Friends and fellow horror fans, the time has come for the Scream TV series’ second season. I’m a little skeptical that they’ll be able to pull off another season, but I was skeptical when it came to the first season, and I have to say, they did a pretty good job with it. Before jumping into last night’s premiere, I wanted to look back at Randy’s horror movie sequel rules from the Scream 2 trailer:
- The body count is always bigger.
- The death scenes are always much more elaborate–more blood, more gore. Carnage candy.
- Never, ever, under any circumstances, assume the killer is dead.
Is MTV up to the task of meeting these sequel rules? We’ll just have to tune in to the second season to find out.
They Stab Pranksters, Don’t They?
While at work at the movie theater (watching a horror movie), Audrey starts getting creepy text messages from an unknown sender. We all know what show we’re watching, so we know this will probably end horribly. Noah calls and they make plans to carpool to Emma’s welcome back party. Audrey gives him strict instructions to not bring up his podcast (taken over from Piper, i.e. last season’s killer), last year’s murders, or Emma’s breakdown after the murders. Audrey ends up trapped in the darkened theater with another girl and a person in the killer’s costume. The killer stabs the other girl, so Audrey stabs him with a screwdriver–only to find out that the two were in cahoots and playing a prank. I can’t say I feel that bad for what’s happening, considering they chose to terrorize two people who most likely both have a good case of PTSD from the horrific murder spree they witnessed last year. Sorry kids, you’re in the wrong here.
“She gets a license to kill because she shot Piper?!” the female prankster yells, upset that the police aren’t arresting Audrey. The new sheriff calmly explains that the reason Audrey isn’t in trouble was because prank or not, someone came at her with a knife and she was defending herself. Since they were filming the prank, the events were even captured on film.
The Prodigal Final Girl Returns
“Welcome home, Girl Interrupted! It’s a compliment, because Angelina’s hot,” Jake says, welcoming Emma back home. We find out that Emma and Kieran downgraded to friends, but they’ve consistently kept in touch over the summer. Despite Audrey’s warning, Noah asks Emma to be on his podcast since she’s the last one of the Lakewood Six that hasn’t been on it. Emma turns him down; she needs to let go of the past. In the meantime, Audrey gets our first killer call of the season–the newest Lakewood Killer (hereafter referred to as “Lakewood Killer”) just wants Audrey to know that they like torturing her. Thumbs up.
Try as she might, Emma can’t act like things are normal–and rightfully so. She ends up panicking when she and Kieran are making out, so the two just decide to sleep. She dreams of an abandoned pig farm and a little girl playing with a pig’s entrails. Aaaaand there’s that gore! When she wakes up, she finds that Kieran is asleep on the couch. When she gets home, Maggie is upset that Emma lied about sleeping at Audrey’s, as she feels like Emma is avoiding her. Uh, as a parent, I would be more angry at her lying right after the horrific string of murders she was involved in, but sure.
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We Have to Replenish the Cast at Some Point
In their psychology class, their teacher is discussing the subject of dreams with several casual references to recent events. Noah brings up A Nightmare on Elm Street, another Wes Craven classic, to parallel dreams and horror movies. “Taking subconscious fears and externalizing them is what horror is all about. You go to the movies, it ends. We all go home feeling better,” he explains. The grouchy new kid we later find out is the Sheriff’s son points out that some people return to the horror that is their own lives. He’s casually sitting in the back of the classroom, drawing a blood-covered picture of Emma, as one does. Emma asks someone named Zoe for help with her homework, as we need to get some new main characters on the show before we run out of them. Kieran gives Emma the cold shoulder, so she and Brooke exchange boy woes. Audrey receives some more creepy texts, which Noah immediately takes to the cops.
Jake, We Hardly Knew You
Jake and Brooke sneak into the school’s pool after hours, which makes me nervous because this is a horror show. They discuss how Brooke’s father hates Jake for blackmailing him about the whole dead body thing. Jake thinks they can get past it, but Brooke disagrees. Jake accuses her of enjoying the thrill of a secret relationship too much, considering her past with Branson. They break up.
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Jake is out in the woods, wandering around by himself, when his foot gets stuck in a bear trap. Our new Lakewood killer slaps him with a knife to knock him out. Bad news: Jake wakes up in that abandoned slaughtering house Emma dreamed about. A very injured Jake manages to break the lock open, only to have Lakewood Killer lock it again. Womp. Things continue going in a bad direction when the Lakewood Killer hangs Jake upside down…and then cuts him in a half. Wow Scream, way to start off with a bang. Bye, Jake.
It’s Amazing These People Made It Through a Whole Season
The Sheriff leaves filing a report up to Audrey, who doesn’t respond just yet. Audrey is furious that Noah went to the cops without her consent, because of her prior connection to Piper. Not that she tells him that, she just ends up apologizing for her freak out and requests that he walk her through the murder wall. Based on his investigation, he thinks that there was a third prankster involved in the episode’s opening incident. The two-part and Audrey finds copies of her letters to Piper pasted everywhere and gets our second killer call of the episode.
Emma and Kieran make up by deciding to talk, because apparently that hadn’t occurred to them before. The healing process continues with Emma making a guest appearance on Noah’s podcast, discussing how to get back to normalcy after being a real life final girl. While she’s in his room, she sees a picture of the creepy pig farm from her nightmares. Noah reveals that it’s an abandoned pig farm owned by Troy James, Brandon’s brother. Emma decides to be absolutely crazypants and drag Brooke to that abandoned pig farm at night, in the dark, in a town where they were brutally attacked several times last year. She explains that she’s had nightmares about this pig farm since she was little. They go into the house looking for Troy, which is one of the dumbest things I’ve seen yet. They find a creepy murder wall devoted to Emma, casually undoing all the strides she’s made on her PTSD in the last three months.
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Scream certainly brought it for the first episode of the season. While the body count was pretty low, we had to say goodbye to a main character–one of the few that provides a little comic relief. We said hello to three new characters, though I thought it was a bit much to introduce them all within the same scene. One aspect that stood out to me as a good difference between a movie and tv show, was that we saw a bit more about Emma’s life after the killing spree, and how there are different ways of coping with things. On the killer front, I think they’re being a bit obvious about Audrey’s connection to Piper, making it clear that she’s most likely not Piper’s accomplice. Based on this episode, I’d say that Scream is ready to meet Randy’s sequel rules. Bring on next week’s episode!
Best Line: “Welcome home, Girl Interrupted! It’s a compliment, because Angelina’s hot.” Sorry y’all, I have to give this one to Jake.
Killer Calls: 2
Body Count Per Episode: 1
Body Count Per Season: 1
Episode Rating: 8/10
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