The Scary Movie thing is true, and he also said that about the maze environments as well. But also, the ultimate truth is, he just flat out doesn't like the property. He's said that in a roundabout way a few times. Otherwise, he wouldn't have bastardized Scream like that on the tram, and he would've also given it a maze - even if just based on Scream 4 because it has more than enough.
2011 had House of 1000 Corpses repeat and that could've taken it's place, there's literally no excuse. Or swapped with one of his original mazes (which apparently is a viable option now), Alice Cooper or La Llorona (but def keep La Llorona, one of the best mazes of all time!). Or not do the Thing prequel, because it flopped BIG time. Or not do Hostel, because by that point, the series was extremely irrelevant, but it gave him a chance to buddy up with Eli Roth. The rights are sooooo tricky, but so were The Exorcist and The Shining, and yet those still materialized because Murdy worked hard for them, but he just doesn't care enough to work for Scream.
Scream still deserves better. And I can't believe, out of the 10+ years that HHN has been back, it's only been used once for the dang tram in the most awful way. Scream, with only 4 movies, has more or almost equal box office to Friday the 13th, Halloween, and Nightmare on Elm Street, and definitely a lot more than Childs Play and Texas Chainsaw. No other slasher films have reached 100 mill, and of the 15ish or so horror films in general to do it, Scream takes up 2 spots. It's also an international hit, which a lot of horror franchises can't say, and it's worldwide total is probably more than all of those franchises. Ghostface deserves just as much to be put along with Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, and Michael. The only difference those films have are more time to sink into the social conscience. Scary Movie worked so well because people knew how popular it was at the time.
But the 90s are creeping in the nostalgia train and Ghostface is making a comeback in a big way. It almost feels like Scream 4 was maybe 5 years too early. If it were an 20 years later movie, it probably would've been a huge hit to revitalize the franchise. It's mistake was to riff on remakes, yet still be called Scream 4, because people tend to steer away from films with a number in it these days. It also would've done well in the Blumhouse saturated climate and would've been a great breath of fresh air, especially at a time where every horror movie was KILLING it at the box office (Don't Breathe, Lights Out, Conjuring 2, Purge 3, Split, 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Shallows).
I just hope it's not a whole 10 years before Scream is used at HHN again (2021).
