The Gore Spotlight
Scream Queens
Review of Episode 3: Chainsaw
Directed by: Ian Brennan
Air date: 9/29/15
Editor’s Note: Stevie’s Scream Queens reviews are done on a weekly basis and are for watchers of the show, therefore it’s worth mentioning that there will be spoilers and heavy speculation in all of the reviews. For those of you who wish to not be spoiled, please stop reading.
This week on Scream Queens things were a little lackluster. The episode’s title “Chainsaw” comes in to play in quite a few scenes, but I’ll get to that in a bit.
We start off with some normal bickering between the girls, it seems like Chanel #5 has had enough of Chanel’s shit and is really starting to think she doesn’t deserve to be president of KKT anymore. The girls also discover that Chanel #2’s body has gone missing (if you can recall from the last episode they hid it in the freezer). So now there are two missing bodies, White Mammie and Chanel #2.
Last week we found out that Boone wasn’t really dead, but nobody on campus knows that yet, just us. So Dean Munsch informs students that investigators have ruled Boone’s death as a suicide during an announcement at a “Take Back the Night” vigil. She also announces that with a serial killer running around dressed like the school mascot, she doesn’t feel that it’s appropriate to be represented by the Red Devil anymore. What’s Wallace’s new mascot? A cone. Coney the ice cream cone. Yes, it’s as corny as it sounds.
Chad breaks up with Chanel for the 500th time during the vigil and it’s no secret that Chad (who I still think just looks way too old to be running with this crowd) is a man-whore. It’s revealed that Chad has secretly been seeing all of the other Chanel’s behind the main Chanel’s back, and with Chanel #2’s mysterious disappearance combined with the fact that he’s slept with all the members of KKT, Grace and Zayday start to believe that Chad may be the killer.
There’s a funny little sequence where we follow Coney the mascot around campus for a few minutes and he talks about how he’s a nobody and now he’s somebody. He parades around and takes what he wants, fondles the girls, and everybody loves him because, well, he’s an ice cream cone. But somebody doesn’t like him, and that someone is the Red Devil. The killer shows up at Coney’s dorm and chops his head off with a chainsaw. It was a silly scene where I wasn’t sure if I should be feeling bad for Coney or if I should be relieved that his head was just lobbed off.
It was shortly after this that I felt the episode lost steam. Sure there were funny bits here and there, but a lot of the acting fell flat this week. The security guard (Denise) is dead set on a hunch that Zayday is the killer and there were quite a few scenes with Denise in them that felt forced and weren’t as funny as they probably were supposed to be. Niecy Nash (who plays Denise) is typically laugh out loud hilarious in most other roles but I’m still not feeling her in this.
There was also a lot more Chad this week and he just makes me want to barf. His fraternity, the Dickie Dollar Scholars, are these weird jock-type dudes but they only play golf. They were more annoying than anything and just when I thought I might be losing interest in the show, on comes The Backstreet Boys. Normally one would think that this would be the part where I changed the channel, but hear me out.
We’re treated to five douchey frat guys dressed in white swinging baseball bats down the street screaming for the Red Devil to come out of hiding. As Chad explains to his boys, this is ghetto code, and the Red Devil has to come out and face them. Well, lo and behold not one, but two killers appear! If you remember, in my last review I was more than sure that there were two killers, this has now been confirmed. What happens next is just a whole lot of ridiculousness as these frat guys attempt to fight off two chainsaw wielding murderers with their wooden baseball bats to the sounds of a boy band. Chad almost bites the dust but one of his buddies saves him at the cost of losing both his arms. We don’t know if this dude is dead yet, but chances are he is. I’d prefer seeing him remain alive and trying to stay in the golf playing fraternity with no arms, now that would be funny to me.
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In other news, Grace has reconciled with Pete and they’re off to solve the mystery of the bathtub baby in a town six hours away, so she’s not at the house to witness any of the mayhem that occurs there.
At KKT house, Chanel reveals to the girls that she has taken on Hester, the brace wearing pledge, as her new minion, Chanel #6. Chanel #5 is clearly not pleased. It’s also revealed that Chanel #3’s father is Charles Manson and she’s afraid if anyone finds out that they’ll automatically assume she is the killer. Dean Munsch and Gigi have moved in to “keep an eye on the girls.” But really I think the Dean has some serious hatred for Gigi because she’s putting the moves on Grace’s father instead of her. After Dean Munsch puts on a really great show involving a ‘white noise machine’ (I love Jamie Lee Curtis) and thoroughly weirds Gigi out, Gigi goes to sleep on the couch only to be attacked by the killer with a chainsaw. Grace’s father comes to the rescue and they both make it out alive. The episode ends with Dean Munsch suddenly appearing in the room and demanding to know what happened. Grace’s father steps up, chainsaw in hand, and accuses Dean Munsch of being the Red Devil Murderer.
Like I said earlier, this episode was slower paced. There was a bigger emphasis placed on comedy over horror this time around with less death and gore and more dramatic bullshit than anything. I did like the fact that Grace’s father (who is now a teacher at Wallace) chose the Texas Chainsaw Massacre as the film to showcase to his class; that was a nice touch.
So what I got out of the show this week is that there are definitely two killers. What would really be cool is if there were actually three; that would make for a more interesting plot reveal later on. I’m still convinced that Boone is somehow involved, hopefully they get to that soon. I don’t think Chad is the killer, and I’m not sold on the whole “Dean Munsch is the murderer”, they’re definitely trying to throw us off with that one. There was a lot of focus placed on Chanel #2 this week, maybe she’s not really dead and she’s involved? We’ll find out soon enough I’m sure.
If Scream Queens doesn’t pick up steam next week, I’ll be disappointed. I really enjoyed the first two episodes but this one just didn’t really do it for me. If the trailer is to be believed, it looks like we’ll definitely be getting some more information about what happened in that bathroom twenty years ago, the girls seem to be turning on one another, Hester is taking her role as Chanel #6 a little too seriously, and more bodies are being dumped. Check out the trailer for episode 4 and keep your eyes open for my next review!
Stevie Kopas, HMS
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