22 replies to this topic

[TWoP Tennison]

You can discuss all of season 1 in here, and/or compare it to the episodes of season 2.

[TheLabRat]

There's a whole sub-sect of the raw food movement that's all about raw meat and has just as much snake oil quackery behind it as your average homeopath. I never looked it up at the time the episode aired, but I assumed it came from that (or was, at least, inspired by it).

I can't shake this idea that at the end of the show in its entirety, we're going to find out the seasons are more connected than they seem to be right now; sort of a la Outer Limits and the handful of episodes it did that connected all of its stories together.

[Zyx]

Anyone have a theory as to why the maid fed Vivian the brains?

I assumed that she was feeding the Beast that Vivian was carrying, and the Beast craved it.

[KermitD.Frog]

Was the raw food movement alive and well (no pun intended) when Moira died? Just curious. If not, how else would she have found out about it? I think she died after Tate was born but he must have been small enough not to have any memories about her. She mentions him to Constance (although I guess she would have known about Tate being born after she was in ghost form, so that's not really a sticking point). I could look it up, I guess...
Anyway, Tate was killed in 1994 and he was approx. 16, so he must have been born around 1978. So by my assumptions, she died in the late 70's/early 80's.

The reason I ask about this is, she really seemed to have Vivian's best interests at heart, and even seemed to fight with Constance about her welfare. So, I don't think she was trying to "feed" the Beast Baby. If anything, I would think she had been trying to save Viv from what that baby was doing to her. Or is eating raw food an "old fashioned" way of thinking?

[Nightmare Logic]

Is it possible that Lana is the current version of Bloody Face? I think this season, will in large part be about stripping her morals and sanity. What better way then to turn her into a literal monster.

[Zyx]

The reason I ask about this is, she really seemed to have Vivian's best interests at heart, and even seemed to fight with Constance about her welfare. So, I don't think she was trying to "feed" the Beast Baby.

She would if the alternative was that the Beast would instead feed on its mother or its sibling.

[Gyros Rock]

First season is now available for streaming on Netflix. So having watched it marathon style and having read all 275 pages of the original thread about it, I feel like sharing.

1) Nora. People were asking why Nora got tired of the Harmon baby so quickly once she got it. In the episode where we see her needling Charles at the dinner table, he throws a glass, and little Thad begins to cry. She rings for the maid and tells her to come and remove him immediately whenever he cries. I don't know why, but I feel Nora was probably brought up the same way. Being confronted with a baby that she has no idea how to soothe and no 'help' to hand him off to was clearly something she hadn't put much thought into.
2) Ghosts stealing the Harmon babies. Chad and Patrick, Nora, Hayden. Unless they were planning on killing the parents as well (which Hayden was clearly ok with), I don't see how they expected that to work. It's a live baby, it doesn't just blink out of the material plane because you want it to, and its parents might be curious about its whereabouts if they don't see it for a few days. (What? It's the Harmons.)
3) How did Tate impregnate Vivien? My read on this was that it shouldn't have been possible, but through the agency of some entity, it was made possible. I mean, it's supposed to bring forth the Antichrist, it's probably not something that happens every Halloween when the ghosties get to play outside. I do not know why Tate seemed to think it was possible for him to do it, though.
4) Tate. I honestly don't know if psychopath or sociopath is a more apt term, not being in that line of work. I do believe he feels some form of attachment to people, and since it's as close to love as he can feel, that's what he calls it. How would he know any better? I don't think he does have empathy though. He knows on an intellectual level that certain things will upset people, but he can't actually feel for them.
5) Organs and Viv. I don't think Moira was trying to harm her or feed the beast baby. I was born the year she was shot, and I still remember my mom and grandmother telling me that organ meats were very nutritious. I don't play with raw meat, though, I've had food poisoning and didn't care for it.
So, if there's anyone out there who'd like to check it on Netflix and argue with me, please do. I love to argue!

ETA on Season 2. Bloody Face? Really 1960s news media?

Edited by Gyros Rock, Nov 27, 2012 @ 10:07 PM.

[valny]

First season is now available for streaming on Netflix.

YES!! I didn't know that, thanks Gyros Rock. I didn't think Netflix would be adding it anytime soon, so this is great. I'd love to rewatch one day,if I can just get make a dent in my 122 movie queue! I was going to ask for the dvds for Xmas if any relatives could find it for a really good price, but now forget that.
But...are there any good features on the dvds that make it worth getting anyway?

Edited by valny, Nov 28, 2012 @ 9:46 PM.

