Ryan Murphy has kept us guessing for the past few months as to the theme for this season’s spectacularly terrifying (and intriguing) plotline on "American Horror Story." For fans, this secrecy has paid off. Told in chapters instead of episodes, and with ‘actors’ portraying the ‘actual’ storytellers, we are treated to a documentary-style story. Murphy has flipped the script by creating a tale that reminds us more of those shows you would find on the Destination America channel, like "A Haunting" or "Ghost Asylum."
We start with Matt (Andre Holland, portrayed by Cuba Gooding, Jr.) and Shelby (Lily Rabe, portrayed by Sarah Paulsen), a couple who had their world turned upside down through a gang initiation “Knockout” game. With Matt in the hospital, Shelby ended up losing their baby. Looking to leave their bad memories in LA behind and start anew, the couple heads east to be closer to Matt’s family. They discover an old home for sale (shortly up for auction) during one of their walks. At the auction, Matt ends up winning by outbidding three locals who look like they belong on the set of "Deliverance."
But, from day one, Shelby is not quite settled with the decision and bad things begin to happen. There are strange noises in the night, human teeth raining from the sky during a hail storm and her almost being drowned in their hot tub by a person in period costume. Shelby begins to struggle and becomes increasingly apprehensive towards her and Matt’s decision to buy the house. Matt believes it’s the locals causing troubles, but Shelby is not so sure.
To appease Shelby and help keep an eye on the home while on the road, Matt installs security cameras around the home and asks his sister Lee (Adina Porter, portrayed by Angela Bassett) to come and stay with Shelby while he’s away. Lee, a former cop/recovering addict, normally butts heads with Shelby as she does not understand Shelby’s holistic lifestyle. That all changes during one night when, during an argument over one of the strange occurrences, Lee & Shelby find themselves locked in the basement with a creepy VHS tape recording of a pig man. Even creepier is when they finally emerge from the basement, the home is covered in hundreds of hanging straw dolls.
Matt, whose security system alerted him and showed a costumed mob charging towards his home, abandons his work trip and tries to make sense of what Shelby and Lee have shown him. The dolls and the creepy VHS tape send Shelby over the edge; she pleads with Matt that they leave this home and never look back. Trying to keep the peace, Matt reminds Shelby that they have put their life savings into the home and have no place to go.
Defeated, Shelby decides to leave alone and flees in the night, only to be stopped as she hits an older woman in period costume (Kathy Bates). With Matt on the phone pleading for her to come home and the woman running into the woods, Shelby abandons her car to follow her.
Unfortunately, this decision only brings more confusion and terror as Shelby now finds herself lost in the woods. What's even more confusing is the fact that she runs towards the costumed mob, which has now found her, one of them sporting a rather rudimentary scalped head.
Murphy has left us questioning many things with this episode. Who is this costumed mob? Who is responsible for all the mishaps? Why this house and property? And most importantly, for those who picked up on the clues….
Are we going to find out what happened to the ‘Lost Colony’ of Roanoke?
Stay Tuned!
