Scream TV is the hot new Netflix show everyone is talking about

THIS is what happens when a television spin-off from a movie is just so much better than the original. Here’s why Scream is this year’s must watch show.

The spin-off that will make you scream

THE Scream TV series has no right to be as good as it is. Television series’ updated from films have become a hot commodity in Hollywood lately, with everything from 12 Monkeys and Fargo, to From Dusk Till Dawn and Minority Report getting their own small screen versions. While the quality of said adaptations tends to swing dramatically, the idea of updating Wes Craven’s classic teen slasher franchise for television didn’t seem like a great one. Yet with the wrap of the first season earlier this month, we’ve come to a startling conclusion: it may actually be the must-watch new show of the year. Here’s why …

Cue creepy music. Everyone knows that gun is probably going to be useless against whatever is coming for her.

THE SURPRISES

Unlike a similar show, Scream Queens, where the characters range from racist to morally repugnant, you actually care about the cast of Scream so you care about what happens to them. And as we learn early on, leading lady or supporting cast, no one is safe is and everyone is fair game. The surprises — and gory deaths — come thick and fast, yet are rarely predictable (even to seasoned horror aficionados).

Never trust anyone who views a knife like this.

THE LEGEND

The Scream TV series was the last thing iconic horror filmmaker Wes Craven was working on before he died in August of brain cancer. A genuine auteur, he was legendary for having a hit in every decade that he worked: from The Last House On The Left and The Hills Have Eyes, to A Nightmare On Elm Street and Scream. Serving as an executive producer on the television version of one of his biggest hits gave the series an authentic edge, with Craven’s voice present throughout. The original Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson was also involved, writing an episode of the first season and working on several more for the second.

What is she looking at?!

THE SCARES

“You can’t do a slasher movie as a TV series,” one of the main characters confidently proclaims in the first episode of, er, well, the Scream TV series. “Slasher movies burn bright and fast: TV needs to stretch things out. By the time the first body is found it’s only a matter of time before the bloodbath commences.”

While American Horror Story and True Blood might have sparked a horror renaissance on the small screen, their surrealist and sweeping formats afforded them few boundaries. The slasher formula on TV is untested, largely because of the ‘rules’ of the genre, as outlined in the original Scream film by Jamie Kennedy’s character Randy: “Number one: You can never have sex. Sex equals death. Number two: you can never drink or do drugs. It’s the sin factor and an extension of number one. And number three: never, ever say under any circumstances you’ll be right back”.

Yet thanks to some masterful execution, Scream manages to deliver all of the trademarks of the genre while being one of the only truly scary shows on television. This is partly thanks to the involvement of talented genre filmmakers like Ti West (The House Of The Devil, The Innkeepers), Rodman Flender (Idle Hands, Leprechaun 2) and Brian Dannelly (Struck By Lightning, Saved).

There will be blood. So. Much. Blood.

THE CAST

In a cast peppered with perky blondes and savvy final girls, it’s a duo of relative unknowns that are the breakout stars. After supporting roles in The Killing and Arrow, Bex Taylor-Klaus showcases her leading lady bonafides as the intelligent, bisexual and bad-ass Audrey. Not fitting into the Hollywood mould, the androgynous actor has the spunk and charisma of a young Winona Ryder and is guaranteed for big things. See also: Amadeus Serafini. His first major role since transitioning from a career as a male model, the enigmatic performer carries the character of mysterious Kieran Wilcox with a skill beyond his years. He’s also very, very, very pretty.

What would Scream TV be without a creepy guy in a mask with a knife?

THE SMARTS

Considering it had been a solid decade since mindless teen slashers made money at the box-office, it took Craven’s super smart and meat Scream in 1996 to reinvigorate the subgenre. Set in an entirely different town that isn’t Woodsboro — where the original franchise took place — and with no characters from the films crossing over, the Scream series establishes its own mythology with its own backstory and its own historical deranged killer. The thing that links the show to the movie is universe is its cleverness, with it remaining self-referential and modern in way that will appeal to the social network generation, but with core story elements that make the show interesting to everyone. Continuing on the gender role explorations of Scream 4, the series may be set in a high school yet there’s nothing juvenile about it. And the references! From Hannibal and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre jokes, to Pretty Little Liars and the Babadook name-dropping, the winks at the audience are fresher than ever.