Saturday, October 15, 2011

American Horror Story season 1 episode 2 : Home Invasion

Summary : Only decent episodic story and creativity, promising Tate and Violet, shocking Constance and Abby, intriguing enough

Score : 7/10

The pilot had such an odd impact on me that I highly awaited the show's return and wrote one of my strangest reviews. With productions like Masters of Horror we know what to expect as all episodes are standalone but with American Horror Story I was wondering what would be its format. Home Invasion revealed that its main story has potential because all the Harmon family members have what it takes considering what they have been through but I'm more skeptical about the weekly dose of horror or crime. My first complain was that the subplot wasn't frightening or disturbing enough. In fact it was even predictable at times. However it was shaken by the enigmatic Tate Langdon. Evan Peters role is surprising because so far I only knew him as the nice boy from Invasion. The therapy session was almost shocking, specially if you try to take Ben's place. His controversial relationship with his daughter Violet made things even more interesting because you don't know what he's capable of. As for Taissa Farmiga her role was reminiscent of feminism because it takes a lot of courage to survive, specially when your house is haunted or taken over by psychokillers.

Beside Tate and Violet I also really enjoyed Constance and Abby's side. The gorgeous aging mother and the trisomic daughter. A modern and twisted version of The Beauty of the Beast ? Probably but Jessica Lange definitely makes a charming monster and Jamie Brewer's performance was also quite convincing. Indeed until the vertiginous room of broken mirrors sequence the episode had been less surprising than the pilot. It just lacked the amount of creativity that made it so excellent. I also missed Moira, at least my libido did, and found Ben's arc far too anecdotic even if his absence served the main story in the end. However the show has plenty of intriguing plotlines to build up a crowd of hungry horror fans. From properly dealing with what happened to the girl who got her face hurt last time and of course the pregnancy I have definitely signed up for the upcoming episode. Otherwise I think the series desperately needs a goal the audience can rely on or else it will lose interest. Ending the episode with a cliffhanger was a first step in the right direction so considering its numerous qualities I can't see how it could miserably fail to satisfy our vicious appetite.

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