Written by Ryan Murphy & Brad Falchuk
Directed by Bradley Buecker
Mechanic (to Brooke and company): "Turn around, go back to the city. They never should've opened that place again."
Ah yes, the cryptic warning from a random stranger that our protagonists naturally chose to ignore for reasons or whatever. After four seasons of present day and near future mayhem, it was time for the show to go back to the past and given the title of this season, I don't need to tell you which era, huh.
Taking in and shamelessly ripping off the likes of Halloween, Friday The 13th and I Know What You Did Last Summer (90's but who's really counting), this opening episode sees naive Brooke Thompson (Emma Roberts) survive an attack by Richard Ramirez (Zach Villa) before joining new friends Montana Duke (Billie Lourd), Xavier Plympton (Cody Fern), Chet Clancy (Gus Kenworthy) and Ray Powell (DeRon Horton) into becoming counselors at Camp Redwood.
The main action of this season will be a summer camp, an idea that previously was going to be used as the backdrop for Scream Queens second season before the idea was scrapped for it's hospital setting instead. Whether or not the camp and the overall slasher idea can be maintained for the remaining nine episodes of the season remains to be seen but so far, it's off to an interesting enough start.
It's a little bit of a relief to see Emma Roberts not play a bitch for once though I'm not sure if Brooke's naivety won't grate as the series goes along. As for the rest of the younger group and this is a very youth oriented season, I found them rather polarising to be honest. Montana has a bit of spark about her and I didn't mind Ray but both Xavier and Chet somewhat grated in parts of the episode, even if the latter was given a bit of an interesting backstory, tying into Kenworthy's real life profession. His acting wasn't as bad as expected but he's still the weakest of the younger cast though.
As for the older cast - former Pose actress Angelica Ross stood out the most for me as Nurse Rita Chambers and she's a character that I'm hoping doesn't turn out to be evil or die during this season. I did like the backstories given to main villain Benjamin Richter/Mr Jingles (John Carroll Lynch) and surviving victim Margaret Booth (Leslie Grossman) as the latter reopened the camp and Jingles found himself escaping a mental hospital to finish his previous work as Brooke found herself reunited with the Night Stalker by the end of this one.
Last but not least, there was also former Glee actor, Matthew Morrison being cast as the horndog activities director, Trevor Kirchner. He got a memorable hook up scene with Montana but like Chet, I found him to be one of the weaker characters of the episode. I did like Chef Bertie (Tara Karsian) as well as doctors Art (Mitch Pileggi) and Hopple (Orla Brady) who reminded me of certain characters from a movie I mentioned earlier in this review.
- The title sequence is already one of my favourites and I loved how they really embraced the 80's aesthetic for it.
- Brooke is clearly named after A Nightmare On Elm Street protagonist Nancy Thompson and the aerobics scene with the gang was a shout out to Perfect, though that was released in 1985.
- Standout music: For me, the use of Bananarama's Cruel Summer stood out the most but this season is going to have the best soundtrack.
- Chronology: Summer of 1984. Mr Jingles original attack on the camp took place in the summer of 1970.
Camp Redwood isn't the strongest opening episode we've had for the series but it's a good one to kick off this slasher themed series and I can't help but get the impression that we're going to get a Roanoke style mid-season twist. The absence of certain cast members is noticeable but not to the point that it took me out of enjoying the episode. The potential for this to be one of the best season is definitely there.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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