American Horror Story

Plot synopsis:
Created by Ryan Murphy, of Glee and Popular, American Horror Story is an FX original series. Described as an anthology series, AHS chronicles fictionalized haunted locations, the living and the dead who interact within them. Each season has its own self-contained storyline and characters and it has been posed that each season will introduce a new location as well as new characters and storylines. Premiering in October 2011, the first season focused its sights on a struggling family of three who move into a new house in LA. Each of them soon learn the house's demonic secrets as well as the violent and selfish spirits within its walls. American Horror Story: Asylum begins in 1964 at the fictional mental institution, Briarcliff Manor, following the stories of the staff and inmates who occupy it, and intercuts with events in the past and present.Returning cast members from the previous season of the series include: Sarah Paulson, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange, Dylan McDermott, Evan Peters, Zachary Quinto and Lily Rabe.The season garnered seventeen Primetime Emmy Award nominations, more than any other show. The performances of Jessica Lange, James Cromwell, Zachary Quinto, Sarah Paulson, and Lily Rabe were particularly praised. Cromwell won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie, as well as Quinto and Paulson winning their respective supporting categories at the 3rd Critics' Choice Television Awards.The third season primarily follows the antics and events of a Coven of Salem descendants who reside within a boarding school, Miss Robichaux's Academy, centered in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Academy is run by headmistress Cordelia Foxx (Sarah Paulson), who has always lived in the shadow of her mother, Fiona Goode (Jessica Lange). Fiona is the Coven's "Supreme", a witch born every generation who embodies countless gifts and magical abilities, namely, the Seven Wonders of Witchcraft; the Supreme is the head of the Coven. Danger lurks inside the Academy's past due to the mysterious butler Spalding (Denis O'Hare) and his relationship with Fiona. The entire Coven is assessed and evaluated by the Council of Witchcraft, which includes Fiona's old rival and Cordelia's mother figure, Myrtle Snow (Frances Conroy).The season is set in Jupiter, Florida in 1952,[7] centered around one of the few remaining freak shows at the time, as its members do anything to keep the business alive.[8] The season focuses on the conflict between the freaks and the "evil forces" who do not understand them.[9]

Tags: paranormal, magical realism, murder

Review:
American horror story is a great if you're into this kind of horror, people that are into slasher movies/shows will probably not like this.Overall AHS has its low seasons and high seasons, every season is very different and that's why most people aren't into all the seasons.
Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates for example are incredible actors/actresses that never disappoint in this show.I personally think its genius how Ryan Murphy managed to make every season very different from the ones before but still manages to connect all of them.My opinions on the seasons;1.
5. Hotel: 6.5/10 Not a very beloved season by most, but to me it was watchable and I dont feel like I wasted my time watching it.
The season felt like a haunted-House horror movie but longer.
7. Cult 7/10 Before the season started I was really scared I wasn't gonne like this, politics, clowns and Evan as the villian, but after watching it I actually enjoyed it.
I found the first episode to be awesome, great suspense and has a really eerie/scary feeling to it., Definitely not your typical haunted house plot, i think the writing is very creative and very well thought out,.
This show has everything and more all us horror fans need these days.OVERALL The show utilizes both shock and psychological terror to frighten, Absolutely loved it, exceeding my expectations like nothing else.
It might be a problem with the time constraints of a 90 minute or 2 hour movie, it's hard to completely capture the audience and slowly twist the perceptions.Another thing forgotten in recent horror movies is the fact of NOT explaining everything within 5 minutes of it happening, it's more entertaining and spooky to speculate why someone sees something or what actually happened in a particular scene.
People forget that in some of the best horror pictures like "Psycho" the real horror came from the suspense and the wondering of what was going to happen and that the violence was secondary.The dialogue between characters is actually impressive especially in a couple scenes that you will be able to easily pick out.
It's rare to writers like this who aren't afraid to jump around from genre to genre fearlessly.It's hard to describe many aspects of this show without giving away to much so I must refrain from describing the plot as it appears so far.The day after I viewed the pilot episode I was shocked to see all the negative feelings towards the content of the show.
