Believe it or not, the title of FX’s new series, “American Horror Story,” is actually an understatement.
Grotesque, terrifying, brutal, and kinky, “American Horror Story” makes “The Shining” look like “The Waltons.”
“It’s
really amazing to me that this is on television and not on film,” says
horror expert Marina Levina, an assistant professor in the Department of
Communication at the University of Memphis. “I’ve been really surprised
at how far they’ve been able to take things. In the first episode, they
killed children, which is shocking.”
The plot
revolves around the Harmons, a fractured couple (Dylan McDermott and
Connie Britton) who move with their teenage daughter (Taissa Farmiga) to
Los Angeles for a fresh start.
Turns out they got
a good price on that rambling Victorian for a reason: It’s the featured
stop on a popular “Murder Tour” in the City of Angels.
The
real estate agent didn’t see fit to tell the Harmons that everyone who
has ever lived there met a violent end. They had to find that out from
the spooky Blanche DuBois-type who lives next door (Jessica Lange).
With the housing market in the dumps, the Harmons can’t unload their chamber of horrors.
Soon
they’re besieged by the emotionally disturbed, the developmentally
disabled, the physically disfigured, and other creatures who defy
explanation.
There is, for example, a figure
sheathed head to toe in a shiny black bondage suit. We’re pretty sure
he/ it has impregnated Mrs. Harmon. Don’t even get us started on the
hideous monstrosity in the basement.
Even the most
benign-seeming characters carry wickedly toxic luggage. And in this
vile villa, it’s impossible to tell the living from the dead, the
haunted from the haunting.
The series carries a
“mature audiences only” rating, and each episode carries an additional
warning for two or more of the following: indecent language, explicit
sexual activity and graphic violence.
Faced with
this sick spectacle, viewers have two options: shield their eyes and
reach for the remote, or fasten their seatbelts. Increasingly they are
harnessing down for the ride.
Last week’s episode,
the first of a two-part Halloween extravaganza (the conclusion is
Wednesday night), saw viewership jump 15 percent to 3 million.
Precisely what is it that they’re experiencing in this series produced by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk?
“It’s
all the horror of being in a relationship and being in a family and
being in a marriage,” says “AHS” star McDermott. “It’s a metaphor.”
Hmm, interesting theory. Anyone else?
“It’s
the haunted-house genre taken to an extreme,” ventures Levina.
“Everything is coming at them from inside the house. It’s terror
internalized.
“We’ve seen these type of stories in
films since 9/ 11. We’re living with terror that you simply can’t
solve, in an America where things are going terribly wrong.”
If
you have the stomach for it, “American Horror Story” works pretty well
as pure entertainment. (On Monday, FX gave “AHS” an early renewal for
next season.)
“It’s a very well-done, even
innovative way to tell a scary story on TV,” says Ken Tucker, editor at
large at Entertainment Weekly and former TV critic at The Philadelphia
Inquirer, via e-mail. “On the other hand, it’s one of the creepiest,
most depressing shows to come along since “The Real Housewives of New
Jersey.”
“Jessica Lange has the tone down best,
and when Jessica Lange is your barometer of emoting, you know the show
might go over the top at any moment.”
Over-the-top
is the specialty of the house for producer Murphy. His TV creations
have veered from the catty and funny high school soap “Popular” to the
emphatically outrageous adult plastic surgery drama “Nip/ Tuck” to the
high school show choir sensation “Glee” to the gnarly, envelope-tearing
“American Horror Story.”
Not an easy guy to pigeonhole.
“Ryan
gets bored easily,” says Dylan Walsh, who starred in “Nip/ Tuck.”
“Before he’s done, he will have created some of the most unforgettable
series in TV history. And they’ll all be different.”
Calling “American Horror Story” “different” — that’s definitely an understatement.
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©2011 The Philadelphia Inquirer
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