Are you utterly obsessed with American Horror Story? Do you spend your free time quietly yearning to know the terror of living in Murder House, or staring as the headliner in Frauline Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities? Is Violet Harmon your ideal girlfriend, James Patrick March your twisted and beautiful fantasy? There is no shame in admitting any of this, for you are among friends. AHS appeals to some morbid desire resting deep within us all who watch it, some grotesque itch we can only scratch when indulging in that horrible show. That much is understood amongst us AHS-oholics, and now I have but one question. What attracts us to a television show that showcases the very worst of human nature, that exploits our deepest and most inescapable fears? Logically speaking, we should avoid the spectacle at all costs, but there is nothing logical about AHS, is there? Nor is there anything logical about the people who watch it.
With the sixth season quickly approaching, there is no denying the success of AHS. Since 2010, the drama has stupefied audiences with it's macabre and often difficult to watch depictions of characters battling the most prolific fears we, as the audience harbor. Murderous ghosts, gruesome asylums, bloodthirsty covens, disturbing freak shows, eerie hotels, and now, with a haunting forest theme coming around the bend, it would seem as though the writers of AHS are unrelenting in their mission to terrify and amuse their audiences, and we continue to devour every last morsel.
Could it be that we so enjoy the show because we render a morbid satisfaction from the repugnant display that is American Horror Story? Do we relish in witnessing the pain and suffering of others? Or is it a more innocent infatuation? Do we crave from AHS what we crave from a good horror flick - a simple fright? There is any number of intense psychoanalyses that would generate numerous responses as to why the public so adores this phenomenon - how will the true answer ever be found? Why does this even matter? I don't know. All I do know, however, is that while I love AHS, I can't help but feel that I shouldn't.
