American Horror Story

We begin in 1978 with the appearance of a house. If that’s not enough to indicate what you’re in for with this pilot episode, there is also the assortment of animal bones hanging in the front yard. Yes, everything in the first few minutes proves true to the title American Horror Story. This series, aired on FX in early October, perfectly anticipating Halloween, focuses on the deteriorating relationship between Vivien Harmon (Connie Britton) and her psychiatrist husband Ben (Dylan McDermott) after his indiscretions with one of his female students and an unexpected miscarriage. They, along with their teenage daughter, Violet (Taissa Farmiga), move from Boston to California in order to piece together their life as a family, unknowingly entering the world of the supernatural in a house haunted by spirits from various time periods, all trapped in a limbo between the real world and the afterlife.

Being an avid fan of anything scary, I eagerly tuned in to watch the show, and was not disappointed. The opening credits alone left an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach and had me casually looking over my shoulder to make sure no ghosts of angry dead girlfriends were there. The camera work is almost as if there was someone following this family around as the mayhem unfolded, shifting to fish-eye angles, adding an extra eerie feel. While things do get somewhat graphic, the show isn’t out to scare you at every chance it gets. There are no frightening pop-ups or loud noises (cheap scares, I call them). It mostly aims to creep you out and provide an ick factor that’ll have you thinking about it right before bed.

What I like the most (besides Zachary Quinto’s constant appearances), however, is the time frame used to explain not only the past and present of the Harmon family, but also the past and present of the house itself. The stories of previous owners are described and elaborated on with a series of flashbacks throughout the different episodes, allowing the grander story to unfold and revealing twists that make you gasp. We learn about romantic relationships between various people who lived in the house, discover how thin the line between the living and the dead actually is, and come to the realization that no matter how hard Vivien, Ben and Violet try to escape, they belong to the house and those who are eternally trapped in it.

Perhaps I’m biased towards shows that aren’t about cops or court cases, but American Horror Story definitely gets a 5 out of 5 for the mere fact that it’s giving TV audiences the option of a little bit of fright in their viewing experience. And while I’m eagerly anticipating the next episode, disregarding the fact that it’s the Christmas season, I can’t help but think back to different episodes and wonder how the heck the writers managed to deceive me on countless occasions, constantly keeping me on the edge of my seat.