionally weird looking mascot back in 2009… Bertuccelli believes the movie has made more than $200 MILLION in revenue — and he feels entitled to at least 50% of the profits. He also wants a judge to grant an injunction prohibiting the movie producers from using the mask until both sides can work out a deal. (Via)
In related news, Happy Death Day 2U comes out February 13 (today).
(Via Entertainment Weekly and TMZ)
