TV Binge: Scream [Season 1]

I finished Scream somewhere in the beginning of December to give myself a little break to clear my mind from writing to holidays.  I have no idea how the TV series of Scream became my choice since I’ve only seen half of the actual movies itself.  Maybe I was wondering how it would turn out.  It is full of teens and let me be honest with you, I like watching teen shows because it usually ends up in my enjoying watching dumb teenage choices and hey, it could be a nice tribute if they did it right.  Oh, and I wanted to try a new TV series genre (kind of) so here we are!

Let’s check it out! 🙂

Scream [Season 1]

Creators: Jay Beattie, Jill E. Blotevogel, Dan Dworkin

Cast: Willa Fitzgerald, Bex Taylor-Klaus, John Karna, Carlson Young, Amadeus Serafini, Jason Wiles, Tracy Middendorf, Tom Maden, Amelia Rose Blaire, Connor Weil

What starts as a YouTube video going viral soon leads to problems for the teenagers of Lakewood and serves as the catalyst for a murder that opens up a window to the town’s troubled past.-IMDB

 TV nowadays is a little predictable. I’ve come to terms with it. With that said, Scream is somewhat in the teen horror genre and with anything related to high school matters, there comes a specific group of people that needs to be there.  We have the jock Will, beauty Emma, sexy Brooke, douchebag Jake and smart/nice girl Riley and obviously the bitch of the group goes to the opening death of Nina. We have a lovely triangle between the jock, the beauty and the new creepy transfer boy, Kieran (who happens to also be the sheriff’s kid), which makes all the better than Emma starts getting targeted by a mysterious person that keeps killing off the people around her, and that’s until she learns that her mom was the love interest of a serial killer when she was a teen.  It doesn’t quite end there because Emma reconnects with two of the not so popular teens in her grade and one that used to be her good friend: Audrey and Noah and they start teaming up to help her find who is behind all these killings before she gets killed, especially when it hits really close to home for both of them also.

I don’t think there are any spoilers so far.  Scream is not a bad series.  Its predictable as hell and you can probably see a lot of stuff that will happen.  However, what works is that while its a serious story, they never make you take it too serious especially with Noah’s inserts of how serial killers work in typical horror movies and making it like one.  Its a fun show and its not a long season either, plus there are some decent twists that it slowly convinced me, especially in the second half that this is worth a bit more of my time. Some times it really just needs those few pros to keep me watching a show.

I love, love, love this trio.  Emma, as the main girl, takes a little time to warm up to.  She’s a little frustrating and super sporadic and sometimes, the things she does doesn’t quite make sense.  But, the script gave her time to develop and really come to terms with certain parts of her personality and I think it worked out okay. However, as with many times, I never quite like the main character as much as I like the supporting roles and my favorite goes out to Noah and Audrey as a best buddies team-up.  They are played by John Karna and Bex Taylor-Klaus respectively. I like on-screen nerds (and maybe nerds in general) but this guy is so freakin’ adorkable especially with his knowledge of serial killers and such. The best part I think that pulled me in for the first episode was the video below where they ironically talk about how slashers can’t be made into TV and then the first body is found. What a way to start a show, right? On top of that, you have Audrey’s sarcastic humor that really brings a new tone to the show, especially when meshed with Emma’s soft character that builds up to be much stronger by the end.

Moving along, I’m not a huge fan of love triangles but they have proved that they have their worth.  While I don’t think any of them are drop dead gorgeous like Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley in Vampire Diaries which is the key reason I watch that show anymore (not of late actually), something about this series isn’t even about the triangle. The character of Kieran is mysterious and his and Emma’s story really adds a little kick to it.  Am I in love with this ship? Not exactly.  By the end, I bought into it a little bit more. but Kieran does have a charm to the character that I think can work with some development in Season 2. Now the ship I do like surprisingly and would like to see happen is between the kind of more stupidly naive characters who does have quite the development during this series and that is Brooke and Jake.  There’s a potential growth to their characters, that makes their empty characters actually not all that bad to watch. I guess its the idea that the bad boy and bad girl roles have the most space for character development and I really enjoy that in my series (if you haven’t noticed yet).

