As I sat down late Thursday night, after a long and stressful day of teaching and meetings, lights off by the backyard glass door and with no one home, I excitedly turned on my recording of the season premiere for American Horror Story. As a bit of background knowledge, I'm the world's biggest chicken, but I love horror and suspense movies/TV and the one good thing I got from my ex-boyfriend was the introduction to this amazing show! I fell in love with Murder House (I couldn't go in my bathroom for weeks without checking behind the shower curtain with some sort of projectile in hand) and was equally terrified during Asylum. Coven was alright and started to get into some of the more "magical" aspects of the show, but didn't send me under the sheets. I thought Freak Show was a bit of a womp-womp by the end; how could you kill off Twisty the Clown, who was a thing straight out of nightmares, and give us Dandy as the main scare/villain?! Hotel was overall good and showed a glimmer of hope; I loved Lady Gaga and the H. H. Holmes/murder hotel concept, but thought that it was a bit over-the-top and not enough horror for my taste (gore ≠ horror). So, with an unknown theme rolling around for Season 6, I held my breath and prayed for something good.
Mum has been the word on this season's theme as teaser trailers and posters (including a fake one that we wouldn't know is fake until after the season premiered) have given a variety of hints.
Are rumors of a Slenderman-esque theme true?
Are we going back to the aliens introduced in Asylum?
How about when Ryan Murphy talked about doing something with children?
Remember when Sarah Paulson's character talked about Roanoke back in season 1?
Rumors abound and no one had a true idea of what to expect for this season.
As a warning, from here on out, SPOILERS ahead!!
As it turns out, the theme this year is, in fact, the lost colony of Roanoke; a theme that was originally suspected for season two, but never came to fruition. As promised, Murphy is beginning to tie in previous seasons and it looks like what we had all suspected back in Season 1 is finally going to be followed through with this current season. For those who may have forgotten, Sarah Paulson's medium character, Billie Dean Howard, explains the story of the lost colony of Roanoke back in Season 1, how the settlers were slaughtered and their ghosts banished by a Native American spell that we find out didn't exactly work. I, for one, am very excited to go into one of America's biggest mysteries and to see how Ryan Murphy is going to pull this one off.
But, as a twist, we have the season presented in a docu-series format, something that threw me off at first, but definitely grabbed my attention. The docu-series is called "My Roanoke Nightmare" and clues us in right away to what the theme is. Lily Rabe and Andre Holland as Shelby and Matt Miller are a young, hopelessly-in-love, interracial couple who end up moving to the Deep South when things begin to go very wrong, leading Matt to call in his sister Lee (played by Adina Porter) to stay with his wife while he is away. The couple first battle it out with some white supremacists over the property they buy in the South. Later, Shelby is attacked (by her account) while in the outside hot tub, leading to Lee coming to the house, where they are then trapped in the basement while someone hangs Blair Witch-esque dolls around the house. The premiere ends with Shelby hitting a colonial woman (played by Kathy Bates) with her car and ending up lost in the woods. Sarah Paulson and Cuba Gooding, Jr. portray Shelby and Matt and Angela Bassett portrays Lee in the "reenactment" portion of the show. Try to keep that all straight. Not seen in this episode are Cheyenne Jackson, Evan Peters, Denis O'Hare, and Lady Gaga, all who are slated to appear this season.
Who knows if this will be the format for the entirety of the season, but between the unknown theme, characters, and format prior and the fantastic premiere we got, I think American Horror Story has the potential to give us something as amazing and terrifying as we got back in Murder House and Asylum. Watchers had grown into having certain expectations about each season as the theme was revealed through the teasers and people were beginning to lose interest with the over-the-top glitz and glamour, while not having much in story line, suspense, and horror. I think American Horror Story made the best decision for the show by revealing next to nothing prior to the premiere. It left people guessing, it had people talking, and, when revealed, it was an interesting and exciting new twist to a show that was beginning to feel a little stale. Sure, it wasn't as scary as past seasons and episodes, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of opportunities for horror with almost an entire season ahead of us. What is key is that there is a lot of speculation over what is really going on this season.
Are Shelby and Matt really dead even though we're supposedly seeing them give interviews now?
How and is this going to tie in to Murder House and Billie Dean Howard?
Maybe those "fake" trailers weren't so fake?
Did Shelby sacrifice her baby to save Matt's life?
Why do Shelby and Matt in the reenactments look so much older than they do in the interviews?
They just need to keep that ball rolling and with, what appears to be, a return to its roots, this could be up there as one of the best seasons. All I want is some great story and character development while I shiver, terrified, in the dark. Please, American Horror Story, don't let me down this season.
