Most sitcoms have done a couple of spooky episodes, usually to coincide with Halloween. A god-tier example is “Too Old to Trick or Treat, Too Young to Die” from the third season of That ‘70s Show, which had the cast struggling against Hitchcockian horrors found in Rear Window, Vertigo, The Birds, North by Northwest, and Psycho.
Two other favorites of mine are the Boy Meets World season 5 episode “And Then There Was Shawn” and the Wizards of Waverly Place season 1 episode “Movies”—both of which act as affectionate parodies of slasher movies despite neither being Halloween episodes. The actual Boy Meets World Halloween offering was a time travel-themed multi-episode crossover arc with Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and it’s just as delightful. “And Then There Was Shawn,” however, is so iconic that it was even given its own oral history treatment in 2012.
Recently I rewatched both of these episodes and decided to do a little side-by-side comparison just for fun, based on six categories, and really to see how they’re each love letters to the slasher genre in their own way.
Do you like scary movies?
First off: Why a horror episode? According to the team behind “And Then There Was Shawn” (henceforth referred to as “Shawn”), which aired in 1998, it had a lot to do with the big self-aware teen slasher resurgence of the era—and the fact that, after five seasons, the writers had a good grasp on the characters and the environments they would thrive in. Which, apparently, included a dwindling-party whodunit. And it’s because they know these characters so well that it worked.
“Movies,” on the other hand, aired in 2007, a time when horror was trying to find its voice again, one experiment being a brief foray into moderately successful Hot Topic-coded slasher remakes that aren’t all that fondly remembered. So it probably wasn’t enough of a cultural phenomenon on its own to drive the creators of a Disney Channel show to make an episode just to capture that zeitgeist; it was more likely that they needed an excuse for Alex and Justin to want to see a restricted movie in a theater, and horror movies were the safest bet.
Who survives? “Shawn.” Scream penetrating youth-oriented Disney-adjacent cable TV is just a testament to its impact and legacy.
Why can’t I be in a Meg Ryan movie?
Boy Meets World and Wizards of Waverly Place aren’t just sitcoms, they’re sitcoms aimed at younger audiences. It calls for a bigger suspension of disbelief when the plot of the episode involves, well, murder. So how exactly do these kid-friendly characters find themselves in a situation that happens to include a masked killer?
“Movies” had the Russo siblings learning spell improvisation, also known as make-them-ups. Just like genie wishes, these spells have to be super specific and have no room for ambiguity. It backfires on Alex as she’s trying to get into an R-rated screening: instead of putting herself in the theater, she literally ends up in the movie.
As for “Shawn,” well… it was all just a dream. And cliche as it may be, it gave the episode the creative freedom it needed: “With the dream structure, our writers were able to get away with murder,” said actor Ryder Strong, who played Shawn. “Literally.”
Who survives? “Movies.” Shawn’s dream may have been written in to make something creative possible and it makes plenty of sense in terms of a bigger season arc, but “Movies” makes use of a metafictional trope that I just love, joining the likes of The Final Girls and Teen Beach Movie.
What do we have behind door number three?
Every slasher needs a Scream Queen. The guest star of “Shawn” was Jennifer Love Hewitt, best known at the time for Party of Five and being the final girl in I Know What You Did Last Summer, one of the less forgettable follow-ups to Scream. She played Jennifer Love Fefferman, a.k.a. Feffy, a new student who becomes a one-time love interest for Eric. (Apt, since JLH was Will Friedle’s girlfriend at the time.)
In “Movies,” pop star-turned-horror heroine Ruby Donahue was played by Malese Jow, fresh off three years on Unfabulous playing the BFF of Emma Roberts’ Addie Singer. The script tried to flesh her out by having her complain that the trashy sorority slasher role was her agent’s idea, but more than anything it was a fun little cameo made noteworthy by the actress’s Nick-to-Disney network jump.
Who survives? “Shawn.” Feffy, we hardly knew ye. Bonus points for the joke where Jack says his favorite scary movie is “the one with the hottie from Party of Five” and Feffy quips, “Neve Campbell?”
