A few words on MTV’s Scream

For those who are unaware, MTV has produced a TV series adaptation of Wes Craven’s Scream, which is set to premiere in the US this Tuesday.  Arriving 19 years after the original 1996 self-aware slasher film, the TV series features a modern plot involving YouTube videos and self-aware dialogue referencing the adaptation of the films into a TV series.

Since I consider Scream to be one of my favourite series of horror films, I have to admit that I was curious about the show and would have even considered watching the first episode (if it was airing on MTV Canada).  However, watching the show’s trailer made me a bit wary.  While the DNA of the films seemed to be present, the show looked like any other MTV production aimed at teens.  The dialogue was bad and the show almost seemed like a parody of Scream, instead of a of a respectful homage to the films.

Even though I was now wary about the quality of the TV series, I decided to still check out the first look at an 8 minute clip that was just released, which showed the first kill from the series.  Without getting into too much detail, the clip pretty much confirmed my fears about the show.  In contrast with the excellent opening scene from the original Scream, this scene came off as a little too polished, for lack of a better description.  While I was a bit surprised that the kill was actually somewhat gory, the biggest slap in the fact to fans of the movies came when the killer looked at the camera and revealed the completely redesigned Ghostface mask, which differs greatly from the now-iconic mask from the films.

If anything, this clip proved that the show is MTV’s Scream and the show will likely only appeal to people that like the type of glossy programming that MTV produces, such as their other modern movie adaptation Teen Wolf.  This is not the Scream that helped to revitalize the horror genre nearly two decades ago.  This is really a case of MTV cashing in on a familiar property for ratings.  I am sure that Scream will probably be a hit with the very young crowd that actually watches MTV and I shouldn’t really complain like a grumpy old man that it’s not MY Scream.

Perhaps I am just disappointed, because I had some hope that the series would actually a worthy companion to the films.  There have been many television series based on films popping up and part of me wishes that this Scream series could have followed a similar path of FX’s Fargo.  Of course, I probably should have known that MTV caters to a certain type of audience and that there was probably going to be no way that I would respond to this television series the same way as the films.

At the end of the day, I should probably just accept that this television series exists and look on the bright side: I now have the perfect excuse to to re-watch the movies.