Whos the killer in season 3 of scream

Well, there you have it: the possible conclusion of the Scream franchise, which will be remembered as the television equivalent of a wet fart in the annals of horror. The lengthy delay between seasons (almost three years) should have been all we needed to know: this “Three-Night Event’ was VH1’s way of dumping a turd of a season and wiping their hands clean. But their hands are not clean. Not. One. Bit.

Two days ago, I wrote the following in my review of Scream: Resurrection‘s first two episodes:

“Scream: Resurrection benefits from not being boring. It’s bad, but at least it’s entertaining.”

My, what a difference four episodes can make. Each set of episodes was worse than the last, with the finale being a particularly egregious miscalculation of viewer expectations (Did you want Deion’s football scholarship drama to take up half of the finale’s runtime? Scream: Resurrection seems to think that you did.). I could spend this review picking apart the series scene by scene, but that would be a waste of my time and yours. This is a bad show and that’s all you need to know. However, it would be prudent to discuss the one aspect of the finale that likely won’t sit well with many horror fans (you know, the show’s target audience).

SPOILERS for the finale of Scream: Resurrection

As revealed in the sixth and final episode of Scream: Resurrection, the killers are revealed to be Deion’s (RJ Cyler) step-brother Jamal (Tyga) and Goth-girl horror expert (and Resurrection‘s Randy stand-in) Beth (Giorgia Whigham). Jamal was upset because his father married Deion’s mother (Mary J. Blige) and began to treat Deion like more of a son than Jamal. When he met Beth, who reveals herself to be a sociopath, she fostered his jealousy into a murderous rage and used him to start a killing spree because, well, she just likes killing people.

Yes, out of all of the Scream films to rip off, Scream: Resurrection chose to rip off Scream 3. Jamal’s motive is essentially the same as Roman’s (Scott Foley): He’s upset because his daddy loved his stepbrother more than he loved him. It’s certainly a (boring) choice, but Jamal isn’t the problem with Resurrection‘s finale. You see, while Beth being the killer seems clever (unless you count Scream 4‘s Charlie, Scream has never had the Randy-type character be the killer before), Beth’s motive monologue is problematic to say the least. Her explanation is as follows:

“I was born bad. Unlike you and your little “Deadfast” besties, I don’t lie to myself about it…[When I take my mask] off, nothing changes! I always knew I was a sociopath. I mean, why do you think I love horror movies so much? I watched every single one I could get my hands on until I realized it just wasn’t quite enough. Why should Michael Myers get to have all the fun when I could be a better monster because I’m not just some actor behind a mask. This is who I really am on the inside. [Silence] C’mon, that was a killer monologue! Literally!

Focus on that part in bold, would you? Because no other line of dialogue spoken in this finale matters. In case you glossed over it, here it is again:

“I always knew I was a sociopath. I mean, why do you think I love horror movies so much?”

Do you feel mocked? You should. It’s a tiny line that takes up mere seconds of screen time, but screenwriter/showrunner Brett Matthews is being insulting at best and downright irresponsible at worst. That one bit of dialogue reinforces the stereotype non-horror fans associate with us all too often and because of it, Scream: Resurrection now has the distinction of not only being one of the most boring horror television shows ever created but also one of the most offensive.

Never before have I seen a television series disparage its audience to this degree. Did you know that sociopaths love horror movies? No? Well, Scream: Resurrection is here to school you on that subject. To top things off, the series suggests that horror films can be used to appease or tame sociopathic tendencies in its (sociopathic) viewers, but when they’re not hardcore enough to satiate our vicious bloodlust, we’ll go on a killing spree. Alright.

It’s as if no one on the creative team had ever watched a Scream film before. The films have always done an excellent job of distancing the sociopathic/psychopathic tendencies of their killers from horror fandom. While it is true that the two are not mutually exclusive (obviously, a sociopath can be a horror fan and vice versa), the films took great care to ensure that they were sending the proper message (i.e., horror fans aren’t automatically sociopaths). Do I believe that this was an intentional message? No. I just don’t think anyone put any thought into it (something that could be said about this entire season). Scream is smart. This isn’t smart.