[Gyros Rock]

No probs! I find that watching end to end, I sometimes pick up on things I didn't notice at first, or perceive things differently. INetflix added it right as I was about to break down and buy the DVDs. Not sure about special features, I like audio commentaries myself.
Edit: Found them listed on Barnes and Noble website.
**Behind the Fright: The Making of American Horror Story **The Murder House presented by Eternal Darkness Tours of Hollywood **On the Set of American Horror Story Season One **Overture to Horror: Creating the Title Sequence **Out of the Shadows: Meet the House Ghosts

You know what? I'm not clear on the present day story of season 2. Do those teenagers just hang out at Briarcliff in Bloody Face costumes all the time? And the real Bloody Face Mk 2 was just waiting for them to kill someone so he could kill them and call and alert the authorities to his own existence? And it was just his good luck that there was a lovely brand new widow with a murder fetish nearby?

Edited by Gyros Rock, Nov 28, 2012 @ 9:50 PM.

[KermitD.Frog]

Should we mov this to the Speculation thread?

Anyway, I think Present Day BF lives in the asylum, like a hermit or homeless guy. He knows who he is but has this pathological need to protect his place of birth (or whatever). The kids might even live in a place where they can see Briarcliff, so when they saw the young couple go in, they decided to mess with them. Atthe same time, BF notices th couple walking around and this trespassing infuriates him, so he follows them. When he saw the flash go off and realized Adam Levine took his picture, he ripped his arm off. As this is happening, the teens are sneaking into Briarcliff from different points, and one of them meets Mrs. Channing in the tunnel. He chases her back to where Levine is. This teen was probably a bit more messed up then the other two, because when he saw Levine's unconcious body, he got into his BF role and started stabbing. This set off the chain of events that got the teen himself stabbed, the couple shot, and the teens confronted by a ticked of BF who is by now so sick of dealing with these idiots that calmly dispatches them. Then he thinks about BF: Original Flavor and realizes this could be the start of something new, so he strings the teen bodies up (his own kills only), collects Mrs. Channing (who should have been dead from a gunshot would, but whatever - maybe the teens were more responsible than we thought and used rubber bullets, haha), then calls the cops to show off what he did. Since he knows the cops will go over the asylum with a fine tooth comb, he knows he can't keep her there, so he takes her back to dad's house (who may or may not still be alive). Maybe we'll even see an updated-for-the-times ZQ, who will start the father/son bonding.

[Zyx]

What I miss from last season are the opening credits. The ones last season were so much creepier than this years' and they fit the music better.

[valny]

What I miss from last season are the opening credits. The ones last season were so much creepier than this years' and they fit the music better.

I honestly can't remember what the credits looked liked last season(I will have to see when I rewatch on Netflix) but all I know is this season is SUPER creepy and jarring.

[KermitD.Frog]

I agree. The first season credits were creepy in a much more subtle way. Shadowed photographs, obscure objects in bowls, things that may or may not be supernatural but set a tone for creepiness.

This season is trying too hard to be creepy. The teasers were ok, with the different objects (the blue coat, the sewing machine, etc) that made you winder what was to come (how could a coat be creepy). This season, a lot of what I remember about the credits look like clips of anvilicious horror movies, already freaky in their own right, with nothing left to the imagination about what those objects mean.

[VirgoTaurus]

From the Dark Cousin Thread.

I think the missing fourth child was just as big a hole, if not bigger. Addy was there for the twins death and had other significant points. Beau was mercy killed becoming one of the house ghosts and leading his brother (Tate) to burn Larry. Tate was the Rubberman and Violet's lover among many other things. Then there's a fourth we never see or hear about other than acknowledging it's existence. I can't speak for others but I was always hoping we'd see who it was and disappointed when it was left out.

[SimpleMelody]

This is my first post, so let's see if I can get it to work. I'm trying to reply to the post about Constance's fourth child. Here's a link to something Ryan Murphy supposedly said about it:

http://insidetv.ew.c...ouse-exclusive/

It's about the fifth question down.

[RadiantAerynSun]

Regarding season 2:
(quote taken from Episode 2-10 thread, moving here at request from admin)
Zyx wrote

I thought this was a "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" season. The series has been keeping my interest while I watch it, but I didn't find this episode scary in the least, and if I think about it all I realize that nothing hangs together and none of it makes a lick of sense. Why not throw in a dance number? Why not get rid of half the characters and plotlines at once during the middle of the season?

I agree. I would have thought since they know they have X number of episodes to tell a story that they could come up with a well defined, intriguing and sometimes scary, but tight plot. Instead it seems like they are just throwing darts at a wall. I still find it enjoyable in a crazy sort of way it's just less cohesive and satisfying than I would have expected. It feels more like the show has run for 4 or 5 years and they are throwing in dance numbers to spice things up. Not really what you'd expect from a show with a predefined end game. Hmm. Well we'll see maybe I will change my mind by the end of the season.

[SHOgirl]

Exactly this. She came up with the abortion idea and spearheaded the whole thing, and one of the direct outcomes of that was her baby being killed. Then she kills Charles, and now she's a ghost who is ok with Tate murdering people just so she can have a baby.

The impression I get from the American Horror Story thread is that viewers seem to think that Nora is responsible for Charles' and Tate's behavior. Why can't Charles and Tate be responsible for their own behavior?

