AMERICAN HORROR STORY – THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
Rating: TV-MA
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
MSRP: $59.99 but Amazon has it for $47.49.
Running Time: 12 episodes totaling 532 minutes
What’s Going On?
The Harmons move to an old house in Los Angeles in an attempt to rescue their struggling marriage. They soon learn that the house has a dark and gruesome history and there are many supernatural forces at work that will alter their lives forever.
Who’s In It:
Connie Britton, Dylan McDermott, Jessica Lange, Evan Peters, Taissa Farmiga and Frances Conroy star with guest appearances from Denis O’Hare, Zachary Quinto, Kate Mara, Mena Suvari, Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe and more.
If You Like…:
Dudes in latex, demon babies, horror movies, the Black Dahlia, emotionally unstable teens, chewing all of the scenery, and generally being scared out of your mind, then check this out.
Special Features:
There’s a commentary with Ryan Murphy on the pilot episode in which he goes into extensive detail about how the show was created.
The Murder House presented by Eternal Darkness Tours of Hollywood is a glorified set tour of the Harmons house inter-cut with footage of the various murders that occurred in the house in its long history. There are SEVERAL spoilers for the whole first season, so don’t watch this one until you’ve finished it.
Behind The Fright is a detailed look at the whole series, including the casting, costumes, makeup, production design and Overture to Horror looks at the creation of the ultra-creepy credits sequence.
Lastly, there’s Out of the Shadows, which interviews all of the ghosts in the Harmon house.
The Technical Gist
AMERICAN HORROR STORY is still shot on film, so it retains a bit of grain in the image, which works well for this kind of series and the audio is exceptionally well done. You may very well wet yourself watching this at night.
The Verdict
This is perhaps the first true horror series on television and boy, does it scare the pants off of it’s audience. It’s incredibly dark, oftentimes unsettling, and will leave you so tense you’ll need a sleeping pill to doze off. I’m hoping that this series will fare better for Ryan Murphy than many of his other shows, which always start strong and never have any follow through. For something extra scary this Halloween, QUEUE IT.