In Scream, Billy (Skeet Ulrich) says “Movies don’t create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative.” In Scream 2, Mickey’s (Timothy Olyphant) motive is to blame the movies for his killing spree, all the while noting that that isn’t the real reason he is killing. It’s just the reason that will make him the most famous. The same applies to Jill (Emma Roberts) in Scream 4. She doesn’t like horror movies because she is psychotic. She just wants to be famous and uses the original Scream (er, Stab) as a blueprint for her master plan. The distinction is important, and Scream: Resurrection does not make that distinction.

At the end of the day, Resurrection delivers an extremely problematic message to its viewers and goes against everything the film franchise stood for. The films respected horror fans. Scream: Resurrection shits on them. At least we now know that whatever the next entry in the Scream franchise is it can’t possibly be worse than this dreck.

To hear more of my thoughts on Scream: Resurrection, check out this week’s bonus episode of the Horror Queers podcast, in which Joe Lipsett and I read the series to filth:

Forget everything (and everyone) you thought you knew about the Scream TV series. Honestly, you might as well forget it even existed in the first place.

The truth is, VH1’s Scream: Resurrection — premiering tonight at 9/8c with back-to-back episodes — bares little resemblance to the two-season story of passion and slashin’ that MTV aired back in 2015. Sure, there’s still a ghost-masked killer roaming the streets, but this one’s raising hell in Atlanta, a far cry from the quaint, picturesque town of Lakewood. And rather than donning the made-for-TV outfit introduced on MTV, VH1’s take on Ghostface looks and sounds just like the one from the original big-screen franchise. (Shout-out to Roger Jackson for returning to provide his iconic voice.)

Because we’re diving into a completely new story, don’t count on getting any resolution to the show’s established Brandon James saga. Instead, you’ll be introduced to a new group of potential victims, a Breakfast Club-style mashup of characters led by Deion Elliot, a star football player who remains haunted by a loss he experienced as a child on Halloween. He and his new “friends” reluctantly bond after receiving detention, along with a string of threatening text messages. (In some respects, this six-episode event almost feel like the love child of Pretty Little Liars and Saw. And we mean that in a good way.)

Speaking of the show’s mood, Resurrection strikes a much lighter tone than its MTV predecessor. Yes, the original had its share of comic relief, but some scenes feel like they were pulled straight out of Scary Movie — especially those involving Palmer’s character, who simply refuses to play by the traditional white people rules of horror.

So, how did Scream: Resurrection come to be? If you haven’t kept up with the behind-the-scenes of it all, you should know that it had a pretty complicated journey to the air, one we never actually expected it to finish. Back in Oct. 2016, MTV ordered a six-episode third season of Scream, which was set to continue the adventures of Emma Duval & Co. But in March 2017, MTV announced that it was scrapping that idea, instead using the show’s third season as a soft reboot.

Scream: Resurrection: Meet the New Cast

In April 2017, MTV announced that Brett Matthews — now in charge of The CW’s Legacies — would serve as Scream‘s new showrunner, with big names like Queen Latifah also coming on board to executive-produce. Casting announcements began rolling out a few months later, drumming up interest with a curiously curated collection of stars like Palmer (Scream Queens), Tyler Posey (Teen Wolf), Mary J. Blige (The Umbrella Academy) and platinum-selling rapper Tyga.

Though a premiere date for Scream‘s retooled third season hadn’t been announced, filming began in Sept. 2017, as documented on social media by the show’s excited cast members. Internal issues shelved the finished season for more than a year, and it wasn’t until last month that we knew it was going to air at all. In addition to a name and network change, the third season was confirmed to air on July 8, 9 and 10 at 9/8c on VH1.

Meet Scream‘s new crop of victims in our handy gallery — you can click here for direct access — then drop a comment with your thoughts below: Will you be tuning in?

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