Much like The Marked Ones for
Paranormal Activity, a nice diverse
change in the formula can sometimes freshen up material starting to go stale.
When I discovered (on Facebook of all places) that there would be a third
season of Scream (called Resurrection) on VH1 with a mostly African-American
cast I was quite optimistic and hopeful thanks in part to the change of venue
and just the different characters involved from the previous two seasons.
The opening of the first episode, The Deadfast Club, sort of
winks at us as Paris Jackson answers to the phone to a supposed survey caller
asking her about her favorite scary movie and answers the door to a kid with a
retractable toy knife in the Ghostface mask/costume. Dressed as “Florence
Nightingale” , Paris tells the kid to be careful with the knife she paid a lot
for her “bad boys”. Later a football player and the kid in the costume arrive
at a junkman’s metal yard, soon encountering Tony Todd with a hook hand…get it!
Yes, I marked out for it, what can I say?
As you expect, the kids are introduced. Keke Palmer, with
bullhorn and plenty of vigor, already brings up the POTUS and signing a
petition, getting detention for sounding off right into a teacher’s face about
her second amendment rights. Jocks talk about the big game and football, with
the usual one-upmanship. Then an uber driver is knifed into the throat with a
grocery bag suffocation for good measure. Marcus wasn’t available but someone
in the Ghostface mask and costume was.
Collins, the smart aleck quarterback, Deion (D-Day), the
running back (and main male lead), and Liv, the girl that comes between them.
The title of the first episode of the third season essentially has a group of
principles assembled in detention. Deion and Liv, after the altercation with Collins,
are told to go by the teacher who has enough of their voiced criticism because
of the quarterback’s nonsense. Beth has piercings, black liner and lipstick,
and what might be considered “goth décor”. Palmer’s Kym doesn’t want anyone
“putting her in any boxes”, resisting the label of rebel when the description
of the characters from The Breakfast Club. Beth and her book, “The Mortal
Coil”, get little time in detention, with her telling the class she’s a “horror
girl”. Amir (Christopher Jordan Wallace), is a DJ and the “nerd” mentioned in
dialogue. Manny (Giullian Yao Gioiello) is Kym’s asthmatic gay friend, sort of
a sidekick she tries to encourage pursuing a potential mate.
Mary J Blige is the mother of Deion (RJ Cyler; “Me and Earl
and the Dying Girl”; “Power Rangers”), hoping he can’t keep himself out of
trouble, recalling Halloween, seemingly a conversation that evokes serious ill
will. Deion is the one that receives the phone call from Ghostface, claiming to
be “Marcus”, informing him that those he knows (the inner circle) will die,
wanting to “play a game”. A costume party with plenty of Ghostface costumed
party-goers leaves Deion plenty uncomfortable. He was frightened and tased.
Marcus, we learn when the Ghostface tormenter calling Deion tells him to admit
to his haunted past regarding the twin brother who died at the hookhand of Tony
Todd to the inner circle, tells the detention club that he fears for their
safety. Avery Collins, rival of Deion, is tossed from a balcony at the costume
party onto a wooden spike, impaled and immediately dead. The detention club
congregate at a tattoo parlor.
It seems the killer’s game, according to Beth, is that those
hunted aren’t on the outside who they are on the inside. And each fits a
particular slasher cliché. 2.5/5
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