Scream Queens More Funny than Frightening

Scream Queens More Funny than Frightening

Amanda Lupinacci, Staff Writer

Fox’s new series, Scream Queens, is a perfect mix of popular teenage films, Mean Girls and Scream. This creative new series was produced by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan. It features a star-studded cast including Emma Roberts, Ariana Grande, Lea Michele, Nick Jonas and Jamie Lee Curtis, among others. Scream Queens’ plot is centered around a sorority named Kappa Kappa Tau, which has a history of spooky occurrences and cover-ups, which adds to the horror and comedy of Scream Queens. Scream Queens is like a parody of slasher films such as Scary Movie.

 

Chanel (Roberts) is the president of her sorority, KKT. As Murphy has done in other television shows such as Glee, he makes fun of stereotypes, especially stereotypes perpetuated by Chanel. Chanel is a white girl who likes to drink pumpkin spice lattes and does not care about anyone besides herself. Chanel also shares the intellect of the perceived common white girl. In one scene, while ordering her pumpkin spice latte and screaming at the barista, Chanel asks for her latte to be heated at exactly 210 degrees Fahrenheit although that is way too hot for humans to drink. Chanel likes to boss around her other sorority members named Chanel No. 2, Chanel No .4 and Chanel No. 5. Viewers do not know what happened to Chanel No. 3.

 

Chanel No. 2 (Grande) is similar to the character Karen Smith from Mean Girls in the sense that they are both not the smartest girls but they are pretty and they both follow their group’s leader at all times. All the Chanel’s are behind Chanel while she talks to the rest of the sorority girls, the same way the plastics follow Regina George in Mean Girls.  Chanel is “in a relationship” with a guy named Chad, similar to the relationship between Regina and Aaron Samuels in Mean Girls, since the women in both relationships have more power and are in some sense forcing the relationship upon the men.

 

A sorority pledge named Zayday Williams (Keke Palmer) is a very stereotyped character. Zayday is portrayed as a “stereotypical black.” Another sorority pledge, Grace Gardener (Skylar Samuels), wants to pledge to the sorority because her mother, who passed away, was a member and Grace wants to feel closer to her mom. Zayday and Grace are similar characters to Cady Heron in that they are antagonists for the Queen Bee.

 

Scream Queens is similar to the Scary Movie series. Scream Queens makes fun of horror movies similar to the way Scary Movie does. The character Red Devil is supposed to appear scary, but at one point, instead of immediately taking action and killing its prey, it texts the victim first and has a conversation to show how funny and unrealistic the suspense in scary movies can be. The twists and turns of the series are comical and clearly based off of series like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Scream.

 

There are several minor characters that are misfits because KKT is required to accept anybody who wants to pledge their sorority. One of the pledges named Hester is played by Lea Michele and wears a neck brace. Murphy makes her out to be the clichéd creepy girl. Murphy also makes fun of one of the pledges who is deaf during a scene in which all of the new pledges are buried in the ground and are screaming because the Red Devil is trying to run them over with a lawnmower.

 

Although I’ve only seen a few episodes, I am excited to see what the rest of the season has to offer. You can watch Scream Queens on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. or catch up online at Fox.com.