Scream Queens at 10: The forgotten horror comedy that gave its stars a leg up

Following the buzz around "Wicked," you might have seen a clip of Oscar-nominated actor Ariana Grande complaining that hell sucks, partly because Hitler is “jet-skiing” her there. This isn’t some elaborate AI hoax, but rather Grande’s last foray into acting before "Wicked"—a significant role in Ryan Murphy’s 2015 horror-comedy series, "Scream Queens."

By 2015, Murphy had already dominated television for over a decade: first with his alternative medical black-comedy/drama "Nip/Tuck," then with the 2009 high school series "Glee." His partnership with Netflix in the 2010s led the New York Times to call him “the most powerful man in television.” The writer-director had already dabbled in horror by then, producing two great (and 10 mediocre) seasons of the gory anthology "American Horror Story." Now, the 59-year-old director is busy “scavenging” material from real-life coffins for his "Monster" and "American Crime Story" series.

But in the mid-2010s, Murphy briefly combined the high-stakes absurdity of "Glee" with his love of the grotesque to create "Scream Queens"—a short-lived black comedy that was more interested in razor-sharp dialogue than pursuing any kind of meaning. The show also brought together a cast of soon-to-be stars giving it their all, including Ariana Grande in her last meaty screen role before she began making space for "Wicked."

In honor of the 10th anniversary of "Scream Queens," here’s everything you should know about Ryan Murphy’s most outlandish creation. "Scream Queens" tells the story of the members of the Kappa Kappa Tau sorority, an elite university institution that hides some secrets beneath its lavish staircase. KKT’s president is Chanel Oberlin (Emma Roberts), a supreme mean girl who refuses to remember the names of her subordinates, simply calling them “the Chanels.” There’s Chanel #2 (Ariana Grande), Chanel #3 (Billie Lourd), and Chanel #5 (Abigail Breslin). There used to be a Chanel #4, but she “got meningitis” and went home to die. Prepare for this kind of ostentatious ruthlessness.

Just as Chanel is about to get everything she wants, a serial killer named the Red Devil appears on campus and starts hacking away at the coeds. There’s a motley crew of characters surrounding the Chanels. There are the new pledges Grace (Skyler Samuels) and Zayday (Keke Palmer)—the earnest characters who are actively trying to hunt down the killer. There’s also Hester (Lea Michele, in her best role since "Glee"), the mysterious back-brace-wearing freshman. Then there’s Chad Radwell (Glen Powell pre-breakout), Chanel’s on-again, off-again boyfriend who loves a bow tie (it was 2015! Preppy was still a thing). And there are the “adults,” the most entertaining of which are Dean Munsch (Jamie Lee Curtis, a true scream queen) and Officer Denise (Niecy Nash, who just won her first Emmy for Murphy’s "Dahmer" miniseries). Season 2 kept the Chanels, Dean Munsch, and a few peripheral characters, but switched the setting from the university to a hospital and swapped the Red Devil for a new mysterious killer, the Green Meanie. But don’t worry, it’s just as gory and absurd.

Since Ryan Murphy began directing his own series, he has always leaned into the farcical. From a lover being thrown off a balcony in "Nip/Tuck" to a student almost being blinded by a rock-salt slushy in "Glee," early Murphy productions barely knew what “grounded” meant. Even the more serious episodes of his early "American Horror Story" series featured screen icon Jessica Lange singing “The Name Game” between lobotomies. But around the time that "Scream Queens" ended, Murphy began to develop an interest in “based on a true story,” starting with his "American Horror Story" spin-off "American Crime Story," which has thus far covered the O.J. Simpson case, the murder of Gianni Versace, and the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.

As the decade wore on, Murphy and collaborator Brad Falchuk went deeper into real-life horrors with the "Monster" series. After producing episodes about Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers, and with an upcoming episode about Ed Gein, Murphy has come under increasing criticism for sensationalizing the stories of killers. It’s therefore refreshing to revisit the era when he let his imagination and his reverence for classic horror lead the way. "Scream Queens" is full of creative kills, but it’s also so dumb, allowing for some great comedic performances to shine through its razor-sharp dialogue.

Before his movie breakthrough, "Anyone But You’s" Glen Powell delivered one of his best creations in the ultra-rich, bro-y Chad, who could be surprisingly progressive when it came to his fraternity brothers. But perhaps the biggest “crystal ball” moment that "Scream Queens" provided was the showcase of Ariana Grande’s comedic chops. Grande relishes the small amount of screen time she gets, trying out the kind of ditzy-but-witty character that she’s refined for her role as Glinda. The decision to market the show primarily through Grande’s participation, despite her only appearing in a handful of episodes, also foreshadowed the star’s tendency to…outshine a production.

Here are three must-watch episodes of "Scream Queens":

**Hell Week (Season 1, Episode 2)**: Many of Murphy’s absurd moves tend to live on in their most enduring form—as a gif. An early enduring gif from this episode comes from Niecy Nash and her impeccable comedic timing. Nash’s overconfident cop Denise is introduced when the core cast is having a hard time believing that a maniac is targeting them. When Nash’s partner is violently attacked while sitting outside the sorority house, it leads to Denise uttering the immortal line: “Shondell, why is there a knife in your throat?” Also, keep an eye out for Chad and his brother Boone (Nick Jonas, lol) coining the term “bro-na.”

**Beware of Young Girls (Season 1, Episode 7)**: Besides Grande’s outlandish murder in the pilot (yes, she dies that early), the latter half of this episode contains the singer’s most memorable monologue. She appears as a ghost in Chanel’s bedroom, complaining that hell sucks (no dinosaurs!), but also warning Chanel that her subordinates are planning to murder her. Jamie Lee Curtis also flips the script in this episode, with the forever-hunted Halloween scream queen becoming the hunter. Curtis’s Dean Munsch takes on double duty in this episode, as both a wronged wife and one who pins her cheating ex-husband’s murder on his sleeping-with-students (and blogging prodigy, Tavi Gevinson’s TV debut).

**Dorkus (Season 1, Episode 12)**: Every line that Emma Roberts’ Chanel delivers is laced with poison, whether she’s calling her closest friends “stupid sluts” or referring to the house’s maid as a “white mammy” (if you needed a reminder, this show was written a decade ago). But Chanel’s inspiration came from a real, vile, viral email that a sister of the University of Maryland’s Delta Gamma sorority sent to her sisters—you can read it in full here, but be warned, it’s brutal. This moment is dramatized in “Dorkus,” with Chanel unleashing her true feelings about her sisters, if you can imagine she’s been holding back. This episode also deals with the fallout of the Red Devil being revealed, but even killer confessions aren’t that straightforward in an over-the-top series like "Scream Queens." "Scream Queens" is now streaming on Disney+.