For this sixth season, they scaled things back, and stripped down the story, even discarding the distinctive opening credit sequence. The plot itself has elements of THE SHINING, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, THE SIXTH SENSE, and especially, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, for this season is built around our fascination with "reality" TV and "found footage." Both of those genres are not always my cup of tea, but they try to do something with them in MY ROANOKE NIGHTMARE. And interestingly, this season seems to say that the Big Bad here is not the ghosts, vampires, serial killers, and space aliens of past seasons, but us, the audience, and our insatiable desire for real life horror - just as long as we are not the ones getting hurt ourselves.
The first five episodes concerns a TV show built around supposedly actual events that occurred in North Carolina; we meet the "real" people in taped interviews, and then watch as their story is reenacted by "actors." We meet Matt and Shelby, an interracial couple who move from the Los Angeles to rural North Carolina, buying a house in the woods, and hopefully starting over after some bad stuff in their former lives. But this house in the woods proves to be no sanctuary, for there is an evil in these woods in the form of the famous Lost Colony of Roanoke Island, one of the great and enduring mysteries of American history. It turns out that the ghosts of these lost colonists claim the land on which Matt and Shelby's home is built, and they do not take to new arrivals or interlopers, and there is a long history of dead or vanished former owners that reveal what they do to those who trespass in their domain. This evil presence plays on the tensions in the new owner's relationship, and on the fragile emotions of Matt's troubled sister and niece who move in with them. All this comes to a head when, once a year, there is the night of the Blood Moon, when the dead take on physical form and come to settle the score.
That is the plot of the first five episodes, while the back half of the season is the aftermath of the success of the fictional "Roanoke Nightmare," where the producer tries to milk his success for a second season, this time multiple realities collide, with truly horrific results for everyone. Frankly, those first five episodes are clearly the best, with a strong narrative that manages to keep us guessing as to what will happen next. The second half is repetitive and strains credibility, even by AHS standards, which is saying something. We follow three separate sets of fools who rush in and get what they've asked for, more than that, characters who should know better, return to Roanoke House a second time, and a third, after barely escaping with their lives the first time, and after witnessing the grisly demise of friends, family, and co-workers at the hands of The Butcher and her Lost Colonists. There is a noticeable pull back in the sexual content, but there is more than enough gore to go around.
Though they try very hard, this season of AHS never completely grabs me, I am all aboard for the first half, as the mystery of Roanoke House is slowly unraveled, and we are not sure about certain characters, are they villains or are they sympathetic? But in the second half, the show's theme seems to disappear, as it all becomes about delivering shocks and plot twists; they come so hard and fast that the logic holes in the story are forgotten, as characters wander in and then disappear without anyone noticing or caring where they have gone. And there are some tired clichés dragged out for the millionth time: if it's Southern horror, then there has to be a family of violent, inbred hillbillies in the story. A lot of regulars return - Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Kathy Bates, Lilly Rabe, Angela Bassett, Denis O'Hare, Francis Conroy, Leslie Jordan, Cheyenne Jackson, Wes Bentley, Finn Whittrock - and they are joined this year by Cuba Gooding Jr., Andre Holland, and Adina Porter, who played Lettie Mae on TRUE BLOOD. Lady Gaga has a small part, blink and you will almost miss her. Everyone does a good job with what they are given, but it is a disappointment that favorites like Peters are given way too little to do. I do give them bonus points for casting Bassett against type this year as an actress who grabs the bottle and goes to pieces when the going gets tough. Nice to see Paulson's Lana Winters return, thus tying this season to all the others; if there is a central character that the audience is supposed to sympathize with, it would be Porter's Lee Harris, as she is virtually the only one still standing in the finale episode, but as usual for this series, the last episode feels hurried as the season wraps up the loose plot threads, and her story should have gotten a more fleshed out resolution.
But despite my complaints, as always, AMERICAN HORROR STORY is never dull, and that is more than enough for me.
