American Horror Story crept onto television screens on October 5, 2011. And now, the 17 Emmy Award nominated mini-series is back, with an even more terrifying twist. American Horror Story Asylum premiered on October 17, 2012, and it is once again causing viewers’ skin to crawl.
American Horror Story was set in a not-so-average haunted house, with characters that you often didn’t know were actually dead. American Horror Story Asylum is set in 1964 at Briarcliff Asylum. You should be scared already. It’s not clear exactly where the asylum is located, but judging from the terribly attempted Boston accents, it is somewhere in Massachusetts. The asylum is run by the Catholic Church, with Sister Jude at the head: a strict, no nonsense nun who is often more intimidating than the criminally insane patients around her. Sister Jude is played by Academy Award winning actress Jessica Lange, one of the two cast members who was brought back from American Horror Story. Lange won an Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG award for her portrayal of character Constance Langdon in the first series.
The FX network, known for its raunchy, often eccentric programming, hasn’t strayed too far from its norm with this disturbing mini-series; but creators and producers, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck certainly have. These two are also behind Fox’s hit musical comedy, Glee. It’s hard to believe even when watching just the introductory credits for American Horror Story Asylum, with their eerie, non-melodic music and dark images, that the creators could ever have come up with such vastly different concepts.
But even without Glee’s singing high schoolers, American Horror Story Asylum is a hit. The series reached 3.85 million viewers on its premier, a record breaking number for the show.
American Horror Story Asylum is a psychological thriller that gives you an unsettled feeling that lasts long after the show has ended. Murphy and Falchuck have created a television show that is scarier than most horror movies shown in theaters. The unique camera angles, music, drained colors, and dim lighting combine to create an hour of complete, gut wrenching suspense. Even if you don’t enjoy sitting in constant fear, which is reasonable, you at least have to appreciate the series’ convention-breaking techniques and artful production.
Along with the many cinematic elements that this series has to offer, its characters and story lines are unlike any other thriller series on television. You find yourself drawn into the horrific scenes, trying to piece together the little bits of information you are given each week. Is Sister Jude just an old fashioned hard ass, or is she hiding something else behind her stone cold exterior? What the hell is Dr. Arthur Arden, the sadistic, deranged physician of the institution, always doing in his nightmarish operating room? Is Kit Walker, also known as the infamous Tate from American Horror Story, actually the vicious killer of women who is on the loose? Character development, a rare sight on television, is key to this series’ success. With revealing flashbacks to characters’ pasts and disturbing new encounters in their present, the viewer never knows who to trust.
The twisted morals and intentions of many of the characters on the show contribute to the real fears American Horror Story Asylum taps into. It’s a show about real people doing sick, unthinkable things. It isn’t your average horror narrative, like Scream or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, where you follow a stereotypical group of stupid people as they do idiotic things that get them killed. The characters aren’t the generic types that you often see on basic cable and broadcast television; they are all extremely different with complex psyches and personalities. This makes the story seem more and more believable so that when something supernatural occurs, like the exorcism and demonic possession in the second episode, you don’t find it far-fetched at all. Murphy and Falchuck clearly knew what they were doing when they hopped on the Paranormal Activity bandwagon and threw in some demons.
American Horror Story Asylum doesn’t just tap into real fears; it taps into real problems. The treatment of the mentally ill and homosexuality is at the root of many of the series’ plots. Although the series is set in 1964, decisions such as having a lesbian main character treated with electroshock therapy for her “condition,” create an uncomfortable familiarity with the intolerance. It’s plot elements such as this that make the story exceptionally horrifying and intensely American.
American Horror Story Asylum is certainly a new type of television. It is artistic, complex, and uniquely controversial. And most importantly, it’ll scare the hell out of you.
Photo Sources:
http://sciencefiction.com/2012/09/03/new-american-horror-story-asylum-teases-series-characters/