American Horror Story - Certifiably Scary

Somehow we missed that American Horror Story "Asylum" had launched before Halloween, otherwise we would have included it in one of many celebration of horror posts a month ago:


We blame it on the fact that we forgot where the FX channel was on our cable because we hardly ever use it (last time we clicked over there was for last year's American Horror Story). Lucky for FX they have at least one decent show though. American Horror Story is perhaps the most original, most exciting and scariest horror show on television in a long time. This season is not a continuation of season one. The second season sports an entirely new location (a looney bin) and premise but has retained several of the key actors (not characters though) from the first season, namely:

  • Jessica Lange (this time as the nun who runs the Asylum)
  • Zachary Quinto (a psychiatrist with extreme mommy issues)
  • Evan Peters (this year as a suspected serial killer who is being framed)

This season's extra creepy logo for American Horror Story
This season brings a number of new cast members as well, most notably:
  • Joseph Fiennes - As the Monsignor of the madhouse
  • James Cromwell - As the Josef Mengele wanna be
  • Lily Rabe - As the good nun gone bad

Fiennes, who is also playing Merlin in the new Showtime Camelot series, is back to old form and adds some heavy duty acting skills to the cast. James Cromwell does a good job at being a villain (although he's had practice before) but he doesn't seem as convincing as a Nazi war criminal.   

Sister Jude has bad habits
Placing this year's cast in a mental institution (circa 1964) was a great idea as everyone knows that insane asylums have a larger amount of ghosts and evil energy on average than even Indian burial grounds. We used to have an insane asylum in our town that was abandoned and everyone considered it haunted - but they turned it into condos - so perhaps the ghosts there are happy now with all the Direct TV and Wii's laying around. Anyway, the ghosts, the patients and the keepers of the Boston Asylum in the show had no such amusements to occupy them. Instead, they turned to other pursuits such as making lamps out of human skins, creating Tuberculous monsters and otherwise delivering their dialog in those crazy Boston accents. 


Season 2 Trailer

Season 2 of American Horror Story is an amalgam of a huge number of horror plots, including but not limited to:

  • The Exorcist
  • The Diary of Anne Frank
  • Saw
  • The Omen
  • Silence of the Lambs
  • Taken (the UFO mini-series)
  • Friday the 13th

There's more going on than that and of course the season isn't over either, yet so far all the many plot-lines and horror references seem to blend together quite well. This show is fairly adult in its themes though so definitely not appropriate for kids under 17 or people who might be easily offended by sexy, killer nuns who act Nazi collaborators. The series did a good job of transitioning to an entirely new plot and like last year remains both exciting and scary. There's less blood and sex than the new Spartacus (on Encore) but lot's of gore and disturbing horror imagery to keep most horror fans glued to their sets (not literally we hope). Just don't attempt the electro-shock therapy or lobotomies at home.


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