In Classic Ryan Murphy Fashion, Scream Queens Loses Sight of Itself
EntertainmentThe broad plot of Scream Queens is fairly simple: A college campus is terrorized by a masked serial killer and a sorority—the killer’s primary target—tries to find out who’s murdering people while (poorly) avoiding getting killed themselves. That’s the story, sure, but is that really what Scream Queens is about?
I’d argue that it’s not. Ryan Murphy shows have never taken their plots particularly seriously and Scream Queens is proving to be no different. Guessing who the serial killer(s) is (are) is pointless. In all likelihood, the results will be underwhelming and disappointing (true for most whodunits, to be fair) and besides, it doesn’t really matter who’s hiding under the red devil mask. Like with any masked killer in a horror movie, the Red Devil’s purpose isn’t to provide revelations about his or her own character, it’s about pushing the people that it’s terrorizing to their most revealing limits.
Think about Sydney in Scream or Laurie in Halloween. Through the course of their films, both characters go from meek, average high school girls to ass-kicking heroines. The problem with Scream Queens, no matter how hard it’s working at paying homage to classic horror tropes—last night’s episode “Pumpkin Patch” included hit-you-over-the-head references to Silence of the Lambs and The Shining—is that the style and quirk of the show has overwhelmed not just the plot, but also the character development.