SCREAM QUEENS

I'LL HAVE TO ADMIT THAT THIS IS A SHOW I REALLY WASN'T HIGHLY ANTICIPATING.  

It also seems to be a show which highly polarizes opinion.  I truthfully only watched it because I was off from work and while watching other shows I do regularly watch on demand, I ran out of things to watch and gave it a try.  I can honestly say I'm glad I did as SCREAM QUEENS is hilarious.  It seems the films the show is most compared with are both SCREAM and SCARY MOVIE; however while there are similarities to what SCREAM was trying to accomplish, the topical, pop culture references of SCARY MOVIE are not present as the series' "be all and end all" mission statement.  

Also, the polarizing opinions seem to stem from the failure of some viewers to understand exactly what the show is supposed to be.  It's a comedy, folks.  But more than that, it's poking particular fun at those 70s and 80's slasher films we know so well; however, it's not done in a nasty or disdainful way but with a fondness which is quite refreshing in this overly hipster, ironic climate which seems to look down on everything dismissively.  It also manages, at the same time, to tell an actual horror movie/slasher story . . . and it IS possible to do both.  The complaints about the show all seem to boil down to the same thing:  that it's neither one thing or the other.  This seems to confuse people.  Of course, this "either/or" bias seems to ignore the fact that many, many works of literature, film and television CAN fit into more than one narrow category.  A recent example of this is the TV series FARGO which managed to be both horrifying AND hilarious.  A less recent example of what SCREAM QUEENS is going for would be the work of Mel Brooks in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN or HIGH ANXIETY; both films are funny while still managing to construct a loving homage to Universal Frankenstein films and Alfred Hitchcock suspense films respectively.  In fact, with the murders, HIGH ANXIETY is a particularly noteworthy antecedent to SCREAM QUEENS.  For an even less recent example of this mixing of horror and comedy is ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN where both the horror elements and the comedy are top notch; the Universal monsters are treated respectfully and play it straight while Bud and Lou provide the yocks.  If you are a true fan of the horror genre (and this means that you are aware of horror movies that are more than five years old) then you should really get a laugh out of the way SCREAM QUEENS lovingly sends up the slasher film.  I am frankly not a fan of either AMERICAN HORROR STORY or GLEE but I WILL be sticking around for SCREAM QUEENS.