Overall, Season 1 of Scream is decent. After the first episode, it takes a while to build back the excitement I had initially but in the second half, they do redeem itself a little bit more. There are some decent amount of blood fests and some little jump scares and the kills aren’t all that bad.  Plus, the idea behind the killer and all that is pretty good. After how they ended Season 1, I’m intrigued as to where they take the series in Season 2.

Have you seen Scream the TV series? 

Halloween Marathon: Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)

In the last Nightmare on Elm Street, we said our goodbyes to the series in a pretty mediocre way, in my opinion.  Some of you have recommended strongly that this next one also going back to Wes Craven as the director for the New Nightmare is a strong entry.  I’d like to believe that it really can’t go any lower than that last one.  I’m going to trust that this one is a good one especially since, the few Wes Craven movies that I’ve seen have been pretty good.

Here we go! 🙂

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)

Director & Writer: Wes Craven

Cast: Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, Miko Hughes, David Newsom, Wes Craven, Tracy Middendorf

A demonic force has chosen Freddy Krueger as its portal to the real world. Can Heather play the part of Nancy one last time and trap the evil trying to enter our world?-IMDB

Wow! Now we’re talking! Wes Craven’s New Nightmare had me at the edge of my seat the whole time.  For one, what absolutely works is the set-up of the story and the premise of how Freddy is properly reintroduced into the real world. Making him not just a fictional character in movies but one that can come to life in reality adds to the scares. With that said, all the actors in the first part comes back as their real selves to play in this one adding to the authenticity.  We never see the real Freddy except till the end and even then, he’s portrayed in a much scarier way. All this works absolutely fantastic to create the perfect atmosphere that just makes us wonder when he’ll show up, what is real or not, and whether he will be reach his goal.  Its all in the dark especially since, the revival of his character is in hand with Wes Craven’s ability to bring his story to life.

Another thing is that, while there was probably one or two parts paying tribute to the first movie that started up this Nightmare on Elm Street series and might even fall a little in the campy area, the whole feeling of this series has shifted in this one.  Its a new take.  Freddy is a nightmare.  He can get you in your sleep and he’s found a way to be a part of what some kids would consider a nightmare that adults might think is just an overhyped imagination.  Except we all know it isn’t, we just don’t know when we’ll see the extent of his powers now.  However, it does take back from what happened in the past few movies and deduct it completely to a figment of the imagination of all the writers involved where Freddy’s character is imaginary and his existence is based on being a part of a story that traps him in one.  The moment we don’t have one to trap him in one, he is let loose and he can come into the real world. Reason why, he is double the fright this time.

On top of that, while Freddy is more scary and we still debate in the first part whether he is real or not because it is still a movie character, Heather Langenkamp has a son here and this little boy is super great at looking like he is possessed or lack of sleep or scared or just having the effect that something is going to turn incredibly wrong. At the same time, we see Freddy’s primary target is the little boy, Dylan.  In this sense, we turn this horrific character into something like a boogeyman (is this how you spell it?).  He hides under the bed, his stuffed dinosaur protects him, he is scared to sleep.  Its those nostalgic naive fear of the night feelings (I guess I still have them) that pop up from scenes like that for me.

While A Nightmare on Elm Street is what started this off and has a good thing going, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare will undoubtedly be the best in this franchise for me. For the first time, it felt like I was watching a horror movie.  I was tense and nervous and really worried about the characters.  It made me a little scared to go to bed at night in fear. An effective horror movie that has great atmosphere, builds Freddy up and gives us the impression that this isn’t fiction but reality is just a thought away.

Have you seen Wes Craven’s New Nightmare? What did you think of it?