As some of you may know, depending on where else you may know me from, I am absolutely obsessed with American Horror Story. One of the big things I imagined doing when I started this blog was writing reviews of new episodes, but alas, there weren’t any last year due to COVID-19.
But, now that the spinoff series of standalone stories, appropriately titled American Horror Stories, has premiered, I figured it’s a good time to just get right into it.
Right now, the series is only available to stream via FX on Hulu.
American Horror Stories starts us off in very familiar territory, in the fan-favorite destination, the place that started it all, back in season one, the Murder House.
This time, we start off with sixteen-year-old Scarlett, traveling to the Murder House with her two dads, who have purchased it basically hoping to rent it out as the ultimate haunted house, not believing in any of the lore around it. It’s honestly kind of a fun idea, if we the viewers didn’t know about the things that really go on there. Instead, we sit there thinking that classic horror mantra, How stupid can you be? But it’s always these unsuspecting characters and their charming obliviousness that makes a horror story, isn’t it?
Basically the first thing that happens once they’re in the house, is that Scarlett finds the infamous Rubber Man suit. And, undoubtedly inspiring a collective eww from everyone watching, just has to put it on. My first thought is, either the magical siren properties of this suit are off the charts (which, let’s face it, they most likely are, given the role it’s always played), or this girl is just really kinky.
I was surprised by how right I was about the latter.
We spend a little time witnessing Scarlett’s school day, in which we see her make some very insightful comments about how fear is actually motivated more by shame than anything else, and we learn that she is gay and has a very intense crush on a girl in her class named Maya, who suddenly seems to be reciprocating. Scarlett goes home and fantasizes, a sexual fantasy turns into a fantasy of violence, and, shortly after, we learn that Scarlett’s dads are actually very concerned about the type of porn their daughter seems to obsessively be searching for. We never actually see any of this, but apparently it goes above and beyond what could be considered just a normal interest in BDSM. They try to ground her, but she fights it, due to the fact that her dream girl Maya has invited her to a slumber party that weekend and promised some extra fun after the other girls are asleep, and agrees to see a therapist.
Long story short, the therapist is killed in the house (presumably by the original Rubber Man, which could be Tate, or Chad, or maybe even Michael Langdon depending on the timeline) and has to spend the rest of her existence fighting Ben Harmon for office hours. We never see Ben in this episode, but honestly? I’d watch that spinoff. (Apocalypse unexpectedly made Ben my favorite Murder House ghost.)
Scarlett eventually succeeds in getting herself grounded when the Rubber Man suit magically appears in her closet once more and she puts it on to prank her dads, accidentally stabbing one of them in the process. When Maya asks where she is on the night of the slumber party, she seems to think the whole incident is pretty cool, and basically dares Scarlett to sneak to the party. She does, and when she and Maya sneak away for what Scarlett believes will be her first sexual experience, and she tells her about the intense torture porn she’s into, etc., she suddenly finds out the whole thing is being live-streamed as a cruel prank, and now she’s not only been officially outed, but also doomed to a lifetime of kink-shaming.
Scarlett runs out of the party, and once she’s home, she has an idea. She calls up Maya claiming that she’s planning to kill herself, and she’s going to leave a note describing in detail exactly what happened and who is responsible, unless all the girls from the party come to the house. Now, just to give insight into the type of girl that Maya is, she is gravely concerned about how Scarlett’s suicide could affect her, so she convinces all of the girls to go.
Scarlett, in her Rubber (Wo)Man suit, kills them all, and buries them behind a brick wall. The episode ends with her finally answering her fathers’ question as to whether she wants to be the person inflicting or enduring pain when she watches the type of porn that she does, telling them it’s the former. Her dead therapist remarks that they should talk about this, to which Scarlett replies that she’s never felt better in her life, and the episode ends.
Honestly, this little slice of story could’ve ended there, but it’s continued in the second episode.
There really isn’t that much to say about the second episode. Scarlett finds love with Ruby, a ghost in the house who came there to commit suicide, thinking it would finally make someone notice her after her parents sold her to an abusive “uncle” years before. Ruby is basically a slightly less extreme version of Hypodermic Sally from the Hotel season of the main show, and will stop at nothing to keep and protect Scarlett, even going so far as to kill her dads so that she’ll have no excuse not to leave, and also constantly going head to head with Maya and her group, who are of course now all stuck in the house as well. There is a slight little side plot with the dads that never really goes much of anywhere, too, and it’s somewhat of a throwback to Chad and Patrick. (Could Scarlett be the real JungleJim4322@yahoo.com?) Also, hi again, Piggy Man.
The episode takes place mostly on Halloween, with Scarlett and Ruby exploring the outside world together since it’s the one night that Ruby can leave the house. Ultimately, Scarlett decides she is not done living in the outside world, which, after a conversation with both Scarlett herself and Scarlett’s living BFF Shanti, Ruby accepts, making her possibly the least toxic and problematic resident to ever grace the Murder House halls, at least out of the ones with romance-centric storylines. (Yeah...I’m not much of a Violate fan, sorry to disappoint. Not saying there weren’t aspects of them that were cute together, but after everything...just, how?!) Scarlett goes off on her own, kills Ruby’s “Uncle Tony”, and returns to the Murder House periodically, mostly on Halloween, and she and Ruby remain together, satisfying Ruby’s lonely heart (metaphorically speaking) at last. Like I said, it’s not much of an episode on its own, but it’s a nice little way to tie up any loose ends from the premiere, and give Scarlett and happy ending, because honestly, she’s pretty likable. The only thing she was really guilty of before understandably snapping when her most private moment was broadcast on a livestream, was having a kink. Other than that, she’s very insightful and probably the most level-headed member of her family. She’s a different kind of Murder House resident, and I like it. She also keeps the Rubber (Wo)Man suit and seems to adopt the persona for murders and other questionable behaviors.
Of course, the main complaint I’ve been seeing about this show is that it lacks the “OG cast”. First of all, I’ll never understand complaining about cast changes within an anthology show. It’s not like we’re losing major, recurrent characters. It’s meant to be different each time, with a few exceptions/connections. Secondly, I honestly really enjoyed seeing a Murder House story that wasn’t entirely centered around the Langdons and/or the Harmons. There are so many spirits trapped within the walls of that house, statistically speaking, not every single one is going to have a huge entanglement with one of those families, and it’s clear from when we revisit them in Apocalypse that they have their own stuff going on, and probably don’t even appear much to those who have nothing to do with their own personal dramas. Not saying it wouldn’t have been nice to see some of those characters again, but I don’t see how it was necessary. I’ve always wondered about other folks who may have tried to move in over the course of time, and this was a perfect little slice of that, without overdoing more of what we’ve already seen.
Overall, I’d say this new series is off to a great start, and I’m looking forward to seeing where the next episodes go, whether they connect to previous seasons or not. There are so many things that can happen in this universe, and I love that there’s now another way to see them all.
So, if you have Hulu and are a fan of the original AHS series, or even have been thinking of checking out the show and don’t necessarily want to commit to a full season, I highly recommend checking out American Horror Stories.
Stay spooky, my friends.
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