Another happily horrific hybrid hit for Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy? Let’s take a closer look at the usual suspects’ latest killing spree as it comes to an end on Monday.

An American Horror Story for the Glee club run by Mean Girls who act a lot like they’re called Heathers. It does help if you are a slasher horror fan to pick up on the multitude of references and intertextuality of the genre. At first, I was thinking to myself if these were intentional or just coincidental mistakes due to the inclusion of typical horror genre tropes. But that was just effective shallowness of the college satire hitting me in the face like a Prada pneumatic drill. However, the sarcasm of Buffy the Vampire Slayer blended with the melodrama of, let’s say, [Beverly Hills] 90210 is more than enough to keep a fresh, comedy-loving fanbase tuning in for the next satirical episode of ‘What Would Chanel Do?’

For those dedicated horror fans just like myself, the humorous homages to The House on Sorority Row (1983), Psycho (1960), The Shining (1980), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and, of course, Halloween (1978) and Scream (1996) did not pass you by. I don’t think there has been a more entertaining trashy sorority slasher since the remake of Black Christmas (2006). But the best homage that challenges the conventions of the “Scream Queen” is the casting of Jamie Lee Curtis as Dean Cathy Munsch; an insatiable, morally ambiguous anti-heroine who is the binary opposite of Laurie Strode. You wouldn’t catch the ultimate Final Girl making this claim: “Oh no, no. When my mouth has been where it’s been on your body, I think we can safely say we are more than “kinda friends”.” Munsch’s outright disdain for sororities established her as one of the many suspicious characters in this glossy ‘whodunit’ throughout the series.

The black comedy of Scream Queens does have an overall narrative arc that begins with the twenty-year-old ‘baby-in-a-bathtub cover-up’, which links to the present day murders carried out on campus. Yet it is the Kappa Kappa Tau sycophantical sorority clique of Heathers known as the Chanels that spearheads the series’ momentum. The Red Devil masked maniac(s) serves the plot almost like a ‘MacGuffin’. Do we really care who have masterminded the slayings or are we just caught up in the diabolical ride? I’m siding with the latter – not that I’m complaining. Whereas the shameless exploits, fluctuating loyalties and superficial stupidity of Chanel Oberlin (Emma Roberts), Chanel #3 (Billie Lourd) and Chanel #5 (Abigail Breslin) are constantly entertaining plot devices as well.

The murder mystery series has been tackled one before. Harper’s Island (2009) incorporated the slasher body count into each episode with its interactive marketing campaign: “13 Weeks. 25 Suspects. One Killer.” Harper’s Island‘s similar approach to the Scream Queens anthology format put a chilling spin on the popular reality game shows, such as Survivor (2000- ). The weekly elimination-style from programmes like Big Brother (2000- ) can also be compared to this. And Big Brother is no stranger to the concept of horror with the Zombie Apocalypse of Dead Set (2008) and a touch of Ben Elton’s 2001 darkly comic murder mystery novel Dead Famous .

Back to Scream Queens – there are clear stylistic parallels to American Horror Story with the frequent use of the distorted fish-eye lens and set designs. The Kappa Kapp Tau house is remarkably similar to Miss Robichaux’s Academy and the mental institution brings back memories of Briarcliff Manor. One of the distinct contrasts between Scream Queens and American Horror Story is the lack of gore, especially for the litres of blood American Horror Story manages to splash across our screens – again, not that I’m complaining! We are treated to a partial  Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) scene of dismemberment when one of the Dickie Dollar fraternity jocks has both of his arms cut off with a chainsaw… and survives! Also Chanel #2 (Ariana Grande) epitomises the priority of social network status updates to her final hyperbolic breath. Would we choose to communicate with our imminent killer by IMs while he is stood in front of us and crawl, whilst mortally wounded, to post about our situation on Facebook? That’s not a hard no, I don’t think. What have we become?

Next to Curtis, Emma Roberts is the major attraction for watching Scream Queens. She has successfully honed the spoilt caricature of a superficial ‘mean girl’ playing Madison Montgomery in American Horror Story: Coven and continues this heinous personality with aplomb as Chanel Oberlin. She undoubtedly commands the series with her scathing one-liners. Chanel channels an oxymoronic appreciation that spans between dawn and dusk; from “Good morning, sluts” to “Good evening, idiot hookers”. Yet Dean Munsch believes “You see, out in the real world, people just don’t talk that way to other people. It’s not normal.” Really, Munsch? Really? You cannot help but love to hate the Queen Bee Chanel.

Nevertheless, outside of this sociopathic skin – which arguably blossomed after becoming the lead Ghostface in Scream 4 (2011) – Roberts has starred in a range of understated indie cinema roles. In Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac (2010), The Art of Getting By (2011), Celeste & Jesse Forever (2012), Adult World (2013) and Palo Alto (2013) Roberts shows she can be more than merely pigeonholed as the perfect on-screen bitch. So have we been hearing that she is she apparently quitting acting? Big mistake. Huge!

We cannot miss out Lea Michele’s off-beat necrophilia fetish, Chanel #3’s seductively vacant musings as she deals with being the offspring of Charles Manson, a gay-for-play Nick Jonas and the irony of Abigail Breslin recently playing a kick-ass heroine in Final Girl (2015). Nor can we fail to mention our disappointment with Rachel Bloom overshadowing Jamie Lee Curtis for her performance in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015- ), which won the Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards. Nevertheless, Scream Queens has favourably revamped the classic horror icon of the “Scream Queen” and injected a retro 80’s chic combined with a 90’s throwback to bring us a new brand of serialised horror. Even if TLC’s Waterfalls is not “your jam”, Falchuk and Murphy make it hard for you not to like the show, even if you uttered the phrase “What in the fresh hell is this?”

Find out who makes the cut in The Final Girl(s) episode of Scream Queens on Monday 18th January from 10pm on E4