‘Only Murders in the Building’ Is Just the ‘Scream’ Franchise for Boomers

There’s always been something about Only Murders in the Building that’s felt vaguely familiar — and not just because it stars the superior two-thirds of the Three Amigos. 

This sounds kind of crazy, and it probably is, but the popular Hulu series isn’t so dissimilar from one of the beloved horror movie franchises of all-time: Scream, but repackaged as a cozy mystery show that plays well with Boomers who loved Murder, She Wrote and had never heard of Selena Gomez before. 

Think about it: Both center around a trio of (eventual) friends who are tasked with solving whodunnits on a semi-regular basis. And the first season’s twist (spoiler alert) was not unlike the ending of the first Scream, revealing that the protagonist’s significant other was really the killer. 

While that may be a pretty broad point of comparison, the varying settings of the ensuing seasons have seemed to mirror the Scream movies as well. Scream 2 found Sidney Prescott pursuing her acting talents in college, with much of the action taking place in the school’s theater. Only Murders in the Building Season Three similarly showcased the drama world and also involved a climax in which our heroes battle a killer in an old theater.

Now the upcoming fourth season will shift the action to Hollywood, and find Charles, Oliver and Mabel palling around with the actors who have been hired to play them in the movie adaptation of their podcast. 

Scream 3 also happened to take place in Los Angeles, and also happened to find the characters interacting with the actors portraying them in the Stab movies. It’s just too bad that Only Murders in the Building couldn’t have found a juicy role for Parker Posey to play.

Also, both properties arguably have similar postmodern ambitions; Scream obviously endeavored to send-up horror movie tropes from within the genre, while also satirizing the era’s conservative American hysteria over mass media. Only Murders in the Building seems to be attempting something similar with the true-crime documentary boom, similarly calling attention to the familiar contrivances that have come to dominate the industry.

But as that commentary has become less-focused, the show keeps introducing new locations and famous actors to hold the audience’s attention, getting bigger and broader with each installment — all of which could also describe the first three Scream movies.

Scream eventually returned to a slightly more grounded approach with Scream 4, which also found a way to subvert audience expectations of what should happen in a Scream movie, while commenting on the current state of the genre that was once the focus of the franchise’s commentary. 

Hopefully Only Murders in the Building will pull off something similar before it ends. At the very least, maybe they’ll return to the titular building one day.

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