Neve Campbell and Rose McGowan in <em>Scream</em>

The masked killer known as Ghost Face teased Neve Campbell’s character in Scream by calling her on the phone and asking her, “Do you like scary movies?” If The Weinstein Company’s newest strategy pans out, serial killers might be texting their next victims, or sending them creepy friend requests instead. Today, the Weinsteins launched a new division of their eponymous company, TWC Games. Teaming up with video game production company Beefy Media, TWC Games aims to turn its existing film franchises into games.

Near the top of its press release, TWC dropped the titles of teen-friendly (if R-rated) horror fare including Scream, Hellraiser, Halloween, Scary Movie, and Children of the Corn, indicating one direction the new venture could lead. At first blush, the idea sounds a little tired. Is anybody really interested in playing a Children of the Corn Xbox game at this point in human history?

When you notice that the company isn’t thinking about consoles first and foremost — TWC says it wants to develop games for “mobile, social, and console platforms” — the idea starts to seem a little more interesting. Imagine a social-media game where an unknown killer is stalking you and your friends on Facebook or Twitter, and you have to join forces to discover his (or her!) identity. Tied to the release of a new film in a horror franchise, and baited with freebie movie tickets, posters, or DVDs, a clever social-media game might be an effective promotional device as well as a successful project in its own right.

It’s worth noting at this point that this isn’t the first time that someone has tried to turn a popular horror-film franchise into a video game — or even the first time someone has turned Halloween into a video game. The video above contains gameplay footage from an actual Atari 2600 game title from Wizard Video, which licensed the rights to the original Halloween series. (There was also a Texas Chain Saw Massacre video game for the Atari system.)

The big question is whether the gaming experts at Beefy Media — company President Adam Boyes has worked for Midway and Capcom U.S. — can help the Weinsteins make a respectable transition into the gaming market. With occasional noteworthy exceptions, like the recent hit Batman game Arkham Asylum, video games licensed from movie properties are notorious for being, well, terrible video games. Beefy and TWC have their work cut out for them.

Note: I promise you, this was not meant to be “Video Game Week” at the StudioDaily blog. It just sort of turned out that way!