As the ladies arrive in the first episode, they meet the judges: acting coach John Homa, who has worked with Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams; actress Shawnee Smith, the star of Saw I, II and III; and writer/director/actor James Gunn, who wrote and directed Slither. The women also learn what their reward will be for becoming the last woman standing ... a role opposite Saw's lovable psycho Jigsaw in Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures' upcoming Saw VI.

But before the ladies have time to size up the competition, they face their first challenge and their first scare. Suddenly they are forced to show the judges what they've got by thinking on their feet. Some step up to the challenge. Others not so much. The winner of the first challenge gets immunity from the elimination challenge and an automatic callback for the next round. The others get a wake-up call that they'd better step up if they want a chance to win the prized role.

Other scares lie ahead, as well as their first acting class with Homa, who will try to mold them into first-class scream queens with the potential to star in Saw VI. And then it's on to the elimination challenge itself, which will test the women's acting ability—and their lung capacity. But in the end there can be only one, so there's going to be a whole lot of axing going on before the final scream queen earns the role as Jigsaw's newest leading lady.

Catfights and horror fun

VH1's Scream Queens has some fun with the premise of 10 beautiful young women who obviously would do about anything to become Hollywood's next horror hottie. As on American's Next Top Model, the ladies live together and watch each other's performances, which ensures a fair amount of backstabbing and catfighting. But the women also get the benefit of Hollywood insiders working with them one on one to try to shape them into better actresses. If you're a young actress trying to get noticed, there are worse ways to spend eight weeks than in this kind of Hollywood boot camp.

While some of the ladies immediately begin to shine as intriguing personalities and some are obviously overconfident about their talent, it does shape up to be an interesting contest. Experience isn't everything in this arduous game, but talent does seem to shine through right from the beginning.

As for the judges, they all come off as sincere in wanting these wannabe scream queens to succeed. Acting coach John Homa and director James Gunn work well with the ladies while expecting a lot out of them. Actress Shawnee Smith, who will host and act as their mentor, works hard to make the show appeal to the America's Next Top Model fan base, but she doesn't have the star power of Tyra Banks or Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi. In fact, none of the judges has the type of star power needed to make Scream Queens the next great, can't-miss reality series.

That said, Scream Queens make use of its pretty ladies and its horror material. While the series may not be great, it is entertaining, and that's enough in this glut of reality competition shows.