First off, the sound-balance for much of this first episode was way off: distractingly so, as dialogue was swamped by background music.
I really enjoy AHS. Using the familiar tropes and traditions of a distinctively American horror fiction meant that, inevitably, focus would soon swerve from serial-killers, New Orleans Voodoo, Salem Witches, et al, to a pastiche of the first uniquely American cinema horror, Browning's 'Freaks. It may be too early to judge, and my own reservations may prove premature - I certainly hope so - but I think the opening is too much, too soon.
With Browning's masterpiece, the message that the community of 'Freaks' was mutually supportive and compassionate, and it was the superficially 'normal' and 'beautiful' people who were the true monsters was carefully delivered, and the Carnies' recourse to behaving in a monstrous and murderous manner ('One of us! One of us!') was potent, dramatically unexpected and genuinely shocking. Here, though, though there are clear narrative nods to Tod's magnum opus, there is too much eagerness to BE grotesque, and to have the supporting characters behave monstrously...without building our emotional engagement with them, first. An over-eagerness to shock diminished the impact the final scenes should have delivered.
A little disappointing, given that past seasons (2 and 3, particularly) achieved a great sense of subtle tension, and seldom sacrificed the drama of the Big Picture to a gratuitous gore.
I'm undecided about the Gacy-style devil-clown - which is something I'd expect of a more low-rent product - though I suppose the gimmick-slasher IS another American horror archetype.
Less thoughtful and challenging than it's predecessors. But, as I say, I may be premature in judging it poorly.
The YouTube popularity of the 'Seven Wonders' and 'Name Game' scenes from past seasons seems to have triggered the incongruous 50s rendition of Bowie's ('70s) 'Life On Mars', and I think we're going to see much more of this in the future, but it was a stylish sequence and - if not overdone - this could be an interesting feature.
Okay - so far - but no more than that.
I really enjoy AHS. Using the familiar tropes and traditions of a distinctively American horror fiction meant that, inevitably, focus would soon swerve from serial-killers, New Orleans Voodoo, Salem Witches, et al, to a pastiche of the first uniquely American cinema horror, Browning's 'Freaks. It may be too early to judge, and my own reservations may prove premature - I certainly hope so - but I think the opening is too much, too soon.
With Browning's masterpiece, the message that the community of 'Freaks' was mutually supportive and compassionate, and it was the superficially 'normal' and 'beautiful' people who were the true monsters was carefully delivered, and the Carnies' recourse to behaving in a monstrous and murderous manner ('One of us! One of us!') was potent, dramatically unexpected and genuinely shocking. Here, though, though there are clear narrative nods to Tod's magnum opus, there is too much eagerness to BE grotesque, and to have the supporting characters behave monstrously...without building our emotional engagement with them, first. An over-eagerness to shock diminished the impact the final scenes should have delivered.
A little disappointing, given that past seasons (2 and 3, particularly) achieved a great sense of subtle tension, and seldom sacrificed the drama of the Big Picture to a gratuitous gore.
I'm undecided about the Gacy-style devil-clown - which is something I'd expect of a more low-rent product - though I suppose the gimmick-slasher IS another American horror archetype.
Less thoughtful and challenging than it's predecessors. But, as I say, I may be premature in judging it poorly.
The YouTube popularity of the 'Seven Wonders' and 'Name Game' scenes from past seasons seems to have triggered the incongruous 50s rendition of Bowie's ('70s) 'Life On Mars', and I think we're going to see much more of this in the future, but it was a stylish sequence and - if not overdone - this could be an interesting feature.
Okay - so far - but no more than that.