After a summer of excitement for the viral television show “Scream Queens”, its pilot episode aired on Tuesday, September 22, 2015, grabbing every viewer by their belts.
When the preview for “Scream Queens” was first released, a viral craze spread across social media. Not only was the show created by the brilliant minds behind “American Horror Story,” Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, but its cast consists of famous stars like Emma Roberts, Ariana Grande, Abigail Breslin, Lea Michele, Nick Jonas, and more. The cast list alone made the show easy for potential viewers to eat up.
“After hearing about [the cast list] in the summer, I counted down the days until the premiere. I’m really hoping for a shirtless Nick Jonas scene,” says senior Lauren Winfough.
“Scream Queens” is a horror-comedy with a lighter side that makes it more relatable to a wider audience than other similar shows like “American Horror Story”, but it still delivers the scares that it promises.
“It’s sort of the idea of what would happen if you put something like ‘Heathers’ meets ‘Friday the 13th’…,” says creator Murphy.
The show focuses mainly on the Kappa Kappa Tau Sorority house and the strange events that take place there.
The pilot starts off with a scene from 1995 when a brutal homicide of one of the sorority pledges ends in an unsolved case and a curse on the Kappa house. Flash forward 20 years later and the anniversary of the pledge’s death brings about a plot for revenge against the sorority.
The drama showcases the sorority as a class system, introducing the girls from top to bottom: Chanel (Roberts) and her henchmen, whom she refers to as Chanel #2, Chanel #3, and Chanel #5 (Grande, Billie Lourd, and Breslin). There was a Chanel #4, but “she got meningitis and died” as told by Chanel, who is president of the sorority.
The main protaginist, Grace Gardner (Skylar Samuels), is a freshman whose main goal in life is to pledge Kappa Kappa Tau in honor of her late mother, who was part of the infamous sisterhood many years before.
After convincing her new roommate Palmer (Keke Palmer) to also pledge Kappa, the girls experience what has to be the worst hazing of all time. The new bright shining faces of Kappa, some of which do not meet the Kappa regulations of beauty, are all beaming with joy about living in the sorority house, until the first murder occurs.
To scare away the new “ugly” pledges, Chanel comes up with a plan that involves their housemaid, Ms. Bean. However, when it all goes wrong, there is not only terror in the house, but a murderer.
After each murder in the first episode, we see a close up of the same red devil mask and costume, leading everyone to believe that the killer is whoever is in that costume. But who is behind the red mask? That is what keeps viewers wanting more and more.
“Each minute had me on the edge of my seat. If I wasn’t laughing, I was holding a blanket over my face to get ready for the next murder,” says senior Iliana Filiault.
Be one of the millions across America to tune in to “Scream Queens” on Tuesday, October 6 to see what chills and thrills are in store for this season.
What is your opinion on the premiere of “Scream Queens”?