"American Horror Story" has been one of our favorite shows to watch on television. The edgy style, ghost story inspired approach has been highly successful for this horror anthology. They have given us the dark and sexy mixed with the strange and bizarre, and we have absolutely loved it. The show has been created and produced by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, and up until now, we feel they have been doing an amazing job at giving us the scares we craved. So what went wrong?
*Warning: May contain spoilers*
Each series of "American Horror Story" has been based on a different era in history with a very unique tale and cast of characters devoted to each. We have the first called the "Murder House", probably the most successful yet, it takes place in the year 2011 where a family moves into a haunted house in Los Angeles. The Second season is called the "Asylum" and takes place in 1964 in a mental institution in Massachusetts. The third season called "Coven", it takes place in 2013 and follows the surviving decedents of the Salem witches who end up at a boarding school in New Orleans. The fourth season, "Freak Show" takes place in Jupiter, Florida in 1952 following a group of struggling freak show performers. The fifth season is called "Hotel", it takes place in 2015 which involves a haunted hotel that was built in the 1920's. Which brings us to the sixth season, the most current season of "American Horror Story" called "Roanoke", which takes place in 2015 and 2016, and involves a house that is built on haunted land from the lost colony of Roanoke.
When we first heard what the sixth season was about we were initially excited, there are so many exciting angles the creators of the show could have taken when discussing the lost colony of Roanoke. While we realize every installment of "American Horror Story" has been different, this is beyond disappointing. What the creators decided to do was film the entire season in a fake-documentary style in which characters star on a show called "My Roanoke Nightmare", where they relive the grisly haunted encounters they experienced while living in the house, during which there are scenes of dramatic re-enactements which are played by other cast members of the show (actors). Halfway through the season, the show takes a turn in which it combines the re-enactment actors and the people from the documentary, into it's own sequel called "Return to Roanoke: Three Days in Hell", in which they are all filmed inside the house during the most haunted time of year, 'The Blood Moon'. This style of filming is popular in films such as "The Blair Witch Project" and "Paranormal Activity", while this 'point of view' filming / found footage style seemed to work well for these films, it has not been as successful for "American Horror Story". While some feel this style can make a film feel more 'real', in this particular season, it feels 'fake' and far less believable. Typically this is considered a low budget technique for film makers, which does not make any sense given the popularity of the previous seasons of "American Horror Story". Typically we are on the edge of our seat while watching "American Horror Story", but this season has been less than exciting.
Last Wednesday, the ninth episode of "Roanoke" aired, and we are really wondering if there is enough plot or characters left for the show to be able to redeem itself with only one episode remaining, which airs Wednesday, November 16, 2016 on FX. We really hope whatever the creators have in mind for season 7, it far out does the disappointment we feel from season 6.
