Fear Itself (#1.12)

I think it's about time I talk about American Horror Story.  I've mentioned it a few times before, but never in much detail.  It will be a challenge to talk about it without giving away any spoilers.  This is a show that throws a new twist each week.  But here I go anyway...

American Horror Story will finish its first season next week.  Airing on FX, it benefits from some of the freedoms from censoring allowed to cable networks.  And, boy, do they take advantage of it.  AHS is violent.  It's sexual.  It's creepy and downright pathological.  But it's also original and a completely new take on telling stories through dramatic television.  Of course, there have been scary TV shows.  And there are shows with horror elements to them.  But AHS is all horror, all psychological thriller.  It's like the scary movie that won't quit.  Every week there is a new development in the story.  And unlike most scary movies, the crazy killer on the loose isn't just a party of one.  Anyone could be the killer.  Hell, most of the characters are killers.

The basic story, or at least the one the audience starts with, is that of the Harmon family.  Newly relocated to Los Angeles from Boston, this family of three moves into a renovated mansion, unaware of its strange and sordid past as they look to move on from their own.

Connie Britton, Dylan McDermott, and Taissa Farmiga

Ben (Dylan McDermott), the husband and father, is a psychiatrist with a recent case of infidelity on his record and a crazy ex-mistress on his tail.  Vivien (Connie Britton), his wife, wants to forgive him for the indiscretion and is hopeful that this change of scenery will do the trick.  And Violet (Taissa Farmiga) is their teenage daughter full of angst and darkness.  They are in a bad, bad place when they take over the house that we quickly learn is haunted.  Vivien is the first to suspect something funny, but there's no denying that this house is special.

Guest star Kate Mara

The house might be my favorite part.  It's old.  It has history.  It's full of secrets.  It has more ghosts than...well, someplace with a lot of ghosts.  It's got a creepy attic.  It's got an even creepier basement.  The lights flicker.  There is a super freaky mural hidden under the wallpaper in the den.  Name something you'd find in a haunted house and you'll find it here.

Doesn't it just look like the kind of house that could murder you?  If you're feeling brave, the real house, in Los Angeles, is actually now back on the market.  But really, in the show, this house has a dark power that captures the souls of those that perish on the premises.  Most of these lives are taken involuntarily, but it's a safe bet that if you die in that house, you stay in that house.  Forever.

Some of these souls are aware of themselves as ghosts.  Some of them are a little more clueless and confused as to why these newcomers are living in their house.  Most episodes start with a flashback to a former resident, revealing a little more about how these spirits came to be here.  There's Moira, the ever-present maid who was shot through the eyeball in 1984.  There's Nora and Charles Montgomery, the builders of the house in the 1920s (or something like that) - he with a Frankenstein complex and she in search of the baby she once lost.  The mysterious Man in Rubber.  The weird and obnoxious twin pre-teen boys.  The gay couple who last lived in the house.  Whatever is hiding out in that basement.  The list goes on and on, with more people getting added all the time (lots of death in this show).

Then there is Constance (Jessica Lange, just nominated for a Golden Globe for this role), the neighbor who once lived in the house and seems to have a connection with every ghost that shows up.  She walks about the house as if it still belongs to her, a habit that is unwelcome to Vivien and her family.  And Constance's (sort of) teenage son Tate (Evan Peters), who falls quickly in love with Violet, attempting to spend every waking moment with her.  Without revealing too much, I'll just say that the connections and pasts these characters have together are endless, the stories of which are told slowly, through flashbacks.

Evan Peters, Jessica Lange, and Frances Conroy

It's a slower pace than recent horror fans are used to and it's certainly a good thing.  On occasion, things will jump out to spook you; however, the real brilliance here is how AHS can get in your head.  The anticipation of terror is most torturous and I find myself thinking about it long after the episode has ended.  With AHS, you definitely get some substance with the style.  It's a well-done drama combined with a horror show.  The relationships are complex and there is real emotion with every death, no matter how easy a murder seems.  If at all possible, I like to watch this show during daylight hours and it is never the last thing I watch before going to bed.

It's definitely not a show for everyone.  But for those with a hankering for some horror, or in search of a new, intriguing drama, or maybe just someone with a thick stomach, American Horror Story delivers.  In general, I am not a fan of getting the crap scared out of me; however, this new series has me pretty well hooked.  Before my first viewing, I'd heard plenty of reviews criticizing Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk for this newest endeavor.  I have to say I disagree.  At least through these first eleven episodes, I am enjoying this strange and freaky ride through what is truly an American horror story.  Yes, I said that.