10 Genius Suspense Tricks That Made Horror Movies Great

10. Never Having The Ghostface Voice Actor Meet The Cast - Scream

Roger L. Jackson is in many respects the MVP of the Scream franchise - in lending such a distinctly unnerving yet bizarrely alluring quality to the voice of the various Ghostface killers, he's the series' most iconic element, even more so than protagonist Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell).

Yet Wes Craven made two key decisions from the very first movie which have informed the series ever since.

Firstly, Craven had Jackson speak with the movie's actors on the phone for real during shooting - rather than having a crew member speak the lines on set and Jackson dub his version later - and secondly, Craven ensured the cast never actually met Jackson.

This guaranteed that the actors could both feel the chilling terror of Jackson's voice while shooting and, by preventing them from putting a face to the voice terrorising their character, it allowed them to more easily immerse themselves in the situation.

In a 2019 interview with Vice, Jackson confirmed that while calling Drew Barrymore in the original movie's opening scene, he was literally crouched outside of her eyeline and watching her, just as Ghostface himself would've been. Jackson added:

"I never met any of the actors in the films, but they all knew I was watching them, hidden somewhere nearby. I guess that added this layer of mystery and voyeurism, and it really freaks them out. Remember, I am their biggest fear come to life. It's why they never introduced me to the rest of the cast when filming. They wanted to keep me away so the other actors didn't have a visual image to associate with this weird voice they were hearing."