Just from the opening credits of American Horror Story you know this is going to be a creepy show. Last year I did a review of the first episode of this show. I liked the concept and I hoped it would have a good season. I don't think there's ever been a "horror" themed show to ever get my attention. I fell off watching it weekly after episode three-ish. Not that I thought it was bad at all, it was just one of those shows that fell to the wayside at that particular part of my life. With the season premiere of American Horror Story: Asylum, I figure this would be as good a week as any to catch up. Now I really wish I hadn't stopped watching.
American Horror Story (season one) revolves around the lives of the Harmon family, Ben, Vivien and Violet. Ben (Dylan McDermott) is a psychiatrist, who after moving his family to a old Victorian home built in the 1920s, is now able to work out of it. His wife Vivien (Connie Britton) is now a housewife and a former cellist who is dealing with a recent miscarriage she had and marital problems with Ben. Violet (Taissa Farmiga) is their teenage daughter, who did not want to move to LA in the first place and knows what's going on with her parents marital (and life in general) problems. She befriends one of Ben's patients, Tate Langdon (Evan Peters), who lives with his mother Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) next door. From his therapy sessions with Ben he reveals he has ongoing dreams of killing others kids at his high school. Ben becomes concerned and must stop seeing Tate once he finds out him and his daughter have become more than friendly with each other. This sets into motion figures, past relationships, beings, murders and ghosts trying to take over the lives of the Harmon family and bringing them closer to the paranormal than they ever thought imaginable. This house, dubbed at "The Murder House", holds terrors that you could only dream of.
This area will have spoilers, but nothing I think that will ruin your viewing experience. A TV series can fix the problems of a movie franchise simply because you have more time and resources to work with. With a movie, horror in this case, you only have so much time, usually an hour and a half to two hours, to set-up the scares, lore, killers, whatever. Same with the characters in said film. But with a TV series, you can get that character development without having to make it feel rushed or non-existent. This is why I was drawn to this series. On top of the Harmons and the Langdons, which we follow throughout the whole season, we have people who have died in the house before, introduced early in the season, while continuing to appear after they are first introduced. You grow to know the bloody and gruesome past of the house itself and it's inhabitants as well. I like it when a show or movie can give life to something that is considered inanimate. Every episode starts off with an introduction on how any given people are killed in the house and it usually turns out that they will be involved in the episode or seen again throughout the season. It gives everything great continuity, as well as providing the scares, blood, and gore as this is a horror-themed show.
The acting in this series is superb, you get the shaky start feeling with everyone in the first couple of episodes. But I think everyone really fall into their own. Dylan McDermott and Connie Britton are fun to watch as a troubled couple, Taissa Farmiga is adorable and you love to hate Evan Peters and Jessica Lange. I love drama elements in stories cause you can really sink into the characters. You feel with the bad things that happen to Vivien, you get angry or preachy when Ben starts lying, you feel the romance budding between Tate and Violet, and you can taste the disdain for everyone coming from the lips of Constance. You get entrenched in the lives of both the living in the house as well as those have passed away. I love development in a series, and this has it. The story is wholly original too. I don't think there's ever been another show like this or a movie that dealt with this kind of subject matter. I love getting into new things. I can usually pick-up on story elements if I've seen them before, this season doesn't have any of those problems. Not only does the season finale wrap up everything, but there is a ton of plot twists and shocker moments throughout the twelve episodes. The scares are great too, sure there's a couple of jump scares, but this series relies on psychological horror to get into your heard, make you think and then get you shuddering. The kills are innovative, bloody and just plain brutal. There's also an episode dealing with The Black Dahlia twisted to fit the season. I love everything about the way kills and the way the look afterward so far.
All in all there's was really nothing for me to complain about in this inaugural season. FX did a really good job with how they wanted to film and air episodes. The season isn't short or long at all. It really felt like like a movie turned into a TV series and it was done well. The scares, story and kills are all here. The acting by all involved is done really well too. If you like horror and want to watch a series, then I would say that American Horror Story is right for you.
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