[Scream Queens] #101 - Pilot

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I have an odd relationship with horror, as I usually do quite enjoy the films but I don’t necessarily can bring myself to watching them most of the times. I grew up with Evil Dead and The Nightmare on Elm Street, so I am much more comfortable with comedic or meta horror even though there have been regular horror films I have quite enjoyed.  While I believed the only true horror series I would watch this year would be the upcoming Ash vs. The Evil Dead, I did surprisingly find myself quite curious about Scream Queens, as it is exactly that, a horror comedy. What was my impression of the show in its initial episodes?

Just a warning from this point on you will be reading a bunch of spoilers of the first episode. If you haven’t watched the episode yet, continue reading at your own risk.

At first I was having a hard time figuring out what exactly Scream Queens was trying to be. It started off with a flashback with a college girl giving birth in a bathtub while her sorority sisters left her there so that they can listen to their favorite song. It was a hyper reality version of sororities and it did feel like it had many elements from Glee, a show I confess I don’t follow regularly, as I am not the intended audience, but with a horror twist. Naturally, the girl ends up bleeding out and we speed forward into the future.

We meet Chanel (Emma Roberts) and her goons, who are appropriately named Chanel 1, 2 and 4. If you are wondering what happened to Nr. 3, she had to leave. I study in Austria, so I have never been part of a sorority, but you do get a feeling that there is a certain evil to being the sorority president of Kappa Kappa Tau, which is such a weird name it makes me laugh every time I hear it.  It seems that the recent murder of the former president through a rather gloomy acid-filled spray tan and the meeting with the Red Devil, who is gong to be the villain of our series. It seems this wasn’t the only time this had happened and the string of murders are leading to the universities dean, Munsch, played by the always amazing Jamie Lee Curtis, trying to close the dorm.

As of a plot, it mainly is the story of two people. Skyler Samuels plays Grace Gardner, who wants to join the house as her mother used to be a part of the sorority,  much to the dismay of her father. Dean Munsch manages to get back at Chanel by forcing her to accept anyone who wants to join, which ends up having her sorority consist of a variety of “interesting” characters, who she considers to not be worthy of her sorority. These are certainly not the most complex of characters, well maybe with the exception of Braceface, who has some great lines in the show, but they are funny twists on modern stereotypes such as a “candle blogger” and a girl with a hearing aid. Sadly though they are nothing more than cannon fodder as of now.

There is also a love interest, but the one for our protagonist Grace, who is a bit bland and the: “I use to have a crush on her, but now I am over it, but she is evil!” kind of variety, but the one behind Chanel is quite hilarious, as it seems he has a thing for dead people and some of his lines are well delivered. Best line of the episode has to be though “Michael Bay, best director of all time!” which just made me anticipate the characters death even more and did manage to make me laugh out loud.

As much as it is supposed to be surrealistic with the way it handles specific characters, I mean Chanel is a stereotype turned to the extreme, but SPOILERS Ariana Grande’s Chanel #2 gets killed off in the most over-the-top-way that it almost took me out of it. It started off funny with her texting with the Red Devil believing he wasn’t going to do anything to her, but when it was clear she would die...she kept texting him her responses. I get the joke, but her writing him “Noo...Stooop!” was almost a step too far. Her writing it then on Twitter brought me back in because it worked on its own, especially with her coming back to life just so she can post it, which was very well done and I must say, Grande played her role quite well. Still, I think they just went one step too far with the texting joke here, but that might be just my personal views on the matter.

Overall, it is a great start into an obvious “don’t take it too serious” show that is a nice change of pace from other shows. The horror is quite brutal and the gore is surprisingly shown with many references to classic horror films in quite creative ways. If you enjoy this kind of comedy horror mixture then this show is most certainly for you to continue watching. A two-hour premiere is always nice as it allows you to see what happens as the first one ended on quite a cliffhanger, but I am looking at these episodes individually to get a feeling of the show. First episode is a lot of fun with not many plot twists or any actual hints at who the Red Devil might be, but it is a creative design for a slasher horror killer, but probably isn’t that iconic in the long run. Still, if you love this stuff I think you will have a lot of fun.

Did you already see the episode? If so, leave your comment and thoughts on the pilot below!

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