[thistlehead]

Started re-watching S1 with Mr Thistlehead this weekend and a couple of things stuck out:

1) In 1.1 Constance is talking about her film career that wasn't and mentioned nudity and not wanting to display her "green pastures". Of course in Asylum we get the "mossy bank". Do I detect a theme?

2) In 1.2 Constance says "I'm a sucker for penance." Don't we know it! LOL

I am hoping that S3 will reunite Jessica Lange and Denis O'Hare.

Edited by thistlehead, Jan 23, 2013 @ 12:51 AM.

[ummokayyeah]

I made a list of all the films I thought American Horror Story Season 1 was sending up:


The Sixth Sense
The Others
Frankenstein
Rosemary's Baby
Heathers (Tate and Violent scaring the mean girl)
The Omen
The Shining (the burned man said the house made him go crazy and kill his family)
The People Under the Stair (kinda a stretch, but the tone is similar, and situation is similar)
Beetlejuice
The Goonies (also a stretch, but the deformed dude in the attic was like the one in the Goonies)

Do you agree? Can you think of any I missed?

I just finished watching the first season.

There's a post on the website jezebel about AHS treatment of gender. It got me thinking about these themes while watching the show. I have not watched the second season, so I can't speak to that, but I felt like the message of the first season was that men are complete pieces of shit.

The main character, Ben, was a dense, narcissistic brat, but in a very mundane way, the way that an average American male might be. It seemed the whole goal of the season was trying to get Ben to realize his narcissism. I think Ben kind of represented an "everyman" character. It's like his character is a comment on men in our society. Also every other male in the show was the same way. Tate was practically a psychopath. The dude with the burn scars was selfish and narcissistic like Ben. The male reactions to the maid portrayed them as pigs. The gay men weren't as bad, but they were still selfish and whiny. Meanwhile the only pure and innocent characters were women; Vivienne, Violet, Addy and maybe the maid.

I also thought that a large part of the message was to condemn men who cheat. Cheating was treated like the worst thing, one character even says it's worse than murder. Almost all of the conflicts get started because a man cheated. Don't get men wrong, I think cheating is bad, but c'mon the punishment seems a little over the top for the crime to me. And did the show forget that women cheat too?

I also thought that another theme was conveying that abortion is terrible and traumatizing to women. The whole way the house got haunted in the first place was because it was an abortion clinic and that was portrayed as shady and bad. It seemed to me that abortion and miscarriage were intertwined and conflated, and were both portrayed as equally traumatizing and terrible.

I loved the show, but I did think that the messages about cheating and abortion were really old-fashioned and extreme.

Edited by ummokayyeah, Jan 29, 2013 @ 4:32 AM.

[Arcadia]

Has anyone broken down everything in the stained glass painting now that the season is over? I can pick out some of the people and events, but not all.

[busybeex]

Has anyone broken down everything in the stained glass painting now that the season is over? I can pick out some of the people and events, but not all.

Not sure if it I can identify everything, but I think I have some of them figured out. (A link to the picture is here if anyone needs it.)

Of course, this is all purely guesses on my part! Going left to right:
1. Woman leaning over silver tub--Lana doing conversion therapy
2. Blindfolded woman in wheelchair--Jude's descent into madness. She cannot recognize herself because the blindfold of crazy is in the way. We can see her reflection, but she can't.
3. Man in blue/red/yellow robe is Monsignor standing over Shelly (tied to the table) giving her last rites before he kills her.
4. Shelly's legs are being eaten by raspers because Arden amputated them.
5. Dude with one arm and a camera = Adam Levine
6. Man seated in front of woman dropping a baby is Gruber, holding his Arden "mask"
7. Man in blue/red/yellow robe seating in rocking chair is also Monsignor. His mask is his outward appearance of "nice, virtuous man" who is anxiously looking away from the naked woman. The "real" Monsignor is only in it for himself and his own gain. Notice he is looking right at the naked woman!
8. Woman in green dress, sitting on bed, holding an axe--could be Alma or Grace. They're both axe murderers.
9. Guy at the far right is MDBF
10. Two straight-jacketed people (the blond man at the far left and the woman at the center) are Kit and Lana. They're the only sane ones there, yet are treated as the most crazy.

That's all I got. :P

[curlyblackeggs]

I'll take a crack at it...

11. On the left, it appears as though a spaceship is picking someone in blue up (looks like a nun to me)... I'd say Jude, when the kids take her to the woods.
12. Wheelchair woman on the right, with hair covering her face... I want to say this is Grace, but I can't quite pinpoint why. Perhaps because the real Grace died and the aliens sent her back? The nun pushing her could actually be Pepper. To me, this would explain why that teeny alien is hovering right by them.

[Arcadia]

Amazing! Any others?

Also, I remember seeing pictures of Grace looking like a zombie. I wonder what happened to that storyline?