This is an anthology series which means each season has a different story, I have been enjoying this series for years. Along the way, there have been great seasons like last year where the plot was about the apocalypse and the story was perfectly interrelated with previous seasons, which is not normal in anthologies.
On the other hand, there have also been seasons that are not very good, such as "Hotel" and its excessive blood in many scenes. Nevertheless, AHS has always remained a good horror series, although it is also necessary to mention, that if it is already difficult to find good horror movies, getting good series of this genre was almost impossible for years. This absence of good horror series I think helped AHS a lot in positioning itself as an excellent and highly demanded production since its early years.
In previous articles I mentioned my concern that this series is becoming a horror parody and not a role model. AHS has always been excellent in creating original posters, look at these examples from previous seasons:
And then look at one of the posters of the new season:
Every good horror fan can see this poster is nothing more than a kind of parody of one of the most iconic scenes in the history of horror:
In case you don't recognize the scene, it's from the movie The Shining and I would say it's one of the best performances the great actor Jack Nicholson did in his career. As a curious note, I share the tip that the sequel to this movie, called Doctor Sleep, premieres in a matter of days.
Getting back to AHS, for me there is a huge contrast between the original and intriguing posters of the previous seasons, and the parody of the new season.
So far I have seen all the episodes to see if my suspicions were correct, and the season has been disappointing, it reminds me a bit of the films like I Know What You Did Last Summer. In addition, with the exception of the Cult season, there has always been a paranormal element in AHS, and although this element exists in the new 1984 season, it is very mild and almost it goes unnoticed. This season is basically about murders and some twists that still leave much to be desired.
An important factor is the cast is not as good as in previous years, until this year AHS was synonymous with names like Evan Peters and Sarah Poulson, and during the first seasons it also had Jessica Lange (being the main face of the series during its first 4 years). Also, I don't think it's a coincidence that the seasons including Taissa Farmiga are generally better than the seasons where this actress doesn't participate, this year she is obviously not part of the cast.
The contrast between simple images is pretty clear. The first image is from the Coven season (with fine-looking witches), the second image is obviously from the last 1984 season (with dumb-looking teenagers):
I'm really worried about what is happening with AHS this year, but after 9 seasons, each with an original story, I guess it's acceptable to make mistakes. I hope that next year AHS will return with a great season.
And that this year AHS is a failure does not mean there are no good horror series available, the new Netflix series called Marianne was pretty good, and Netflix's masterpiece called The Haunting of Hill House was spectacular, especially in the first episodes. This series by the way, will be an anthology per season just like AHS, and season 2 comes out next year.
Series URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/1413-american-horror-story Critic: A
