American Horror Story: Asylum is not a show for the faint of heart. The FX anthology series’ first season, American Horror Story: Murder House, was horrifying, deftly capitalizing on suspense, supernatural content and a shadowy set to scare the pants off its viewers. But for horror buffs such as myself, it wasn’t scary enough to be unwatchable.
This season, Ryan Murphy, writer/creator/production genius, took the meaning of terror to a whole new level. The show is set in a cliché, 1960s haunted manor-turned-psych-ward, but somehow nothing about it seems campy or overdone. The content is disturbing, to say the least, depicting some of the worst “treatments” for the mentally unstable at the time with relative historical accuracy.
As if that weren’t enough nightmare fuel to power the Eastern Seaboard, the asylum receives regular visits from supernatural or extraterrestrial beings, all of which have less-than-friendly motives.
The best part about American Horror Story: Asylum for me was the return of many of last season’s actors as different characters. The beauty of the first season was how neatly everything was wrapped up at the end, while also leaving the possibility of a continuing plot if necessary. The content of Asylum, however, has no ties to the plot of the first season, making it possible to reuse actors from season one. Jessica Lange — season one’s antagonist Constance Langdon — returns as a recovering alcoholic-turned sadistic nun who helps run the asylum. Evan Peters — Tate Langdon from last season — is Kit Walker this season, a young man committed to the asylum for being “Bloody Face,” a serial killer who wears a mask made of the skin of his victims. Other returners are Lily Rabe, Zachary Quinto, Sarah Paulson and Dylan McDermott. The actor recycling caused a bit of commotion in the television review world, but the execution of it was so smooth that most of the talk about it these days is general praise.
I can’t wait to see how the rest of this season turns out, and if the transition from one to two is any indication, season three will be unmissable. Even if you didn’t manage to catch season one, with its bleak and twisted plot, spot-on acting and on-point writing, American Horror Story: Asylum is well worth the watch.
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