SCREAM QUEENS: PILOT {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The pilot of this comedic horror series featuring rotating storylines.
In 1995, a college student gives birth at a party but attempts to conceal this fact from everyone except her friends. She dies soon thereafter and her friends try to determine what course of action to take. In 2015, Chanel Oberlin, “queen” of the Kappa Kappa Tau sorority at Wallace University awakens and orders around her “minions,” known as “Chanel #2,” “Chanel #3,” and “Chanel #5.” Chanel is called before the newly-promoted Dean of Students, Cathy Munsch, who makes her distaste for sororities and for Chanel quite plain. Dean Munsch is furious at Kappa Kappa Tau due to numerous reports linking it to alcoholism, drug abuse, racism, and similarly distasteful activities. She in particular highlights a police report on an assault on the sorority’s former president the previous spring. Chanel recalls that the former president insulted her for a perceived minor slight, and then she dies via being sprayed with hydrochloric acid in her spray-tanning equipment. Before she dies, her predecessor perceives a red devil-like figure looming over her. Dean Munsch believes that Chanel arranged for her predecessor’s death, although there is not enough evidence to definitively link her to it. Dean Munsch views this as an opportunity to take down Kappa Kappa Tau, beginning with revoking its charter.
Suddenly Gigi Caldwell, president of the national chapter of Kappa Kappa Tau, enters and explains that Dean Munsch cannot revoke the charter without approval from the board of trustees. Caldwell is also the legal representation for Kappa Kappa Tau and vows to get Chanel off the hook. Chanel also threatens Dean Munsch, noting that her father is a large contributor to the university’s endowment. Meanwhile, incoming freshman Grace Gardner is driven to school by her father, who is quite emotional about her starting at Wallace University. He warns Grace not to join a sorority, telling her that they are not as “magical” as she imagines they will be. She notes that her mother died when she was very young and she has no memories of her, carrying only a small Kappa Kappa Tau pin that used to belong to her. She believes that her mother was at her happiest in her sorority and wants to follow in her footsteps.
At Wallace she bids her father a tearful goodbye just before her roommate Zayday arrives. She soon bonds with Zayday and convinces her to pledge alongside her to Kappa Kappa Tau. Just before she enters the sorority house, Grace sees the red devil-figure in the distance and tries to follow, but the figure disappears. At the party for incoming pledges, Gigi and Dean Munsch announce that in the spirit of diversity, Kappa Kappa Tau will henceforth be required to accept any and all incoming pledges, striking fear into the hearts of Chanel and her sorority sisters. The incoming pledges include Grace, Zayday, Hester Ulrich (derisively called “Neckbrace” for the corrective equipment she wears due to her scoliosis), Tiffany (a deaf girl), Jennifer (a “candle vlogger”), and other individuals deemed undesirable by Chanel for various reasons. This creates difficulties between Chanel and her boyfriend Chad, who denigrates her due to her association with her new “weirdo” pledges, breaking up with her and calling her a “garbage person.”
Chanel decides to concoct a plan to frighten away her new pledges by staging an incident between her and the sorority’s housekeeper Ms. Bean wherein she will pretend to burn off her face by dunking it in a deep-fryer. Grace meets a coffee barista previously insulted by Chanel and he is instantly smitten with her, but is distressed when he learns she plans to pledge for Kappa Kappa Tau. The barista, Pete, rushes out and vehemently warns her not to join the sorority, explaining that he is also the editor of the school paper and believes that Kappa Kappa Tau is “pure evil.” Chanel emerges and tells Pete to get away from Grace, explaining that she had to get a restraining order against him after he kept calling her incessantly. He dismisses it as a freshman crush and accuses Chanel of leading him on intentionally in order to humiliate him. In spite of Chanel’s display of immaturity and Pete’s warnings, Grace believes that she will be fine.
