Scream episode 1 recap: A haunting past

Now that the long awaited night has finally arrived, fans of the original Scream movie have been able to witness the new MTV adaptation of the film in the new series Scream. I’m personally a huge fan of the original movie and was quite skeptical at first. However, I know this isn’t going to be exactly the same and I’m OK with that. I’m excited to see how MTV is going to take a classic horror movie and draw it out into a series.

MTV_SCREAM_EP1_NINAThe show starts off with the typical high school drama scene: popular girl leaks a video of non-popular girl to ruin her life- since it’s her day job of course. This video that the mean girl Nina leaked is of a girl named Audrey having a serious make-out session with another girl. I guess Audrey’s secret is out — not only to a few people but the entire internet. But it’s not going quite the way Nina planned either. While alone at her house, Nina receives text messages from her boyfriend Tyler, who appears to be spying on her and taunting her for posting Audrey’s video.

She makes atypical scary-movie move,  going outside and pretending to brush every creepy thing that just happened off her shoulders. Incoming! Tyler’s head drops into the jacuzzi for a private party but the rest of him seems to be missing. Finally Nina gets the hint that someone is after her! Of course with today’s technology, nothing ever works when you need it to. She runs away to dial 9-1-1 but her phone isn’t working since it’s wet thinks she’s asking to call Pottery Barn when she asks for 9-1-1. I guess a nice heavy piece of pottery would work to drop on a murderer’s head too. Nina tries to get back inside her house when —slash!— Ghostface makes his first appearance with his new mask and slices Nina first in the back then ultimately across her throat to finish her off.

After Nina’s mother discovers her daughter’s body in the pool, word spreads quickly at the school. Nina’s close group of friends, who don’t seem too concerned that their best friend was slashed to death, think the rumors of Brandon James returning are true. The story behind Brandon is that he killed a bunch of students 20 years ago and cut a lot of others up. Nina’s friend Emma doesn’t want any part of these rumors since her dad got stabbed by Brandon and almost died.

Turns out Brandon had Proteus Syndrome like the Elephant Man, which led people to believe he was a monster. However fellow student Noah believes he was bullied into doing this and knows everything about Brandon because his passion is serial killers. I guess we share a fascination with some dark topics because I too like to investigate true-crime murders.

The rumor behind why Brandon started his murder spree was because he fell in love with a girl named Daisy. One night — of course, at the school’s Halloween dance — he gathered the courage to talk to her and things were going smooth at first. However, once he took his mask off and she saw who he really was, she got so scared that a bunch of jocks came to her rescue by jumping Brandon. Anyone else thinking Brandon sounds very similar to the modern Rob Zombie Michael Myers? Well things are going to click a lot more because it turns out Emma’s mother is Daisy, the girl Brandon fell in love with but she’s been keeping it a secret this whole time!

Before heading out to a party/vigil for Nina, Emma hears a knock at the door but no one is there when she answers. Instead, a package is sitting on the porch with a note addressed to Daisy. Emma’s mom quickly grabs the package before Emma leaves for the party. The note mentions how similar Emma looks like Daisy at that age. When Emma’s mom opens the package, she’s disturbed to find a bloody heart inside. Luckily, it isn’t human because I had my bet on it being Tyler’s. And I don’t get how the cops think he killed Nina when his severed head came flying at her. I guess they haven’t found all the,er, pieces to the puzzle yet — see what I did there?

At the party, Emma has a heart-to-heart conversation with her former bestie, Audrey. It’s a good thing they had their little talk because Audrey sure needed the reassurance after getting so many stares when she walked into the room. Meanwhile, Brooke may be copying Aria from PLL by having a fling with her teacher, but it’s not stopping her from getting closer to the new mysterious guy in town, Kieran. And even more secrets come out at the party, such as Emma’s boyfriend Will sleeping with Nina. Bad move, bud! Now the cops are going to be questioning you if word gets out.

MTV_SCREAM_EP1_BROOKEBrooke notices someone in her garage and immediately goes over to set them straight. I would too if I had such exotic looking cars. Lucky for her, she remains alive but gets a stern warning from Will that he’ll ruin her if she ever mentions anything to break him and Emma apart again. Yikes. Could that be that killer behavior? Emma runs off and finds Kieran alone, hiding from Brooke. They have a nice chat at first which ends up with the two kissing. Like we didn’t see that one coming.

Since Noah finds himself a bit too, intoxicated he ends up passing out, giving the jocks the perfect chance to mess with him. Noah wakes up on the dock by the lake in which Brandon was supposedly killed. He freaks out at first but then tries to man up by jumping in and not thinking much about the water’s history. Guess it was bad timing to man up because as Noah starts to swim he gets dragged down by something holding onto him. Luckily Kieran was there to jump in and rescue him from what looked like certain death.

Emma’s mom  called Sheriff Clark Hudson over to show him the heart and let him know the truth about her identity, and just as Emma was returning home from a semi-decent night thanks to Kieran, the two notice the adults talking on the front porch. Kieran asks why his dad is at Emma’s house and things immediately get awkward because that’s the sheriff Emma just told her mom to win over with her charm.

Emma goes over to Audrey’s to confess what her part in the video was. She lets her know that she didn’t film it — that was Nina’s role — but she was a witness to everything happening. Audrey gets upset with Emma because now she knows the only reason Emma wanted to be friends with her again is because she felt guilty. Emma basically gets thrown out of Audrey’s — then  gets the dreaded call from Ghostface. Because no one ever learns, she answers the unknown caller and he tells her that he’s an old friend. She tells him she’s not in the mood, but it seems Ghostface is concerned that Emma is crying, which shocks her because that means someone is watching her at that very moment. Finally, he tells her that he’s going to lift the mask on Emma’s supposed perfect life.

Just like in the original movie, the nerdy guy who seems to know everything about horror movies and murders immediately becomes a suspect. In this case, he’s the one who wipes blood across his forehead right before the episode ends which makes you automatically think he’s the killer. But that’s been proven wrong before.

What were your thoughts on the premiere of MTV’s Scream? Do you think it stands a chance against the original movie? I see a lot of similarities between the characters as far as who the audience is supposed to think the killer is. A couple things I do miss seeing are the old Ghostface mask, badass Sidney Prescott and good ol’ Dewey. Do you think this is really Brandon returning or someone taking on his role? Since I’m a fan of the original I’m going to guess that Will has something to do with the murders. How excited yet disappointed were you to hear Ghostface on the phone? It’s a close match but I miss the classic line of, “What’s your favorite scary movie?” After just watching one episode, I think this show will be entertaining to follow. I just hope we’ll get more blood and gore- yeah, I’m not your average girly girl when it comes to media. Leave your thoughts below in the comment section.

Scream airs Tuesdays at 10/9CT on MTV.

Photos: MTV