American Horror Story: Murder House (2011)
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American Horror Story: Murder House Review
American Horror Story is a horror anthology series from FX that first premiered in 2011. The first season is called Murder House and it consists of 12 episodes.
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“You having issues with arousal?
Not when I’m by myself“
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It centers on the Harmon family: Dr. Ben Harmon, Vivien and their daughter Violet, who move from Boston to Los Angeles after Vivien has a miscarriage and Ben has an affair. They move into a restored mansion, unaware that the house is haunted by the ghosts of its former residents and their victims.
So it’s pretty much a regular haunted house storyline, but it works because it’s quite memorable and very detailed in its plot points and characters. I personally wanted more truly frightening sequences in here, but there are some creepy scenes here and there with the highlights being the rubber man scenes which are very effective.
Let’s talk about the characters. Vivien is a woman who everyone thinks she lost it, but she genuinely experienced paranormal activity, and I found her psychological torment scenes very strong. Ben is also a strong character, though he’s somewhat of a wuss as he couldn’t really protect his family. In the objectification of this actor, you can clearly see that it was directed by Ryan Murphy, a gay man himself.
I liked Violet quite a bit, but I personally found Evan Peters’ Tate very annoying. I get that he’s supposed to be a major villain, but to me he was more annoying than anything else. But I did love Constance, played so memorably by Jessica Lange who stole the show here from all of the other actors for sure. And that gay couple was also very memorable, and their scenes are some of the most dramatic of the season.
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I found this season perfectly solid, but middling in at least half of its episodes. The ending itself wasn’t all that great, though I did like everyone becoming ghosts which led to some quite moving sequences. There are some great episodes to be had here, but for the most part Ryan Murphy just put in a lot of crazy imagery and plot points with no coherence to them whatsoever.
So this season wasn’t the greatest beginning to this show. It has its flaws and it’s messy in execution. But the characterization and especially the mysteries and the overall prevailing storyline were all strong.
Worst Episodes: Murder House and Spooky Little Girl.
Best Episodes: Rubber Man and Birth.
