Holy shit. I’m sitting here in near shock having just watched the best pilot I’ve ever seen. I decided I had to write this review rather than just sit here and curse. This show has fucked with my brain.
American Horror Story is about a family that moves into a haunted house. Dad (Dylan McDermott) had an affair because Mom (Connie Britton) has been unable to be physically or emotionally intimate with him since they had a miscarriage. Their child (Tassia Farmiga) is a surly, smoking, self-harming teenager. All of this is pretty typical. There are jump scares galore, a creepy kid with Downs Syndrome, eerie babies, soulless ginger twins, a creepy housekeeper, a bondage outfit, a horrifying mural, a basement chamber of horrors, sleepwalking firestarting, and a dog that barks at stuff the humans don’t see. None of this is very innovative. You can see the fingerprints of lots of other scary movies and shows all over this one.
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| Com'on family! Isn't it great? And what a bargain! Nothing could possibly go wrong! |
But none of that matters while you are watching. You’ll be too busy pissing your pants. Like any good scary show, you have to relax a bit and allow the show to “get” you to get full enjoyment.
The cast is incredible. There is a very fine line to walk here, and these actors, to a person, pull it off. I haven’t even mentioned the best part. Jessica Lange plays the mother of the Downs Syndrome girl who lives next door. She has a bigger part to play in the story that it first seems. Jessica fucking Lange! A huge cast is introduced here, but all of them feel like realized characters. Some of them are good, some of them are evil, but I want to see more of all of them.
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| Jessica Fucking Lange |
Everything works here. The acting is great. The jump scares are scary. The horror elements are gruesome. The sexy parts are appropriately sexy. There’s even a hot redhead. What more could I ask for? There are at least a half dozen plots that are introduced, and I’m excited about all of them. Even the clichéd “fight back against the bully” storyline is exceptionally well done and surprising.
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| Mmmmm...Redhead. |
I have no idea how they are going to make an entire show out of this. Every haunted house story kind of has to end one of three ways. Either they leave the house, the house is destroyed, or everyone dies. None of these really allow for six seasons of episodes. But at this point I am along for whatever ride the creators want to take me on.
You can watch the show on the FX website or even on Facebook. Now go away and watch it. Right now. Then come back and comment on the blog telling me how awesome it was.
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