American Horror Story: Television Review

October always seems to be the month to release horror stories on both the big screen and the small screen. Last year, Walking Dead was released to AMC and devastated the competition, becoming a very successful television series for last year and being highly anticipated for this year. Another highly anticipated television series is The American Horror Story on the FX Network.

When I saw the first trailer for this television series, my interest was peaked. I’m all about paranormal phenomena, haunted houses, and the story of the people dealing with the strangeness. I was eagerly awaiting the new show, with high hopes. Fortunately, those hopes were not completely dashed.

The show starts out in 1978, with a slight bit of history on the house itself. Not a lot, just showing some of the trouble that has occurred in the ancient home.  Then the time setting moves forward to present day, showing us the troubles of a family and their eventual move to the home.

I don’t want to go into too much detail about the story. Though, the writers have made the story interesting, with interesting characters. We’re not yet to the point of actually liking any of the characters, perhaps feeling a bit sorry for the characters. Though there are other characters you are definitely leery of and will have an instant dislike for those characters. The dialogue is sharp and witty at times. Then you have the cinematography. The shots are not your normal angles, more sharp and attention getting.

So far, the series seems to harken back to American Gothic, a television show from 1995 that was also a horror/drama. And that’s not a bad thing. I’m very interested in seeing where this will go, and find it refreshing to not see a show that is like other shows on currently. Be warned though, this is a show for adults. It may not has as much nudity, blood or violence as shows on HBO and Showtime, though it is still adult oriented.