MY ROANOKE NIGHTMARE concluded in early November of 2016, as the country was reeling from the results of the Presidential election, which many saw as a "reality" show that had become all too real horror story, thus providing Murphy and Falchuk the impetus for AHS Season 7; already planning my binge watch.
The first five episodes concerns a TV show built around supposedly actual events that occurred in North Carolina; we meet the "real" people in taped interviews, and then watch as their story is reenacted by "actors." We meet Matt and Shelby, an interracial couple who move from the Los Angeles to rural North Carolina, buying a house in the woods, and hopefully starting over after some bad stuff in their former lives. But this house in the woods proves to be no sanctuary, for there is an evil in these woods in the form of the famous Lost Colony of Roanoke Island, one of the great and enduring mysteries of American history. It turns out that the ghosts of these lost colonists claim the land on which Matt and Shelby's home is built, and they do not take to new arrivals or interlopers, and there is a long history of dead or vanished former owners that reveal what they do to those who trespass in their domain. This evil presence plays on the tensions in the new owner's relationship, and on the fragile emotions of Matt's troubled sister and niece who move in with them. All this comes to a head when, once a year, there is the night of the Blood Moon, when the dead take on physical form and come to settle the score.
That is the plot of the first five episodes, while the back half of the season is the aftermath of the success of the fictional "Roanoke Nightmare," where the producer tries to milk his success for a second season, this time multiple realities collide, with truly horrific results for everyone. Frankly, those first five episodes are clearly the best, with a strong narrative that manages to keep us guessing as to what will happen next. The second half is repetitive and strains credibility, even by AHS standards, which is saying something. We follow three separate sets of fools who rush in and get what they've asked for, more than that, characters who should know better, return to Roanoke House a second time, and a third, after barely escaping with their lives the first time, and after witnessing the grisly demise of friends, family, and co-workers at the hands of The Butcher and her Lost Colonists. There is a noticeable pull back in the sexual content, but there is more than enough gore to go around.
Though they try very hard, this season of AHS never completely grabs me, I am all aboard for the first half, as the mystery of Roanoke House is slowly unraveled, and we are not sure about certain characters, are they villains or are they sympathetic? But in the second half, the show's theme seems to disappear, as it all becomes about delivering shocks and plot twists; they come so hard and fast that the logic holes in the story are forgotten, as characters wander in and then disappear without anyone noticing or caring where they have gone. And there are some tired clichés dragged out for the millionth time: if it's Southern horror, then there has to be a family of violent, inbred hillbillies in the story. A lot of regulars return - Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Kathy Bates, Lilly Rabe, Angela Bassett, Denis O'Hare, Francis Conroy, Leslie Jordan, Cheyenne Jackson, Wes Bentley, Finn Whittrock - and they are joined this year by Cuba Gooding Jr., Andre Holland, and Adina Porter, who played Lettie Mae on TRUE BLOOD. Lady Gaga has a small part, blink and you will almost miss her. Everyone does a good job with what they are given, but it is a disappointment that favorites like Peters are given way too little to do. I do give them bonus points for casting Bassett against type this year as an actress who grabs the bottle and goes to pieces when the going gets tough. Nice to see Paulson's Lana Winters return, thus tying this season to all the others; if there is a central character that the audience is supposed to sympathize with, it would be Porter's Lee Harris, as she is virtually the only one still standing in the finale episode, but as usual for this series, the last episode feels hurried as the season wraps up the loose plot threads, and her story should have gotten a more fleshed out resolution.
But despite my complaints, as always, AMERICAN HORROR STORY is never dull, and that is more than enough for me.
MY ROANOKE NIGHTMARE concluded in early November of 2016, as the country was reeling from the results of the Presidential election, which many saw as a "reality" show that had become all too real horror story, thus providing Murphy and Falchuk the impetus for AHS Season 7; already planning my binge watch.