Scream episode review — 1.1 — Pilot
By: Patrick J Mullen
Tags: Slasher, 2010s, Scream, Horror, TV

Original air date: June 30, 2015

Director: Jamie Travis

Writers: Jill Blotevogel, Dan Dworkin, and Jay Beattie (story by Kevin Williamson)

Rating: 6/10

I really didn’t know a whole lot about this series before I started. It’s on Netflix, but I think this is probably the first MTV programming I’ve ever seen, given how alien their little bumper logo thing was at the beginning. But I’m a fan of the film series, so I may as well give this a shot.

I got off to a rocky start. Not an issue with the show, of course, but when I clicked play on Netflix, for some reason it started me on the third season premiere. So I was wondering why everyone had ghostface masks and all that shit. Why does Netflix do this?

Anyways, we open with someon uploading a video online of Audrey (Bex Taylor-Klaus) and Rachel (Sosie Bacon) making out. Nina (Bella Thorne) then arrives home and we get a very suspenseful scene reminiscent of the original movie in the best way.

And though I kind of hate Bella Thorne’s offscreen personality, I won’t deny that it’s fun to see her in this kind of role, and she does a good job.

Her boyfriend’s head gets tossed into the hot tub while she’s in it and she freaks out but has trouble calling 911 because of the stupid Apple lock screen thing, and ends up getting killed.

And, surprisingly, it’s not by someone in the typical Ghostface mask. It’s instead some other mask.

Not a huge fan of it, but I like that it’s something different, I guess.

I wouldn’t have been shocked if they didn’t go the mystery route of the films, but it seems like they’re going that way, which I’m pleased with.

We’re then introduced to most of our main characters, and I just know that it’s going to take me a while to get used to these people, know all their names, etc. Audrey walks around school with a video camera for some reason, and she’s obviously sad aover the whole video being uploaded thing.

Emma Duval (Willa Fitzgerald) expresses regret over the video being posted, as she thought they were going to get rid of it, but most of her other friends don’t have a problem with it, though they assume Nina was the one who posted it.

In English class, there’s a discussion about the gothic genre, that quickly turns to slasher movies, with some self-aware dialogue about how a slasher couldn’t work as a television series (which is admittedly a concern that I have, but I’ll be happy to be proven wrong) because shows have to stretch things out, and slashers have to occur quickly after the first body’s discovered. While this is happening, Nina’s body is discovered.

Our main characters discuss the urban legend/serial killer Brandon James, who had an Elephant Man-type disease and would only leave the house in a surgical mask, but ended up killing a bunch of students.

He’s eventually stopped, and it’s eventually revealed that the woman that helped bring him down is now Emma’s mother (Tracy Middendorf). We learn this when she gets a note addressed to Daisy, the name she went by back when she knew Brandon James.

Also apparently Brooke (Carlson Young) is having an affair with her English teacher, so that’s fucked up.

I wonder if she’ll die.

Brooke also throws a party as sort of a wake for Nina, and Emma invites Audrey. Apparently they used to be close, but haven’t been lately.

There’s some minor drama when Emma learns that her boyfriend, Will (Connor Weil), slept with Brooke. And she ends up developing an interest in a new student, Kiernan (Amadeus Serafini).

After a weird scene where one of the boys is almost drowned apparently, Will brings Emma home and sees his dad, the sheriff, with her mother.

It’s a decent pilot, all things considered. It’s a little shaky because it has to introduce all these characters, and it kind of makes them all suspects just in the last minute or two of the episode, which I’m hoping can be fleshed out better in future episodes. The Bella Thorne stuff is really good, though, as the series’s initial incident.