So we have chapters this time round, not episodes?
I honestly don’t have any idea what the theme of this
year’s American Horror Story is on
account of some marketing guru deciding they’d be super mysterious to generate
buzz. For me this meant I got distracted and wandered off to something else.
But it’s apparently called “Roanoke.” So
I’m guessing another croatoan myth? With a hefty chunk of Blair Witch as well I
see
The format appears to be “documentary” with a claim of
the show being based on true events recap. So every role has two actors: the “actual”
person and then an actor playing the re-enactment which is a pretty unique
format. I’m curious how this works – it does give a real sense of reality to
the whole show
And it was scary. Yes, this episode was scary. I was
spooked.
So, what do we have? We have our protagonists: Shelby and
Matt, a successful married couple embarking on their dream life on the West
Coast until a random attack in the street has Matt in the hospital and Shelby
miscarrying.
They are naturally traumatised deeply by this and feel
the need to leave to feel safe again
So this interracial couple moves to rural Virginia. To
feel safe
I’m just going to leave that there.
They also are miles and miles away from absolutely everyone
in the spookiest house ever – certainly spookier than the murder house in
season 1.
They also acquire neighbours that are such terrible
redneck hillbilly stereotypes that even Deliverance would have declared them excessive.
They also hate Shelby and Mitch
This is where you go to feel safe? Uh-huh… look there are
placed on active fault lines and by volcanoes? I think that may be safer places
Let’s also add to this that Matt is a travelling salesman
so Shelby is alone most of the time. Also her profession is “yoga”… how she can
teach a yoga class when she is literally in the middle of nowhere. And if she
isn’t teaching classes, exactly what does her profession involve? Can “yoga”
just be a profession.
Anyway, spooky things happen – including the bind being
vandalised with lots of pig squealing sounds (Matt believes the neighbours are
racist and persecuting them), lots of people with torches and Shelby being
attacked in the hot tub and nearly drowned by people she describes as “people
with torches in period dress”. It’s not shocking that no-one believes her that
cosplayers are attacking her.
Of course maybe I’m a little doubtful because I think I’ve
seen like, maybe, 3 scenes in this episode where she hasn’t had a big glass of
wine in hand. Also she’s wearing a backless jumper. I mean the whole point of a
jumper is to be woolly and keep you warm. Who has a backless jumper?
The police are not exactly supportive as they find little
collaborating evidence. But even as the acts become more blatant, the police
continue to be pretty indifferent. Matt also finds a skinned pig on their
doorstep…
Also there is a hailstorm of teeth. Human teeth
In the face of Shelby’s growing fear, Matt calls his
sister in to stay with Shelby
Her history – she was a cop who lost her job after she
became addicted to prescription drugs after being injured which in turn led to
her divorce. This is an interesting exploration of addiction, how prescriptions
drugs are very addictive and how it is easy to become addicted to them after an
injury. It also shows Lee’s personality – pretty harsh and unforgiving (it’s
very clear she’s very judgemental of those “other” addicts, unlike her).
Lee is also not a fan of Shelby – a viewpoint that is
shared with interest so that’s not going to go well. She’s pretty sure Shelby
is making it all up and is just being completely hysterical.
Which means she is there when someone rolls bottles of
wine around (taunting her fight for sobriety), them being lured into the
basement with spooky sounds, made to watch a home video with some kind of scary
pig beast in it – and then the lights go out
When they finally escape the basement the whole vast
foyer of the house is filled with corn dollies strung up. It is creepy. So very
very creepy
The police dismiss this as “vandalism”. Really?
Vandalism? This?
Shelby wants to leave but Matt points out they’ve sunk
all their savings into this house (yeah, can we address that? Because they bid
on this house for $21,000 and then Matt just sunk all their $40k savings into
the house without even consulting Shelby… there’s an issue there). Lee and Matt
are determined to stay
So Shelby leaves – she runs out of the house and drives
off in the middle of the night. She ends up in the middle of the woods and
hitting an old woman. She stops to check on her (nooooo! Keep driving! Drive
forever!) and ends up lost in the woods
Where we find more corn dollies, hillbillies with torches
– and a man with his head cleaved in two.
Ok, that was duly creepy. I say again that this episode
is very very creepy. And it’s creepy without the usual reliance of lots of gore
and horror – but tension and fear.
