For the legacy of any great horror film, an unwarranted sequel is practically a death sentence. Who among us reminisces upon the “Halloween” sequels more fondly than the original? (Rotten Tomatoes certainly does not). When someone refers to the classic genius of “The Exorcist,” we all think of the 1973 film … not the five forced follow-ups. When monsters are vanquished and evil is eradicated, final girls prevail, or at least take a little time to do whatever it is that traumatized survivors of serial killers do. Sequels put final girls back on the clock, and when it comes to the “Pretty Little Liars,” the girls cannot catch a break.
As both a reboot and a sequel story, “Pretty Little Liars: Summer School” is well aware of the dangerous ground it treads upon. Set in the immediate aftermath of “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin,” season two quite efficiently tidies up the residual carnage in true PLL fashion — with a killing spree, duh. The notoriously anonymous “A” swiftly executes every nefarious character leftover from season one within the first few minutes of the premiere episode, just in time for A to be arrested and served the death penalty. The quick-cut montage of the clean-up job is a little unserious, but the overall choice to push A out of the picture this season has the potential to be a smart one. It marks a surprising shift from the original show’s modus operandi of twisting and elongating multi-season plots around the central villain of A and gives this reboot a real chance to step out of its shadow.
In season one, the person behind the A persona was revealed by the tenth and final episode. For context, it took the original series 47 episodes before the first A was unmasked, and the Liars were on a wild goose chase after A for pretty much the entire show. Rather than churn up another vengeful character to take up the mantle of the omniscient A persona, this season has chosen to set its sights on a whole new villain: Bloody Rose, a ghastly wraith terrorizing the Liars amidst their teenage search for summer jobs, romantic flings and remedial credit courses.
This slightly more anthology-inspired approach suits the reboot series well and makes it clear that this show was never interested in being a mere rip-off of the PLL legacy. If anything, it pays far more considerable homage to classic ’70s and ’80s slasher horror than teen drama soaps (there’s a reason this season’s trailer was set to Bananarama’s “Cruel Summer” and not Taylor Swift’s), as evidenced by the visually frightening, intimidating appearance of its villains. The A of yore donned blonde wigs and black hoodies to disguise their identity, sneaking into houses and planting timed messages that sent the original Liars into a tailspin. The A of the reboot moves beyond the psychological torment of blackmail and into a more traditionally horrifying and menacing threat. With the physical build and horrendous fashion sense of Michael Myers (no one can pull off that jumpsuit) and a “Leatherface” style hand-stitched mask, this A was a disturbing sight to behold chasing down the Liars. Similarly, Bloody Rose lives up to the name this season, gruesomely doused in blood and bandages, limping around like a mummified “Carrie.” The girls seemingly summon her via the old “Bloody Mary” myth, childishly reciting her name in a mirror three times, only for her to begin popping up in their purview like a nightmarish phantasm.
Suspenseful and frightening sequences have always been a part of PLL, but this reboot makes a real effort to elevate the horror, placing a more substantive emphasis on the physical costume and set design. From the appearance of A and Bloody Rose alone, it’s clear that this show is allocating a higher budget to costuming than its predecessor ever did. Aside from Mouse’s (Malia Pyles, “Baskets”) serial-killer-intel retrieved from a website titled “spookyspaghetti” (a knock-off of creepypasta), none of the horror settings would feel out of place in the analog era. Bloody Rose is introduced while murdering teens in a creepy cabin in the woods a la “Friday the 13th,” and A’s choice of haunts was an underground lair, where they bided their time, burning film reels and crossing out the eyes of polaroid photographs. The environments of the chase scenes and the terrifying visuals of its assailants set it apart as a true slasher horror, rather than a mystery that incidentally became scary or unnerving.
There’s also a refreshing sense of self-awareness to this season’s premiere that lightens things considerably. After the highly traumatic and harrowing events of the first season, the new-age Liars do all of the things that any sensible audience member would yell at the screen of a horror movie. They immediately enroll in self-defense classes so that they aren’t helpless in the case of another attack. They go to group therapy sessions to navigate the trauma of a deranged serial killer stalking and harassing them for months. They have absolutely zero faith in the police handling things and frequently take matters into their own hands. To top it all off, they become some of the only teens in a drama show to actually experience academic repercussions from spending all of their free time solving a mystery and outrunning a crazed murderer. Shockingly, being a pretty little liar leaves little time for things like homework, forcing them to endure a teenage fate worse than death this season: summer school.
Though season two continues to balance the development of its five leads as evenly as possible, Bailee Madison’s (“Good Witch”) Imogen is the undeniable scene-stealer by far. In the last season alone, her mother committed suicide, she lost her home and was attacked on an episodic basis, fending off a deranged killer while eight months pregnant. It is not a stretch to say that she does much of the heavy lifting on this show, sustaining the central storyline’s dramatic and emotional core with her performance. Madison is a genuine scream queen in the making, and anyone familiar with her game is well aware that her scream-cry face is the stuff of legend.
Much like its predecessor, the writing of this show is nowhere near perfect, and the dialogue often veers onto the cheesy side, but it continues to play around with a kind of slasher horror that modern teen shows rarely delve into with such earnest effort. The chase scenes are fun, and the episodic storylines are neatly paced for a summer horror binge. I, for one, am excited to step into a second season that exists outside of the realm of A and curious to see what this new era of PLL will bring.
Daily Arts Writer Serena Irani can be reached at seirani@umich.edu.
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