The Fun of Horror Kelsey Moore
American Horror Story, now entering its fourth installment with Freak Show, is a series that has murder, sex, drugs, eerie settings, captivating and shady characters, terrifying monsters, and more. The first thing stands out about the show is that it is the child of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, the creators of the hit TV show Glee, which is so drastically different from American Horror Story that I had a hard time believing that both shows came from the same minds. Though I have never sat down to watch an episode of Glee, the clips and music videos all over YouTube have this, well, gleeful feel to them; there are none of the horrifying themes that its relative contains. But that is one of the many amazing things about American Horror Story. The viewer gets to see the gifted imaginations of two writers who are able to create one cheerful world filled with laughs, and another that compels the viewer to cover his/her eyes or look on in terror.
For those who are fans of the anthology method of television—where each season has a different setting, plot, characters--American Horror Story is the perfect show that will keep you on your toes with its various methods of disturbing audience members. With this anthological method, there are amazing actors who you will be able to see play various roles. For a sample of the many top tier actors you’ll see, there is Jessica Lange (King Kong, Tootsie, Frances), Sarah Paulson (12 Years a Slave, Grey’s Anatomy, Nip/Tuck), Kathy Bates (Misery, Six Feet Under), and many other great actors who have been a staple for the series. The dynamic allows the audience to see the great range that the performers have. In one season you may see an actor as a character who is sweet and meek, and in the next season they will become this dangerous force, and vice versa. As mentioned earlier, each season is entirely different from the last, so it is like a collection of short stories that share the theme of terror but are able to capture your attention because of the contrasting styles and characters. In the first season, Murder House, there are spirits who roam the halls of a house filled with ghouls that have taken their lives and they, in return, haunt and murder the unassuming and innocent tenants who move in. This is because after death, the spirit becomes a slave to the estate, forever looking for a way to escape and haunting whoever dares to move in next. In the second season, Asylum, there is a morally corrupt church that hosts itself as an insane asylum, where patients are experimented on to create grotesque beasts, and innocent, perfectly normal people are admitted in against their will, all while a serial killer stalks people in the town surrounding it. New Orleans—the only place in the series where the location is explicitly revealed and actually filmed—is taken over by the sorcery of witches, and the monsters who came from their magic. The fourth and current season, which premiered October 8th labeled Freak Show, focuses on one of the final freak show circuses of the 1950s, and is already scaring people with its terrifying killer clown.
The opening credits for each season is a story in itself. From beginning to end there are shock images that have an allusion to a character’s background and the plot that ties every action together, and by mid-season viewers can create their own theories as to what is going on. It is a creative piece that instantly allows the audience to engage in the story, which lets there be a spark of interest from the start. There have so many nights where after I watched an episode I looked back on the opening cinematic to figure out how everything ties together; so if you’re a person who makes theories for your favorite TV shows, this may be the show for you. What is also so cool about the series is that you can love a particular character (or even the actor, if you hate them that much) for four or five episodes, then hate them for the next few episodes, and then love them again. The reason behind this is because it allows the viewers to get a look at the reasoning behind a character’s actions and either love them or despise them, and it emphasizes the need to be distrustful of everyone because of the multiple motives involved. In the end, the horror that you will get from this amazing series is not simply from the literal monsters that terrorize the setting, but from the inner monster that exists between the human beings, and comes to a climax that will leave you stunned and clamoring for more.
For those who are fans of the anthology method of television—where each season has a different setting, plot, characters--American Horror Story is the perfect show that will keep you on your toes with its various methods of disturbing audience members. With this anthological method, there are amazing actors who you will be able to see play various roles. For a sample of the many top tier actors you’ll see, there is Jessica Lange (King Kong, Tootsie, Frances), Sarah Paulson (12 Years a Slave, Grey’s Anatomy, Nip/Tuck), Kathy Bates (Misery, Six Feet Under), and many other great actors who have been a staple for the series. The dynamic allows the audience to see the great range that the performers have. In one season you may see an actor as a character who is sweet and meek, and in the next season they will become this dangerous force, and vice versa. As mentioned earlier, each season is entirely different from the last, so it is like a collection of short stories that share the theme of terror but are able to capture your attention because of the contrasting styles and characters. In the first season, Murder House, there are spirits who roam the halls of a house filled with ghouls that have taken their lives and they, in return, haunt and murder the unassuming and innocent tenants who move in. This is because after death, the spirit becomes a slave to the estate, forever looking for a way to escape and haunting whoever dares to move in next. In the second season, Asylum, there is a morally corrupt church that hosts itself as an insane asylum, where patients are experimented on to create grotesque beasts, and innocent, perfectly normal people are admitted in against their will, all while a serial killer stalks people in the town surrounding it. New Orleans—the only place in the series where the location is explicitly revealed and actually filmed—is taken over by the sorcery of witches, and the monsters who came from their magic. The fourth and current season, which premiered October 8th labeled Freak Show, focuses on one of the final freak show circuses of the 1950s, and is already scaring people with its terrifying killer clown.
The opening credits for each season is a story in itself. From beginning to end there are shock images that have an allusion to a character’s background and the plot that ties every action together, and by mid-season viewers can create their own theories as to what is going on. It is a creative piece that instantly allows the audience to engage in the story, which lets there be a spark of interest from the start. There have so many nights where after I watched an episode I looked back on the opening cinematic to figure out how everything ties together; so if you’re a person who makes theories for your favorite TV shows, this may be the show for you. What is also so cool about the series is that you can love a particular character (or even the actor, if you hate them that much) for four or five episodes, then hate them for the next few episodes, and then love them again. The reason behind this is because it allows the viewers to get a look at the reasoning behind a character’s actions and either love them or despise them, and it emphasizes the need to be distrustful of everyone because of the multiple motives involved. In the end, the horror that you will get from this amazing series is not simply from the literal monsters that terrorize the setting, but from the inner monster that exists between the human beings, and comes to a climax that will leave you stunned and clamoring for more.