If I were writing this review in 1995 (when the flashback of the series’ opening scene is set), I might be pretty excited about Scream Queens. After all, it’s a snarky, satirical look at the sorority life mixed with a little serial killing (courtesy of the Red Devil).
The only problem is that it’s 2015 and everything about this series has been done much better over the past 25 years, beginning with the horror film classic, Scream, and continuing all the way through the modern day with the TV anthology series American Horror Story (at least the spectacular first season anyway). There is literally no new ground Scream Queens breaks and that’s kind of disappointing when you consider the talent behind the show.
Scream Queens is the latest series courtesy of Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan, the forces behind such popular shows as Nip/Tuck, Glee, and the aforementioned American Horror Story. Like their previous offerings, they populate Scream Queens with a pretty solid cast including Lea Michele (Glee), Emma Roberts (American Horror Story: Coven and Freak Show), Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) and a host of other talent comprised of both up and comers and veteran actors. Their biggest coup was scoring the original “scream queen” Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween) as Dean Munsch, whose main goal is to close the sorority (or at least be a thorn in their side).
When I heard Bat For Lashes “What’s A Girl To Do” over the opening scene, I was pretty excited because it’s a terrific, woefully underplayed song (with a pretty eerie video to boot). Even the first few minutes provide an interesting hook–a sorority girl gives birth in a tub while her sisters abandon her to go back to their party and jam while chasing Waterfalls. When they return, the baby is alive but their sister has bled out and died.
Scream Queens then switches gears to modern day where Chanel (Emma Roberts) abuses her closest sorority sisters while bashing heads (figuratively, not literally…yet, anyway) with Curtis’ Dean Munsch. Toss in a slew of pledges, some egotistical frat boys, the new girl Grace (Skyler Samuels) and her overprotective father (Oliver Hudson), and the “nice guy” barista/school paper editor (Diego Boneta) looking to dig up dirt on the sorority, and you’ve got a pretty large cast of characters to service in an hour long show. The good news is that a majority of these characters have a lot to do.
The bad news is that it’s been done before.
As “Hell Week” began, my wife asked me how many episodes Scream Queens has overall.
“Too many”, I replied.
Save for some interesting scenes (the killing while texting was mildly humorous), Scream Queens seems mired in a past that has long since vanished (oddly enhanced by an 80’s soundtrack). I can see where all involved are approaching it with a “tongue in cheek” attitude and that’s definitely the way to go with a series like this. However, there’s nothing of any substance here to keep viewers (at least this one) entertained on a weekly basis. To think that this show has enough steam to make it to a half dozen episodes is wishful thinking, but it’s slated to have more than double that!
Because Scream Queens borrows from every trope in the book and fails to truly put an interesting spin on them, these queens amount to little more than peasants eking out a hoarse whisper.
Scream Queens grade: D
This Old Haunted House 