Ariana Grande played Chanel #2 on horror series Scream Queens, though her character didn’t survive very long. Outside of notable exceptions like The X-Files or Tales From The Crypt, horror TV shows used to be relatively rare. Network standards and modest budgets meant a lot of horror series were a little too tame - or cheap - for fans of the genre. The success of The Walking Dead has changed that perception, and its success led the way for other shows like Hannibal.
American Horror Story is another major success story, with the Ryan Murphy created series running for eight seasons thus far. He also created the 2015 series Scream Queens, which followed a killer dubbed the Red Devil stalking a sorority. The show starred Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd and horror icon Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween), with most of the surviving cast members returning again for season 2. The second season moved the action to a hospital, where another killer starts picking off staff members. The overall response to Scream Queens was more mixed than American Horror Story, and the show was canceled after two seasons.
The first season of Scream Queens played like a combination of Mean Girls and Scream, and singer Ariana Grande played a key supporting role on the series. Grande’s character Chanel #2 is a member of the Kappa Kappa Tau sorority, and second in command to queen bee Chanel Oberlin (Emma Roberts). None of the members of this sorority seems to particularly like each other, however, and Chanel doesn’t even know Chanel #2’s real name.
Scream Queens pulls a Psycho-style twist with Ariana Grande’s character in the first episode, where she’s confronted by the Red Devil. After she helps the others get rid of the body of a housekeeper Chanel accidentally killed, she runs away from a blood oath they’re making and plans to confess to the police. That’s when Chanel #2 is confronted by the Red Devil in her room, who attacks and kills her by stabbing her in the head; however, she briefly comes back to life to send a tweet about her death.
Despite her death, Ariana Grande’s Scream Queens character sticks around for a few more episodes since the other girls first try to hide her dead body and later attend her funeral. Chanel learns her name was Sonya Herfmann, whose spirit later appears to her in a dream. Sonya reveals Hell sucks and that she’s sorry for the times they fought while she was alive. This, in turn, inspires Chanel to be a better leader to the others, though it doesn’t make her much nicer either.
Next: Ranking Every Halloween Movie, From 1978 To 2018
