BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – For fall’s Fox horror-comedy “Scream Queens,” executive producer Ryan Murphy returns to the tone of his 1999-01 WB series “Popular.”
“Scream Queens” (8-10 p.m. Sept. 22) is screamingly funny with the politically incorrect dialogue muttered by an entitled, bratty sorority sister, Chanel (Emma Roberts).
“A sorority is the one place left in the world where you get to pick and choose who you want around you,” says Chanel, who refers to the sorority house’s maid as “white Mammie” and insists she say, “I ain’t birthin’ no babies,” aping a scene from “Gone with the Wind.”
Jamie Lee Curtis plays the campus dean who clashes with the sorority sisters, who die one-by-one as a Red Devil-dressed killer terrorizes the college campus.
Mr. Murphy said “Scream Queens” may share elements of the horror genre with “American Horror Story,” his FX series, but the tone is different.
“There a much more cartoonish quality to the attacks,” Mr. Murphy said. “ ‘American Horror Story’ is much more sexualized and darker at times.”
He credited “The Walking Dead” with bringing horror back to television and dismissed any comparison’s to “Scream: The Series” on MTV.
“Tonally the shows are very different,” Mr. Murphy said. “Our is more a comedy and satirical.”
Ms. Curtis called “Scream Queens” a social satire.
“We say what people think,” she said. “We all live in this protective bubble and we’re all trying to live and behave a certain way and this flays the imagined behaviors of human beings and it actually shows that people really are inherently dark, inherently unhappy, frustrated human beings who are trying desperately to hold it together.”
TV writer Rob Owen is attending the Television Critics Association summer press tour. Follow RobOwenTV at Twitter or on Facebook. You can reach Rob at 412-263-2582 or rowen@post-gazette.com.
First Published: August 6, 2015, 5:42 p.m.