I plan to watch every week and enjoy the series fully, since it is honestly very rare to see a show do better in it's genre then most recent films.American Horror Story arrived a couple weeks ago on the great FX network that also houses two of my favorite shows: "Sons of Anarchy" and "Justified"..
The story is somewhat like the Manson murders but more politically charged against Trump etc/ AHS took a turn for the worst in this season buy using politics and senseless murder for the "Cult" (manson) .
Initially I was left wondering how - what essentially is a short horror movie - could be made in to a long running TV series, but after a few episodes I started to realise that it's the Ryan Murphy magic that is sustaining this outstanding show.Much like Nip/Tuck, you have to suspend your belief and see this as purely entertainment.
There's so many open ended narratives that are slowly unfolding and although at times the show verges on the edge of cliché, a single episode could easily match the brilliance of such horror classics like The Amityville Horror and The People Under the Stairs.At the end of every episode I feel shocked that 40 minutes have gone by, which is a sure sign that this show is pure, unadulterated, entertainment..
American HORROR STORY, where the only thing more terrifying than a haunted house laden with secrets that rip people to shreds, are the secrets and lies infesting the lives of one family that threaten to rip THEM to shreds.When a tragic miscarriage and an even more shattering act of infidelity threaten to tear apart their tenuous marriage, Ben Harmon (THE PRACTICE'S Dylan McDermott) and his wife Vivien (FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS' Connie Britton) take their teenage daughter, Violet (Taissa Farmiga) and move away from their "house of horrors" to find a new start somewhere...ANYWHERE that they can put the noxious past behind them and at least try to have a go at tending to their gaping emotional wounds.The place they choose - or maybe that chooses THEM - a run-down manse on the outskirts of L.A., turns out to be a real bargain, and though irredeemably creepy, does have an antiquated charm...if you're into murals that would give even Hieronymous Bosch nightmares.In no short order, unsettling and strange characters - as much as the house itself is - begin to materialize and insinuate themselves into the Harmons' lives, whether they want them to or not: next-door neighbor Constance (Jessica Lange in a brilliant turn), whose demeanor suggests a deadly combo of Blanche DuBois, Norma Desmond and Gale Sondergaard's Black Widow; Frances Conroy (Ruth Fisher from SIX FEET UNDER) as the mysterious housekeeper, Moira, who appears to the rest of the family as one persona, while tempting Ben's weakness for "a taste of strange" with another more lascivious presence, (played by Alexandra Breckenridge); Larry Harvey (TRUE BLOOD alum Denis O'Hare), a horribly burned man who seems to be stalking Ben, and who has his own deadly history with the house and what lives there, and Constance's daughter, Adelaide, (Jamie Brewer), with Downs' Syndrome, yet who seems to have it more together - and knows more about the house - than anyone else around her.Even Ben's practice as a psychologist is fraught with peril, with the introduction of a teen patient named Tate Langdon (Evan Peters), who has an easier time picking apart and savaging the weaknesses in Ben's emotional armor than Ben does in probing his inscrutable and infuriating new charge's troubled mind.
Not to mention that his growing fascination/infatuation with Violet doesn't help things one little bit.Many people have cried fowl about the show's penchant for relying heavily on old horror tropes and clichés, without even paying attention to how it has been taking said clichés and twisting them into newer and even more unsettling shapes than today's average hot mess passing itself off as a 'horror film.' Leave it to FX to allow Murphy and his team - much as they did with NIP/TUCK - the freedom to push the boundaries of where a horror-infused series can go, without the constraints that hog-tied many of the like-minded series that came before it, such as the ground-breaking TWIN PEAKS or American Gothic, (which wasn't anywhere near as well-written as this).Two episodes in and I am already intrigued, grossed-out and frankly spooked by what I have seen so far.
It. Such a disappointment when you wait forever for the new season to air and it's so boring/stupid that you don't ever care to keep watching it.
