I’m not much for scary stories. Ghost stories are all right (because I don’t believe in them), but toenails scraping on the windshield stories? No. Can’t do it. However, in light of the fact that some of my favorite actors/characters from other shows are popping up on American Horror Story (Tammy Taylor, Zoe, Albie Grant, Sylar, Russell Effing Edgington!), when I was flipping channels and found it on last night, I stopped for the last half of the episode. 30 minutes later and my skin was crawling. I had nightmares all night.
What is so scary about it to me? Certainly not the ghosts (because I don’t believe in them), but the family’s very real feelings of helplessness, anxiety, and fear. Dylan McDermott and Connie Britton are brilliant actors–even in half an hour they had convinced me that they were what they are pretending to be. I especially liked watching the subtle changes in McDermott as he told a great, big whopper of a lie.
What else is scary? The universal fear that everyone else is in on the joke. Everyone else knows the important secret and no one is telling you. That is central to this show’s plot. So is the twilight lighting in every scene. Just on the edge of dark, where your vision plays its easiest tricks on you, graying out the fringes and starting to turn shadows of innocent chairs and lampshades into lurking monsters. And just so you know, I’d have taken one look at that house and demanded to go to a Motel 6. I don’t care what kind of money problems we’re having. We are NOT living there. No.
When we moved to Texas, we moved into a suicide house. Of course I didn’t know this immediately. I found out after I had been sleeping in the suicide bedroom for months. I was eleven, and already convinced something was horribly wrong with our house. Finding out that someone had taken his life right where I was sleeping…no. I did believe in ghosts then.
So here is what I thought was wrong with the show:
- Jessica Lange’s plastic surgery
- The lighting–Connie Britton is looking harsh in that light, and everyone’s skin looks dirty
- The editing. At one point, Britton and McDermott are having a violent argument with ghosts, and the very next screen–inside of the same scene even–it is as though they don’t even realize that was happening. And, there was the hospital scene that set us up for horrors and then…petered out?
- Continuity. Dang. So the Harmons (B&McD) leave the house to go to the hospital (after their house was home invaded by murderous people 2 weeks ago), leaving their daughter alone (in the home invasion house). Enough time passes that the daughter misses a loud knocking at the door, then a murder in front of her house–literally–ambulances and police sirens and lights, and a hysterical woman screaming on her lawn, and I am assuming she misses the entire crime scene and investigation because when she finally does hear a knock (long after the trick-or-treat traffic has gone–Did I mention it was Halloween?) all she sees is the guy who helped her father kill that other girl–no cop cars behind him. And her parents, who have conceivably just found out they are expecting Rosemary’s Baby, say they are on their way home when she calls to complain of him. Britton is STILL IN THE STIRRUPS when she calls.
- Glee. I hate Glee.
The Outside Lane 
It is a really odd, broken timey wimey sort of show. The first episode confused me. I think I am sort of understanding it now, but I have not seen the latest episode yet.
You’ll have to watch it for me. I can’t do the nightmares again! Ugh! =)
A friend and I coined the “You’re dead, dummy” phrase when we first started watching Supernatural all those years ago. We have since discovered that it applies to more than just that show. It goes like this: If murders were previously and recently committed in your house, and you have children, DO NOT LEAVE THEM ALONE IN THE HOUSE FOR ANY REASON or else…they’re dead, dummy. She is now convinced at some point she will write a book of “You’re dead, dummy” life lessons. So you are not alone in your feelings. It sounds like I couldn’t have watched this either or I’d be sharing your nightmares. I don’t deal well with anxiety and stress in my sleep.
Right?! I’m still wondering if there won’t be a 6th Sense or The Others sort of plot twist. I’m really glad Connie Britton is working, though. I’m really glad there is a show casting so many of my favorite actors.
American Horror Story is right up there with The Walking Dead for the creepiest thing ever on TV, and both for different reasons. Walking Dead is it’s own thing, whole and to itself, but American Horror Story takes in just about every scary scene from every horror movie, as well as bits and pieces of True Crime, and wraps it all together in one grisly bundle, and they do it perfectly. Can’t wait to see how Part 2 works out next week! I’m just glad I’m a DISH customer/employee right now…with DirecTV’s looming negotiation with FOX out there DirecTV customers could possibly lose FX, and not being able to see how this show shakes out is just brutal.
I haven’t seen The Walking Dead. Of course, Shaun of the Dead is the only zombie movie I’ve seen all the way through. I just can’t take the creepy. AHS is doing a great job at being what it is, and I give it major credit for being as creepy and terrifying as it set out to be. I just can’t watch it anymore, or I’ll never sleep again!