American Horror Story: Asylum Brings Real Scares To The Small Screen

BY JEREMY HAAS

American Horror Story is an extremely suspenseful TV mini-series that just finished airing it’s second season on FX.  It’s considered a “mini series” because with every new season of the show, the story is changed, complete with new characters, setting, and overall theme.  Season one; given the title American Horror Story: Murder House took place in modern day, Los Angeles.  It followed the Harmons, a family of three who moved into a new house in attempt to solve a failing marriage. Unfortunately, this new home is haunted, and the season follows the Harmons’ life after moving into a home filled with violent spirits.  Each season is given a specific theme; Murder House was “infidelity,” and season two, Asylum was “sanity.”  Though the two seasons used many of the same actors, they all played different roles, as the upcoming third season will follow a completely different group of characters, and will have nothing to do with the first two seasons.

The overused horror formula of a family moving into a haunted house is mutated into a beautifully original masterpiece of a television show, and viewers everywhere rejoiced at the risqué, boundary pushing gore and sexual situations that came with American Horror Story. So with Murder House’s immense success, it was no surprise that Asylum would keep on pushing borders only to make for a thrilling, and inventive show.

American Horror Story is unique, and that’s a lot of what sets it apart.  The whole mini-series concept seems strange, but what’s so great about it is the amount of diversity it gives to the show.  Since multiple time periods could be explored, numerous aspects of horror are available to plot terrifying and original stories around.  While season one took place in modern times, season two had an intense 60’s theme to go with it’s setting.  The music itself was a great representation of that retro vibe Asylum put out and it went well with other subtleties: constant cigarette smoking, dated clothing, and a very strong sense of implied gender roles.  With only one season of this however, there’s room to explore even more time periods, providing the future of AHS with vast potential. The intense visuals, choppy editing style, and bizarre camera angles used are dangerously original for a TV show.  Complex camera pans, upside down and sideways shots, and flashes in the editing are all there to give off an eerie, foreboding impression.  It’s easy to see just how this show’s originality works by watching its intro, equipped with creepy music to go with quick, disturbing images.

American Horror Story: Asylum takes place at a church-run mental institution, “Briarcliff Manor Sanitarium,” in the early 1960’s.  This “hospital,” so to speak, is notorious for being one of the most brutal mental hospitals in the country.  Briarcliff’s patients follow the rule of Jessica Lange’s character, Sister Jude, a strict nun with overly religious and obsessive tendencies.  Calling the setting for Asylum dark would be an understatement because this season is absolutely terrifying.  It travels to the deepest, darkest depths of Briarcliff to explore the troubled pasts of patients and disturbing lives of the people in charge.  A variety of old-fashioned tortures are shown, as they are considered “treatment” in the hospital.  Shock treatment, aversion therapy and human experimentation are all featured, leaving very little to a viewer’s imagination.  The idea of a mental hospital is scary to begin with, but American Horror Story took that to a new level this season, once again pulling influence from many classic horror stories to make for an original, hybrid masterpiece.

While the entire season was filled with amazing scenes and sequences, there were some that truly made this show one of the best of the year. Early on, as a “Halloween special”, the most terrifying and also overdone horror arc was introduced, an exorcism.  Luckily, the makers of AHS knew exactly what they were doing, and effortlessly created a gruesome episode centered on the demonic possession of a farm boy. Later on, the heartless Dr. Arden of Briarcliff was suspected to be a former Nazi concentration camp doctor, by none other than Anne Frank, well actually it was a patient who was convinced she was Anne Frank.  This made for an excellent transition to Dr. Arden’s past; giving insight to who his character was before Briarcliff, an equally creepy doctor with a Frankenstein-complex who just happened to work at a concentration camp.  Around Christmas time a new patient was introduced, a serial killer who dressed up as Santa Claus.  He wreaked havoc at Briarcliff, and tried to murder Sister Jude.  The character was witty, sarcastic, and absolutely merciless.  Other highlights of Asylum included a cover of “The Name Game,” an old 1965 pop song.  The cover came complete with an intricate choreographed dance smack dab in the middle of an episode.  It was amazing to see a series that’s so dark and disturbing just add a Glee-reminiscent dance number in the middle of an episode, and completely pull it off.  I guess it just goes to show that this isn’t your typical horror.

With so much going on within the Asylum, it would be shocking if there were no cool, symbolic undertones accompany the sheer horror.  As American Horror Story is known for taking well-known scary stories and twisting them into one giant, intricate chronicle, season two went above and beyond in doing so.  First off, religion was huge in Asylum, a major representation that was apparent in much of the struggles throughout the season.  As the main idea, so to speak, in this year’s story was “sanity” it’s no surprise that an argument of science versus faith was pushed to forefront.

With any Ryan Murphy show, there’s always going to be some gay/lesbian undercurrent, and as opposed to last season, one of Asylum’s main characters, Lana Winters was a lesbian.  Now, while I’d normally think this sort of thing would seem overdone, it’s just a Ryan Murphy thing to do, and he gets that undertone across without being too in-your-face about it. Therefore, I respect the continuous theme, as it actually does make for a great complication to the 1960’s time period, especially in such a religious environment as Briarcliff.

The future of American Horror Story looks as appealing as ever.  With the immense success of the first two seasons, it’s a safe bet that AHS will be renewed for a third.  So far, three of the stars of Asylum, Jessica Lange, Evan Peters, and Sarah Paulson are all confirmed for next year’s installment.  According to numerous interviews with the show’s creators, next season is going to be modern, similar to Murder House, and is set to feature a Romeo & Juliet reminiscent relationship.  It’s also going to be more upbeat than Asylum, contrasting with the vast darkness the viewers have grown accustomed to.  American Horror Story is a thriving show, complete with visual appeal, interesting plot lines, and torturous scenarios, and if you haven’t watched it yet, I suggest you start soon.