Bad acting, tired plot contribute to lack of fear in psychological drama
“American Horror Story” is like an episodic, televised version of “The Amityville Horror” (1979) that incorporates elements of Alfred Hitchcock’s old-school psychological horror. It’s fun to watch, but the show feels like it contains too many borrowed elements from every other American horror story.
It’s weird, entrancing and shocking, but co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Fulchuk (“Nip/Tuck,” “Glee”) fill it with many one-dimensional characters and a lot of unnecessarily naked Dylan McDermott.
The story centers on the Harmon family: psychologist Ben (Dylan McDermott), his wife Vivien (Connie Britton) and their daughter Violet (Tarissa Farmiga). They move from Boston to Los Angeles to start anew after Vivien has a miscarriage and Ben has an affair with one of his students.
They apparently didn’t count on the house having a haunted history or a group of new acquaintances like their new creepy next-door neighbor Constance (Jessica Lange); her daughter with Down syndrome, Adelaide (Jaime Brewer); their unusual housekeeper (Frances Conroy) and Ben’s disturbed patient Tate (Evan Peters), who apparently has an interest in Viola.
There really aren’t any scary moments in this series that will make viewers jump out of their seats, mostly because Murphy and Fulchuk spend too much time paying homage to classic horror stories to come up with any original scares of their own.
The series is more creepy than scary. While Vivian and Ben try to repair their marriage, they grow under the influences of the house’s paranormal activity. These entrancements include leftover spirits; an insane, deformed father (Dennis O’Hare), who was a previous owner and burned his wife and children alive; a bondage suited sexual entity; and an old housekeeper that appears before Ben as a young, wanton hottie.
As for the borrowed elements within the series, viewers see plenty of remembrances from classic horror films — so many that it feels like you’re walking through a museum filled with classic horror gimmicks.
There’s the creepy cellar from “The Amityville Horror,” the dark corner from “The Shining” (1980) and sexuality from “Don’t Look Now” (1973). There are also infant body parts contained within jars in the basement and a pair of dead twins.
Aside from the air of intrigue about the ghostly house, the series seems to basically focus on the damaged family trying to reconnect with each other as they deal with the strange happenings occurring throughout the house.
So far, the story refuses to make any sense, especially when it comes to explaining why the family continues to stay in the house despite all of the paranormal happenings. But hopefully, this will be explained further within the series.
Also, as a bit of a side story in the pilot episode, the viewers see Violet immediately, and slightly unrealistically, have trouble with a group of popular girls at her new school. I say unrealistically because the head girl in the group immediately bullies and threatens to kill Violet for no reason other than the fact that Violet smokes.
Out of all the actors in the series, Connie Britton definitely is the strongest, though that really isn’t saying much. The scenes in the pilot episode where Vivien expresses her difficulty forgiving her husband’s affair are really the most emotional moments in the series thus far.
Dylan McDermott, however, is a different story. During the moments of psychosexuality, when Ben sees the housekeeper in a younger, sexier fashion and Vivien engages in intercourse with a man in a rubber suit, McDermott is usually seen naked, either staring into blank space or ejaculating.
The bottom line is that watching “American Horror Story” is similar to watching someone jump off a skyscraper: It’s disconcerting and horrid but it easily catches your attention. The series is eerie and entertaining enough to watch but isn’t exceptionally scary.