New comedy-thriller comes to FOX

“Do you want to dance with the devil?”

After one hidden death in the Kappa household, nearly twenty years before, a killer has emerged to terrorize a college campus.

The leaders of the Kappa Kappa Tau sorority find themselves and the new pledges (all of which they’ve been forced to accept into the sorority) haunted by a mysterious killer in a red devil costume.

It sounds like it has potential to be incredibly creepy, but don’t start the series with that mindset; that mistake is easy to make.

The best possible way to describe FOX’s new comedy-thriller, “Scream Queens” is “Mean Girls in a horror setting.” Yes, it is a mystery-thriller of sorts. However, the main appeal is to those who like “dumb humor.” People who are easily offended by stereotype-fueled jokes should be wary of viewing because of this, as there are a few light hearted jokes thrown in surrounding a lesbian character and a black character. There are also tributes and allusions to modern-day pop culture (including a pretty hilarious Backstreet Boys tribute in episode 2).

The new series has already received plenty of press, mostly due to it’s startling number of A-list celebrities in the cast: Ariana Grande, Emma Roberts, Keke Palmer, Nick Jonas, Lea Michele, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Abigail Breslin all have significant roles in the show. Sometimes I found this problematic, as I was distracted from the character by the person playing them. I didn’t think of Ariana’s character as anyone else but a singer or previous character, Cat Valentine from the Nickelodeon show, “Victorious”.  

The standout star of the series, however, isn’t a big name. Skyler Samuels plays Grace Gardener, who is a personal favorite, as she stands out as refreshing and relatable when compared to the other girls. Grace is pledging to Kappa Kappa Tau in the hope that she can connect with her now-deceased mother. She brings a level-headedness that the other girls don’t seem to have. It is certain to be a breakout role for the young actress.

If you like some mystery with your laughs, look no further than “Scream Queens”. However, be careful not to get too attached to any character. No one is safe.