It’s no secret that I adore MTV’s Scream: The TV Series, as I recently prattled on about its virtues here. The second season recently wrapped up, and it was during the final Scream: After Dark (the chat/spoof show that airs right after each new episode of Scream) when we learned that all the Lakewood survivors would be reuniting in October for a very special Scream Halloween two-hour episode.
The special airs on Tuesday night (10/18) at 9:00pm ET, and for those of you who enjoy Scream: The TV Series, you should undoubtedly have fun with this special series event, as it does a great job of keeping the initial Scream storyline going, but also gives us a bit of a one-off storyline as well, just in time for everyone’s favorite horror-filled holiday.
*Spoiler Warning: While I would never include spoilers related to the Scream Halloween Special here, there will be spoilers involving season 2, so do not read this if you’re not fully caught up.*
For Halloween, Scream: The TV Series picks up about eight months after the conclusion of season 2. Kieran (Amadeus Serafini) has just been sentenced for his crimes, Emma (Willa Fitzgerald) is doing her best to move on with her life, Audrey (Bex Taylor-Klaus) has a new love interest, Brooke (Carlson Young) and Stavo (Santiago Segura) are still going strong, and Noah (John Karna) is dealing with a wicked case of survivor’s guilt, which has tripped up the comic series he’s been collaborating on with Stavo.
Looking for inspiration, the gang heads out to Shallow Grove Island for the weekend to do some investigating into a local legend about a young woman who went nuts, donned a mask, and brutally slaughtered her family. But once they arrive, the now-Lakewood Five realize that they must escape fate’s murderous plans for them.
Going into this, I was curious just how much of this Halloween special from Scream would involve the show’s overall storyline (especially since we learn in the very last moments of the season 2 finale that there’s someone out there who is none too pleased with Kieran for having donned the Brandon James mask), and as it turns out, there’s quite a bit. The timeline has moved eight months into the future and we see how everyone has moved on, instead of dealing with the direct ramifications, which honestly was a nice touch and a good way for this two-hour special to distinguish itself from how season 2 opened (most of the characters felt like they were still on high alert then; now, everyone is just trying to live their lives as normal teenagers and move on).
We also get to see all the characters have a little bit of fun for a change, and that includes Emma, who has been repeatedly tortured, both physically and emotionally, for the last two seasons. One of my biggest qualms with Scream has always been how her character just feels like such a blank slate in comparison to her counterparts (which is no fault of Fitzgerald’s, just more so how the character has been written), but in the Halloween episode, we finally see Emma shed a bit of that persona and act like a typical teenager, finally becoming something more than a fragile victim. So thank you, writers, for turning a corner with Emma and proving that she’s much more than just another teenage girl who makes bad choices when it comes to picking boyfriends (and confidantes).
The Halloween episode of Scream: The TV Series also carries on the show’s tradition of celebrating the horror genre, and there are several nods that I personally appreciated, including Black Christmas, And Then There Were None, Friday the 13th’s Crazy Ralph, Psycho's Marion Crane, Freddy vs. Jason, and to keep things timely, even Ouija: Origin of Evil gets a mention. There’s also a scene centered around a campfire, and honestly, I didn’t even realize how much I missed scenes like that as a horror fan until watching it during Scream. Can we bring back horror movie campfires? I want that to be a thing again.
Anyway, I had high hopes going into Scream’s Halloween special and as a fan, I enjoyed everything about it. It was nice to revisit these characters in an environment that initially wasn’t steeped in the darkness that has consumed their hometown, allowing us to see them be "normal" again, but also giving us a fun one-time murder mystery (akin to the stories from R. L. Stine and Christopher Pike, although maybe this one tends to be a bit darker in tone) that didn’t feel like the writers were shoehorning it in just to give us something fun to watch this October.
I’m still coming to terms with the fact that season 3 will only be six episodes long, but if things are heading in the direction it seems like they are by the conclusion of the Scream Halloween Special, maybe putting this storyline to bed in a concise manner is the best way to serve the overall story from seasons 1 and 2 of Scream: The TV Series (even though the selfish fan in me wants more).
Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.
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