Fangirl Friday: Scream, The TV series

By Anne Kenzie - October 21, 2016

For this Fangirl Friday, I'm going to tell you a little discussed secret on this blog. I LOVE HORROR MOVIES!! I love them with every fiber of my being. I watch them year round, but October is horror movie mania for me. I will watch as many as humanly possible. Halloween 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, H20, Omen (sometimes both versions), The Exorcist, Nightmare on Elm Street, Candyman, Psycho, It, The Shining, you name it, I'll watch it. Except Halloween 3, fuck that movie. It's terrible and it doesn't even have Michael Meyers in it! Anyway, my all time favorite horror series is the Scream series. The first movie is one of my all time favorites of any genre. I knew that MTV had put together a Scream TV series, but it was on MTV and MTV's other shows are SOOOOOO not my style, that I had never watched. I didn't really even follow it on spoiler sites. I basically ignored it's existence. Until I went to the movies with my two best, local friends about two months ago. Before the movie they were talking about watching Scream the TV show and how they both needed to catch up on season two. They both said they really enjoyed the first season and were anxious to catch up on season two. Now, both of them have some questionable taste in movies and TV, but they are my best friends, so there is some cross over. I decided to finally give the show a shot. I am so, so glad I did!! I LOVED it! I binged both seasons, as much as I could working and parenting a toddler. Join me after the break to hear my squeal and gush over this show a little more!

I love all kinds of horror movies. Psychological, supernatural, gothic, sci-fi, I love them all.

Where it all started.

I'm not a huge fan of the somewhat recent torture porn horror movies (ie: Human Centipede). My favorite subgenre is slasher movies, which of course, Scream, both movie and TV series, fits right into. As I mentioned above, I was initially hesitant to watch the show. I think part of my hesitation was that I thought they were trying to remake my beloved series, but for TV. They aren't. A lot of the elements are the same, but the TV series is NOT a remake of the movie. The TV series is it's own entity, though, there are a lot of similar plot lines and character types. But, a lot of those things are what drew me to the movies in the first place. I enjoyed picking out the commonalities.

I'm going to try not to give away too much, in case I convince you to watch the series after this. Both seasons are on Netflix right now, the only exception being the Halloween special that aired just a couple of days ago. In full disclosure, I'm writing this ahead of the special's air date, so this piece will not cover any details from that.

Most of the teenage cast

My favorite part of this show, and the movies for that matter, is the characters. There is really no one very famous in the cast, and I think that works in their favor. There are no preconceived feelings towards any of them, based on other roles they have played. Emma Duval is the answer to the movie's Sydney Prescott. She's sweet, smart, and brave. She doesn't hide from the killer. She is also angsty and makes some really poor choices. That's what slasher heroines do, so I can't fault her too much. She is not going to let these killers get away with their crimes. Audrey Jensen is our secondary heroine. She is Emma's childhood best friend. She is snarky and sarcastic, everything you could want from a best friend. She is also harboring some really big secrets. She is played to perfection by Bex Taylor-Klaus. There are the usual cache of high school friends in this as well. The jock, the jerk, the bitch, the weird outsider, and my favorite, the nerd. This nerd, Noah Foster, is the series' version of Randy Meeks. He loves horror movies. He's a computer nerd. His skills are essential to some of the plot points between the two seasons. Portrayed by John Karna, Noah is just the right amount of nerdy and adorable. My other favorite character from this show is Kieran Wilcox, Amadeus Serafini in real life. He is one of the teenagers in Emma's group of friends. I don't want to elaborate anymore than that, as his role in Emma's life changes from Season one to Season two. The remaining recurring characters include the killer, of course, and the town adults. There's the sheriff, some teachers, Emma's single mom, the town mayor, a reporter, etc. They all have their important parts to play. Emma's mom and the sheriff (in both seasons) are the stand out players for the adult characters. And, of course, the remaining main character, the Killer, does a great job as well, though I'm sure it's mostly a stuntman in the costume until the big reveal.

The series' version of Ghostface, the Brandon James mask.

You can't have a good slasher movie (or TV series) without a good killer or two....or maybe three. Scream has two great killers, one for each season. No, I am not going to tell you who they are. I will tell you the backstory to the series. The series takes place in the town of Lakewood, where twenty some years ago, Brandon James, a teenager with Proteus Syndrome, supposedly brutally killed a group of his peers before being shot and possibly killed by police. As in any good horror movie, they never found his body, so we can't know for sure that he's dead. Now, years later, someone is killing again, while wearing Brandon's post-surgical mask, leading to speculation that the killer could be Brandon himself. Again, I won't tell you who exactly the killer is. I will tell you this killer is clever and devious. And, like Scream 4, he or she or they uses today's technology to their full advantage. There are phone calls, of course, but there are also texts, emails, live streams, etc. Season two, in particular, is an extremely clever killer, though their motive is a little weaker than season one's killer. Season one's killer has a great motive, which I don't want to give away, though it is a standard in horror movies. My favorite part about horror movies is playing guess the killer, right along with the characters. I am happy to report that I was able to guess both season's killers by about halfway through each season. I was less sure about seasons two's killer, though. But, don't worry, I have it on good authority from my friends, that they had no idea who either killer was before the big reveal. So, they aren't an obvious option. This series is fantastic at misdirection.

Horror movies are full of scares, twists, and suspicion. This series excels at them all. They are particularly good at portraying everyone as a possible killer. As my beloved Randy says in the original Scream movie, everybody's a suspect. Even our heroine, Emma, is questioned more than once. For seasoned horror vets, the doubts cast on some of the characters are a little too obvious to arouse any real suspicions that they might be the killer. They are obvious red herrings. Not all of them, though. The second season, in particular, was very good at revealing secrets that could very well lead to an unlikely suspect, like Emma or Audrey. That's where the twists come in. Horror movies always have a twist. Either our hero/heroine is not as squeaky clean as we think or the presumed dead killer pops back up, one last time. The Scream series does both of these and more. It seems like at least once an episode there is a secret revealed. One of the best things about this series is the uncertainty that remains, not all of the questions are answered. There are still some threads dangling, unresolved. Some potential scares still waiting to jump out at you.This series, and slasher movies in general, tap into some common fears. Obviously, the straight forward, someone is going to kill me fear. There is also the fear that someone is targeting you and those closest to you, in particular, and you don't know who to trust or what to do. Someone you love, or at least, like is going to die and there's nothing you can do to stop it. I've had a reoccurring nightmare since I was very young about a killer stalking me. That may be what has always drawn me to slasher movies, it is playing out my dream and the heroine always prevails. Maybe it's that seeing other people get scared relieves my anxieties about being scared myself. Maybe it's some other reason entirely. Who knows. What I do know is the Scream series is a great addition to the slasher genre and the Scream franchise.

So, Saucy Readers, what's your favorite scary movie? Do you like them at all? Did any of you watch the Scream series? Let me know below!!