Before you can say “squeal like a pig” the second chapter of American Horror Story continues its re-enactment of a new murder house. This one inhabited by deadly nurses and a little ghost girl named Pricilla who wants to kill everyone one.
There are more piggy noises in the night and a giant burning cross with a pig’s head on the top of it and lots of entrails and other bits of dripping meat hanging off the cross strut. Lee, the former cop and prescription drug addict, has a major meltdown when Flora is taken away by her ex-husband.
Lee’s self destructive streak is so severe she changes her drug of choice to alcohol.
Chapter two follows a horrified, and scared out of her mind Shelby as she runs from the scalped man in the woods. Matt finds her and after a night in the hospital she is allowed home. Not without the local police checking her blood system for hallucinogenics first.
The hillbilly clan were scarce this week. They were accused of much but made no appearances at all. The pig head wearing man makes a couple of appearances. One of which was a seat jumper and Lee (Bassett) really sold that scare to the audience.
(On a sidenote, Ms. Bassett could almost tie Ms. Coulson who proved as far back as Serenity that she can work that scream.)
Chapter two introduced the two nurses, one of whom was seen when the couple bought the house. These murderous women liked to play the name game a bit differently. Running a home for the elderly, the nurses murdered patients and spray painted the first letter of their surname on the wall.
Denis O’Hare as the professor “and author” relates their story via a found video tape. They were never caught, despite murdering a number of helpless patients and the letters MURDE, were a permanent fixture on the wall.
The word was wallpapered over and after seeing the tape Matt goes and peels off the paper to reveal the word. (If only wallpaper were really that easy to remove, redecorating would be an absolute breeze…)
Lee kidnaps her girl and this time Pricilla lures the youngster outside of the house. The highlight of the episode was Lee, and Matt and Shelby, finding Flora’s yellow hoodie way up towards the top of that very tall tree.
Creepy and chilling is the best way to describe that scene.
Matt watching the two nurses murder an old woman in her hospital bed was the close runner up of best scene. “M” is for Margaret was the topper in the house and the choking bit with the rag was a close third. Really quite disturbing.
Shelby and her husband confront the bank about selling them a murder house (Ah, first season…) only to find that the institution will do nothing. They can sell the place to the Deliverance gang or stay in the house.
The show is slowly winding up the tension and piling on the creepiness of the place. So far it looks like Lee may be the first “casualty” after the disappearance of Flora. Clearly this poor stressed out woman may just beat Shelby to the “crazy” finish line.
American Horror Story is delivering a pretty good season in terms of being creepily entertaining. While the show does not contain the originality of prior sessions it is still a crowd pleaser.
One bone of contention, however, has to do with Kathy Bates and her odd accent. Seems like Ethel the bearded lady may reside in her new character’s body. Not that it is not interesting, it just feels like a poor fit for the meat clever welding woman.
American Horror Story ends with things shifting into high gear. Lee’s kid is missing and things have taken a turn for the worse.
The series airs Wednesdays on FX.
CAST:
- Lily Rabe – Real Shelby
- André Holland – Real Matt
- Adina Porter – Real Lee
- Angela Bassett – Recreation Lee
- Cuba Gooding Jr. – Recreation Matt
- Sarah Paulson – Recreation Shelby
Mikes Film Talk 