Firstly, this is an anthology series, which makes it a little bit more difficult in judging it as a "whole" series, since each season is, essentially, a mini-series in its own right.Overall I find this series to be "good", but this is not showing the picture clearly enough because the seasons do vary, and they vary greatly in my opinion.Season 1 – Murder House is "Very Good" with 9/10 Season 2 – Asylum is "Exceptionally Good" with 10/10 Season 3 – Coven is "Fine" with 7/10 Season 4 – Freak Show is "Underwhelming" with 6/10 It is worth mentioning that Murder House set the standards quite high while Asylum delivered above and beyond, where it truly was an American Horror Story.However, without going into much detail about the latter two seasons, I believe where the writers and/or producers have gone slightly wrong, is that they focused more on attaining characters for the actors to play rather than actors for the characters to be played by.
where only the "American" part was more or less true.This is not to say that Coven and Freak Show were bad "mini-series", they were both watchable, the former more so than the latter but they were not well produced, despite the potential.(UPDATE) Season 5 – Hotel is "Substandard" with 5/10 Unfornatunely, the latest instalment of the AHS, Hotel, did not reclaim the past seasons' former standards, worse still, this season, was even poorer than its previous predecessor, as I personally feel, hence the overall rating from me for AHS will now go to 7/10 as just "okay".
remained fine – not the best but certainly not the worst, the rest that comes with making a series seriously lacked almost everything.The story, which ironically the series boasts in its very title, lacked tremendously; once again it felt incoherent, inconsistent, insipid and this time had even more plot-holes than even a patient viewer, such as myself, can allow to pass.
There were so many things wrong with the design of the characters – some of them felt so extremely "forced", as in, it felt like they didn't really fit into the "story" (if you want to call it that) but the producers pushed them in just so that they can get the actor/actress from the past involved, after looking back that's seriously a big issue.It's actually rather difficult to put into words how bad this season is, and while I can barely understand why it may still appeal to some, it is safe to say that the majority of us will agree that this was not the best of AHS.I think the people behind this show may be allowing their "success" get into their heads; it seems the fact that AHS is quite popular and the fact that it is an anthology series makes them a little more careless, as if to say "if we f*** up we can forget this season because it's an anthology and plus we are popular anyway".
It picked up later in the season and there were some good ideas but after watching the last episode you realise that the whole season has been a waste of time, the ending was a major disappointment and a big writing cop out.
The first 3 series are great but at this point there are more bad series than good ones, freak show felt pointless and the musical numbers incredible forced, hotel was okay but dragged on for far too long and became a confusing mess, roanoke was a disaster with the exception of the terrible underused Kathy Bates and Cult started off with promise but again ended up in its own backside, I've no hope for this new series..
As far as Pilots go, no matter how entertaining or thrilling American Horror Story's Pilot was, the Pilot for The Walking Dead was better, masterful in every way.
And the fact that it takes itself too seriously sort of dampens the fun one should be having with it, simply because its writing isn't strong enough to stretch out its story lines (like the two best TV shows on air, Mad Men and Breaking Bad, do).
American Horror Story is better for these reasons- each episode by itself is exciting, it's always moving, and instead of trying to slow things down and makes its flaws more apparent, it even overdoes things on purpose.
The second season of American Horror Story was excellent, but the last (third) is one of the worst I've ever seen!
But this is not it, it is just bad, the only part I like is season 6 it going back to the murder house and all the old characters, it really has the ahs feel to it.
I am just cant feel good about it and giving up on AHS, I loved the first few seasons but it has run its course and it's just not even scarey, creative or interesting anymore, its just weird and evil,not scarey.
Completely stupid biased Prejudiced and absolutely not scary the most illogical and most absurd television series I have ever seen completely uninteresting and has no plot motive or Story characters are playing boring and even intrusive the series needs to be cancelled the leading and took it off the air YouTube's Netflix and the Webb.
I'll keep this short, if you are thinking of investing time in this series i would highly recommend the first two seasons but don't waste your time with the third or fourth as they are totally different and a real let down considering the strong start.
I love horror genre especially with twisted stories, but while the first few seasons were great, the last several are down right incoherent.
