Oh October, how I love this month! I start binge watching horror movies like crazy this month, but what’s this?
Since the Halloween season is upon us, I decided to look at two different horror/slasher TV shows that came out earlier in the year. I never got the chance to watch them when they came out, but I did binge watch them recently and saw their differences.
So which show did it better? As I explain each show, you will see how I decided what the better show was.
Warning: There will be slight spoilers ahead, as we see the ways each shows method of storytelling, death, and, of course, the killer itself.
Scream
Based on the popular movie franchise that came out in the late 90’s, Scream takes the same premise that horror movies do exist and you need to recognize the rules. A lot of the things from the movie are kept within the show, but it exists within its own universe. Scream is a mystery/horror/slasher TV show that airs on MTV and has completed its second season. As in the movie, the killer wears a mask, but it’s not called the ghost face mask. In the series, this mask is known as the Brendan James mask.
The whole theme within Scream is revenge, of course, and it all starts after two girls get outed after they were being filmed. There is a rich plot within this show, and I do enjoy all the characters. The ways that the characters are killed off feels like they belonged within the proper Scream franchise. The creepiness that is within the show is perfect. Everything is always tied to Brendan James in one way or another, but he is not the killer within the first two seasons. He does seem he will be within the third season, and I cannot wait for it.
What I did enjoy is that they kept making you wonder who the killer can be. For two seasons, the killer wasn’t revealed until the very end of the second season. That is how a horror show is supposed to be. How is everything tied between the killer and the main characters: Emma, Audrey and their friends? The kills were creative and some also messed up. There are ups and downs within this show, as the teen drama and the love portion play out. We have to have these teens live their lives while still worried that they may be the next target. I did feel for a lot of the characters within the shows; even characters that weren’t shown a lot made me feel something for them. I did care who lived or who died. I did get mad when the main characters were doing stupid things that you know would get them killed.
Slashers
Slasher, on the other hand, is an original property…kind of. It does take element of the slasher movies we have grown up with, like Halloween, My Bloody Valentine, and Seven. It then adds psychological elements from It Follows with the same storytelling style as American Horror Story. That being said, it is just right that the first time we see the killer, who is called the Executioner, is on Halloween night 1988.
Here is the thing: the original killer gets arrested after he kills a couple in their home, lets a witness go and is holding a baby. But don’t worry he will be back. Now let’s forward to the present time and our main character, Sarah, moves back into the house where her parents were killed and visits the killer while he is incarcerated.
Now there is a new Executioner in town, and he starts killing off people that are close to Sarah’s friends, family, and acquaintances. But the killings that this killer is basing it on are the Seven Deadly Sins: Sloth, Gluttony, Wrath, Lust, Envy, Greed and Pride.
Each death for each sin is brutal! For Wrath, the victim is dismembered while they’re still alive. For lust, they are burned alive.
The story was decent and kept me interested throughout the show until the last episode. One thing that Scream did right was not unveil the killer’s identity until the last episode towards the end. In Slasher, we are shown who the Executioner is at the beginning of the last episode. And that is where it lost me. Another downfall is that I really didn’t care too much for a lot of the characters within this show. One thing you do want from your audience, especially within the horror genre, is to have them connect and feel something for the characters they are seeing.
So after binge watching these two shows back to back, I see that both had a good idea on what they wanted to do. While one kept the idea from the original source, the other took ideas from different movies in the end Scream did it a lot better than Slasher.
