What’s creepier than the looks you get from a stray cat on the streets of North Philadelphia? How about the dead stare of a hollowed-eyed bull’s head placed on top of a terrified man, shackled within the depths of Madam LaLaurie’s chamber of horrors.
This season of American Horror Story hit the audience like an automatic weapon, firing round after round of enthralling and uncomforting subject matter. What is undeniably Ryan Murphy’s and Brad Falchuk’s world of intrigue and horror has been resurrected to fulfill a promise of mischief, mystery and magic.
This is the season of the witch, bringing us both familiar and new additions to the AHS collection of talented bodies. The story begins with the introduction of Madam LaLaurie played by newcomer Kathy Bates. Madam LaLaurie is an infamous serial killer of the mid 19th century, having been responsible for the murder and torture of hundreds of slaves. She has returned and we see her appetite for the gruesome as we enter her dark chamber of horrors – the true American horror story of slavery.
AHS does not come without its questionable content and shock-and-awe tactics, but the storyline is always gripping and this season shows promise.
Jumping into the present, we are flung into a familiar scene of “boy on girl,” falling into the bed in what looks to be a promising first go-around for the two. Zoe Benson (Taissa Formiga) reveals a vicious genetic inheritance that cuts short both life and love.
Zoe’s family lineage is revealed as she is whisked away down south to New Orleans, Louisiana, a city of ghosts to attend a witchcraft school. Once there, she is introduced to her new classmates and newcomers to the show, Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe), vicious movie star Madison (Emma Roberts) and Nan (Jamie Brewer), who is also returning for her second appearance in the AHS series.
Miss Robichaux’s “Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies,” headmastered by Cordelia Fox (Sarah Paulson), is Zoe’s new start. Within the first episode she deals with the death of a potential new beau. The audience also deals with some gruesome images – a serious display of gang rape that is both unnerving and drawn out.
How exactly will she manage this new start with a second life shattering experience? All that the audience can do is wait for Murphy and Falchuk’s next unsettling plot points.
Mysteries thrive in this series, one of this season’s mysteries is the key to eternal life. Fiona Goode, played by the remarkable Jessica, is back with a vengeance. As the Supreme Witch, Fiona flicks her wrist and sucks the life out of those who would deny her vitality. She isn’t exactly your broom riding, Hocus Pocus witch. In fact, Fiona is far from it. Fiona Goode has an agenda and she will not act on it alone. Unearthed and claimed by the Supreme Witch, Madam LaLaurie comes shaking out of the dust into the 21st century.
Canted angels, 14th century death masks, human voodoo dolls, and of course the witches mark this season of American Horror Story. Blood-coated slave owners, Carrie-esque destruction, vicious and highly sexualized content makes you wonder – in what shadows they’ll leave our imagination this fall? I personally can’t wait to find out.