Far from even coming close to being original storytelling, this ludicrous "I-See-Dead-People" TV series repeatedly used the tactics of mercilessly clubbing the viewer over the noggin with one ghost-story cliché after another.With the most contrived skeletons hanging in just about everybody's closet, it soon became pretty clear to me that the producers of American Horror Story (AHS, for short) had absolutely no respect for the intelligence of its targeted audience.Disappointing, oppressive, annoying, erratic, AHS's heavy-handed approach to its trendy tales of terror, far too often, got itself so bogged down with gloom & doom that it quickly began to grate on my nerves like you wouldn't believe.Underhandedly using sexual situations and brief glimpses of nudity (both male & female) as a means of spicing up its less-than-frightening scenarios, AHS was a decidedly dull-edged TV program that, otherwise, frequently hit absolute rock-bottom in the realm of terror.I am completely baffled by the rave reviews and solid 8-star ratings that AHS has collectively garnered for itself.And, finally - I think that Jessica Lange should retire from performing in front of a camera.
Less a stand-alone narrative than a sequel to Murder House, Hotel, and especially Coven, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's American Horror Story: Apocalypse makes explicit what fans have implicitly known since Pepper (Naomi Grossman) was committed to Briarcliff towards the end of Freak Show - each season takes place in a shared universe (as well as being a sequel to the three aforementioned seasons, Apocalypse also features oblique references to Asylum, Freak Show, and Roanoke).
Aside from Langdon and Cordelia, there's the Harmons, Vivienne (Connie Britton), Ben (Dylan McDermott), and Violet (Taissa Farmiga); the Langdons, Constance (Jessica Lange), Tate (Even Peters), and Beauregard (Sam Kinsey); Moria O'Sullivan (Frances Conroy); Billie Dean Howard (Sarah Paulson); Elizabeth Short (Mena Suvari); Zoe Benson (Taissa Farmiga); Myrtle Snow (Frances Conroy); Misty Day (Lily Rabe); Madison Montgomery (Emma Roberts); Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe); Nan (Jamie Brewer); Stevie Nicks (playing herself); Marie Laveau (Angela Bassett); Delphine LaLaurie (Kathy Bates); Papa Legba (Lance Reddick); and, James Patrick March (Evan Peters).Many of the previous seasons of American Horror Story have begun strong only to fall off towards the end.
In an era when TV has degenerated into a plethora of cooking shows, "lifestyle" programming and "Honey Boo Boo" reality, anything scripted--albeit crudely in this case--seems like an event of great importance by comparison.Like all cable TV series, "American Horror Story" excels at taking seven minutes of whisper-thin plot and dragging it out to pad a full episode's runtime.
1. Despite its unlikable characters and muddled plot threads, MURDER HOUSE kicked off "American Horror Story" to a unique and macabre start, thanks to its enticing direction, campy tone, and atmospheric tension.
It seemed to tick all the right boxes and had some very solid performances and characterisation from several of the actor/esses So I started watching it looking forward to the next episode and was wondering quite what would happen next in this adult series that was also well produced.However, it did start to become predictable in that if you thought...
If you really want to watch something scary, this isn't for you.It's a series of poorly strung together recycled horror plots.
It wouldn't bother me how much they borrow if they had an original twist on the stories or actually made them scary.They have some great actors, and some interesting characters, but the plot is all over the place.
I will start off by stating I have liked American Horror Story.
That's my fault for continuing to watch even though it was pretty clear that there would be no satisfying end or any interesting development.My bad.I suppose Jessica Lang was kind of born to play her roles in the series.
I am a big fan of the show since the start in 2011, it's such a brilliant idea to have the 'same' fantastic and beautiful cast in different story lines every new season.
I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't total garbage, but I was also a little frustrated by the end of the first season.American Horror Story, as many of the negative reviews have already said, falls victim to incorporating too many of the ideas of movies and books that already exist.
The episodes that dealt mostly with the Harmon family were very boring, more like a soap opera than a horror series.
In the beginning I was completely unaware that the show was an anthology series, so was incredibly confused when season 2 started in a different setting with a new story but the same cast playing different characters.
Overall, I would still recommend the first two seasons of AHS to anyone that was thinking of watching, but cut your losses after that because you're bound to be disappointed like I was..
To me, her presence indicates that the whole series is becoming more about style than substance.Then yesterday I started watching Bates Motel and suddenly realized what a good horror show looks like.
But the season really has a down fall in the last episodes, becoming more a comedy than a horror, I also didn't like the ending.
I loved all other seasons because they had likeable characters & interesting horror stories but this last season was NOTHING Like their prior seasons.