That night, Chanel and her “minions” discover a collage in Ms. Bean’s room which seems to indicate that she is planning to murder Chanel. Chanel leads her “minions” and the new pledges to confront Ms. Bean, although she says she has no knowledge of the “shrine” Chanel found. Chanel proceeds to drown Ms. Bean’s face in the deep-fryer, immersing it in boiling oil and horribly scarring her. Chanel seems surprised that the fryer was active. Ms. Bean tears at her face before she dies, horrifying everyone present. Grace announces that she is going to the police, but Chanel says that she will testify that Grace was responsible, and she bribes all the other girls except Zayday into corroborating her story. She leads the rest of the sorority in disposing of Ms. Bean’s body in a meat locker while Pete secretly watches from the bushes. Chanel threatens to murder anyone who reveals the events of that night.
Dean Munsch contemplates the infuriating behavior of the sororities on campus after blackmailing a student on academic probation into sleeping with her. Grace speaks to Pete, who reveals that he knows about the murder of Ms. Bean. She offers to help him write an expose on Kappa Kappa Tau, believing that people like Chanel have corrupted the sorority’s name in the years since her mother was a member. She hopes to ruin Chanel’s reputation and get her ousted from the sorority. They start by going to investigate Ms. Bean’s body, but are forced to hide when Chanel arrives with Chad to show him the body. However, they find that it is no longer in the meat locker. Chanel attempts to lead the other Chanels in a literal blood oath to strengthen their solidarity against whatever person is interfering with them. It fails, and Chanel #2 feels compelled to tell the truth about Ms. Bean’s death, announcing that she is going home. Before she can leave, however, the devil-figure arrives at her door and stabs her to death, but not before she is able to send out a message on Facebook pleading for help.
Soon Chanel discovers Chanel #2’s dead body, and she believes that Ms. Bean somehow rose from the dead and murdered her. She orders the remaining Chanels to hide her body and not to alert the police. The new pledges arrive and Chanel comes down to begin Hell Week. Grace and Zayday refuse to allow Chanel to haze any of them, announcing that they wish to reshape Kappa Kappa Tau as a force for female empowerment. Chanel pulls Grace aside and offers her the chance to be “Chanel #6,” but Grace refuses, believing that Chanel’s position as “queen” has become self-destructive. Chanel admits that she feels isolated since her friends are little more than employees and her parents seem to be too busy to care about her. Grace attempts to convince her to use this as an opportunity to turn Kappa Kappa Tau into “a real sisterhood” and engender true friendships and relationships. Chanel refuses and an exasperated Grace walks off. Meanwhile, the other girls are forced to participate in a humiliating hazing ritual wherein they are buried up to their necks in dirt overnight. In the middle of the night the devil-figure drives up atop a lawn-mowing vehicle and runs over Tiffany, killing her. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: FOX
- DATE: November 30, 1999 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:46:42
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 124051
- GENRE: Comedy
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; Greek letter societies; Murder
- SERIES RUN: FOX - TV series, 2015-2017
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Ryan Murphy … Executive Producer, Director, Created by, Writer
- Ian Brennan … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Brad Falchuk … Executive Producer, Created by
- Alexis Martin Woodall … Executive Producer
- Robert M. Williams Jr. … Producer
- Emma Roberts … Cast, Chanel Oberlin
- Skyler Samuels … Cast, Grace Gardner
- Lea Michele … Cast, Hester Ulrich
- Glen Powell … Cast, Chad Radwell
- Diego Boneta … Cast, Peter Martinez
- Abigail Breslin … Cast, Chanel #5
- Keke Palmer … Cast, Zayday Williams
- Nasim Pedrad … Cast, Gigi Caldwell
- Oliver Hudson … Cast, Wes Gardner
- Billie Lourd … Cast, Chanel #3
- Lucien Laviscount … Cast, Earl Grey
- Jamie Lee Curtis … Cast, Cathy Munsch
- Ariana Grande … Cast, Chanel #2
- Nick Jonas … Cast, Boone
- Jan Hoag … Cast, Ms. Bean
- Breezy Eslin … Cast, Jennifer
- Whitney Meyer … Cast, Tiffany
- Chelsea Ricketts … Cast, Amy
- Anna Grace Barlow … Cast, Bethany
- Grace Phipps … Cast, Mandy
- Brianne Howey … Cast, Melanie Dorkess
- McKaley Miller … Cast, Sophia