All you Slasher movie/Wes Craven fans out there Netflix has come up trumps with a new TV series called Scream.
A Lone girl at home with phone communications coming from within the house… Check.
Lone girl in a garage with the lights off… Check.
Geeky virgin guy talking about how the murderers stalk their victims… Check.
A small town high school is rocked, twice, first time after a video of the non-plastic, emo-y, dark haired girl kissing passionately with another girl goes viral on YouTube, the second time, after one of their prom queen contenders is brutally slashed from ear to ear and left dead in her swimming pool.
But don’t mistake this for a TV version of the astronomic hit Scream series of films that wowed and scared teens in equal measures across the world in the late 90s and early noughties, the offering is different, think Scream meets Halloween.
The story, just like the films, is very tongue in cheek, served with the same knowing and revealing gags thatScream (the film) became famous for and spawned the even more popular Scary Movie franchise, however it does feel incredibly dated, very last century. The fact that the creators have chosen a mostly white, blonde, thin, toned, rich-kid cast feels too conceited than a tongue in cheek nod at casting choices of the last century– and the idea that a lesbian – (read bi-curious) kiss could cause such controversy in 2015, in a high school, is a little unbelievable, unlike the uproar it would have caused in the mid/late 90s.
Although Wes Craven, who sadly passed away in August this year, did not write or direct this series, he is credited as an exec producer.
Purists of the genre, however, will love the jumps, the gore and the suspense as Lakewood’s series slasher dispenses with rich kid after rich kid, however perhaps a more mature audience looking for a more grown up Slasher proposal might need to look further.
