Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Suspenseful, entertaining, great characters
Cons: One aspect of plot seems a bit forced
The Bottom Line:
Killer on the loose
Deadly secrets come to light
Find out who survives
“You Can’t Do a Slasher Movie as a TV Series.”
Hidden around my blog, you’ll find a few reviews of one of
my guilty pleasures – the slasher film.
While most of them are fairly bad, the one franchise I’ve really enjoyed
is the Scream movies. (Yes, I’m the weirdo who likes 3 and 4 while
acknowledging they are much weaker than the first two.) So when it was announced that MTV was going
to create a TV show version of the franchise, I was in. While definitely not as good as the movies,
there is still plenty of fun to be had here.
Like the first movie, this film opens with a young woman
(Bella Thorne) home alone at night.
However, her threatening messages come via text message and an ap. This is the 21st century after
all. Oh, and she and her boyfriend had
just released a video of a classmate.
Not that they get to enjoy any of the fallout from that video since they
are our opening victims.
When news of the brutal murder breaks the next day, the
students at the school in town are understandably shocked and upset. However, the killer seems to be contacting
Emma Duval (Willa Fitzgerald) and teasing her with information about her
mother’s past. It seems her mother
(Tracy Middendorf) has a secret that someone is determined to reveal. Does it have anything to do with the killings
that took place 20 years ago? As the
body count begins to rise, Emma realizes she needs to solve this mystery if she
wants to stay alive and protect her friends.
To be honest, this could have been called anything and it
still would have worked well. There is
no connection to the Scream film
franchise in character or looks. Heck,
the killer even wears a different mask.
While I did miss the iconic Ghostface mask, there is a reason for the
mask the killer wears here, and I liked that aspect of things.
The one connection this has to the films is the tone. The characters know they are in a horror
story and reference the conventions of the genre every so often. It’s not as self-aware or biting as the first
film, but it is fun. They even make a
nice reference to the first film in passing that I loved.
Blood thirsty fans will be disappointed with the toned down
violence, but this is a TV show after all even if it is on MTV. Frankly, I still found the deaths plenty
bloody for my tastes, which are decidedly tame for a fan of the genre. The chase scenes aren’t as elaborate as a
movie, but they still work well to build up some good suspense.
The biggest problem that a TV show of this nature has is how
many characters to kill off and when.
While the recent show Scream
Queens boasted about one death an episode, some of those killed were only
introduced in the episode where they died.
This show went to the other extreme and had some episodes where no one
died. I’m not sure which side is
correct. The episodes without any
murders definitely advanced the plot and gave us plenty of tension, however, so
I still enjoyed them.
At its heart, the Scream franchise has always been a mystery
story (maybe one reason I like them), and we get some good twists and surprises
on the way to unmasking the killer. I’m
still not quite sure I buy that revelation, mainly because of the twist they
put on screen during the final few moments.
I’ll probably decide how I feel about it as season two unspools since it
will have to address that.
And I will definitely be back since the characters are
good. The producers have said they had a
hard time killing people off since they grew to love the cast and their
characters, and I can see why. While they
initially fall into high school stereotypes, those who live long enough begin
to be very real, which upped the tension on the show – I didn’t want any of
them to die either. Obviously, this
means the cast does a great job bringing them to life.
There were 10 episodes in the first season, and they are
preserved here in their native wide screen and full surround. Extras include a gag reel and cut scenes.
While Scream – The TV Series won’t appeal to everyone, fans who give it a chance will find
themselves caught up in an entertaining, and deadly, story. I’m looking forward to seeing the next deadly
chapter unfold soon.
Season 1 Episodes:
1. Pilot
2. Hello, Emma
3. Wanna Play a Game?
4. Aftermath
5. Exposed
6. Betrayed
7. In the Trenches
8. Ghosts
9. The Dance
10. Revelations
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