Movies make psychos more creative
“Movies” and “Shawn” wholeheartedly embraced and had plenty of fun with the postmodern leanings of Scream, from exaggerated, way-too-long movie titles to the lampshading of ever-present tropes. The film Alex and Justin find themselves stuck in is called Night of the Halloween Sorority Party Disaster 2. Alex asks a perky sorority sister, “ Aren’t you a little too old to be in a sorority?”—an obvious dig at how high-schoolers and co-eds in low-budget slashers have a tendency to be played by 30-year-olds. When the suspense ramps up, Alex observes, “Why did the music get all scary?” Not long after, Ruby remarks, “This is the part where I run screaming into the steam-filled showers, which have been left running for no reason at all.”
Of course, this is still the Disney Channel, so there’s no body count, and the (non-)killer’s weapon is nothing but a hair dryer. But the logline of NOTHSPD2 (“[an] evil sorority sister [has] come back from the grave to punish us for our reckless destruction of pillows”) and the subtle attention to detail that extends to switching aspect ratios more than make up for it.
“Shawn” dials up the meta elements in ways that were so much edgier than Boy Meets World ever had a right to be. There’s an actual body count (ten, just like in its reference title And Then There Were None!), jump scares, and red herrings. When the first victim—a character whose first and only appearance took place in this episode—questions why he has to be the one to die, Cory says, “Well, Kenny, it’s certainly not going to be any of us.” There’s even a genuinely creepy song that plays over the school’s sound system. Shawn steps into the role of the resident horror fan who states the rules and tropes and makes commentary. Notably, they discuss the trope of virgins being safe from death, with Shawn muttering that he’ll get as injured as he can without actually dying.
There’s also a running gag that never fails to make me giggle:
SHAWN: “The death of the janitor signifies the end of the last of the obvious suspects, just like in the cult classic, The Last of the Obvious Suspects.”CORY: “The killer is one of us.”SHAWN: “Like in The Killer is One of Us.”ERIC: “Killer, killer, you’re the killer, and I know you’re going to tell me you’re not the killer, and because you’re beautiful you think I’m going to believe you but I’m not! It’s just like that movie, Killer, Killer, You’re the Killer, and I Know You’re Going to Tell Me—”
Who survives? “Shawn” would make Randy Meeks absolutely proud.
They sell this costume in every five and dime in the state
Both of the killers’ costumes are—surprise, surprise—based off of Ghostface from the Scream franchise. The version in “Shawn” trades the elongated ghoulish face of agony in for a generic skull, making it look like the Grim Reaper. “Movies” has the killer don a translucent mask similar to the ones in Jawbreaker, giving its would-be victims a glimpse of its eyes and the pink of its lips pulled into a slasher smile, albeit in a blurry, flat, doll-like uncanny valley way not unlike in Alice, Sweet Alice.
Who survives? “Movies.” Because I love Jawbreaker, and because the mask did make the killer look creepy despite its silly weapon.
Like the plot of some scary movie
Neither of these slasher episodes can be considered “throwaway” when it comes to the overall progression of either show’s story. On Wizards, “Movies” provided an opportunity for character development and coming of age—it brought the siblings closer and taught them not to be in a rush to grow up. Being the ninth episode of the series as a whole, though, it’s still a little too early to make any real changes, so its effect is quite surface level.
“Shawn” is the culmination of the title character’s feelings regarding the events of BMW season 5, which centered heavily on Cory and Topanga’s breakup. Aside from being a fully realized story with twists and reveals, the episode actually moved the overarching plot along, affecting character relationships and giving the audience insight into Shawn’s headspace (i.e. his guilt and anxieties) as his best friends go through this rough patch.
Who’s the Final Girl? “And Then There Was Shawn” nabs the honor with four out of six points, and for a lot of the categories, it’s not even close. There’s a reason people still talk about this episode all the time not just as a best for Boy Meets World, but as a cultural shift for television, period.
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