Halloween’s hottest trend is making TikTok scream

The TikTok Ghostface trend is back for another year after haunting fans profusely for the last two years, and as the spooky season draws closer, people are curious to know what exactly this trend is all about.

So, what is the Ghostface mask trend exactly?

The TikTok trend is more flirtatious than spooky in all honesty, spurring the app users to create fun videos featuring their partners. Inspired by the classic horror film franchise Scream, the trend involves couples using the sounds of Ghostface speaking on the phone with the character Casey and asking her if she has a boyfriend. It is a literal re-enactment of the scene from the film, which features the scary antagonist and Drew Barrymore playing Casey. The trend has particularly found popularity among the BookTok community, given the group’s fascination with mask-related kinks and similar themes.

The pre-requisite for participating in the trend is simple: you need to purchase a Ghostface mask and create a TikTok account, and you are ready to go! The trend is gaining traction for a third straight year after coming to users’ attention in 2022 and 2023. Preceding 2022, a Scream cult trend took over TikTok right before Scream 6‘s release. However, that trend was way spookier and was a marketing tactic with relatively less recall value. That particular trend saw users change their profile picture to the same image of Ghostface from the movie franchise.

The Scream movie franchise continues to influence pop culture

Revered as a trailblazer film series in the horror genre, the Scream films continue to make a mark on pop culture, 28 years since the first film was released. Apart from lending multiple horror tropes to modern horror films, the movies also remain a case study in the use of social commentary supplementing the spooky side of a horror movie.

The seventh installment in the franchise is releasing on February 27, 2026, continuing the events of the 2023 release, Scream VI. Neve Campbell is returning after missing the sixth part due to a salary dispute with Kevin Williamson, the man responsible for developing the franchise, directing.