America’s favorite horror series is back, and this season looks like it may be one of the best yet.
American Horror Story season nine is centered around a summer camp. AHS: 1984 follows a group of young people from Los Angeles who travel to spend the summer as counselors at Camp Redwood, the site of a mass killing 14 years earlier.
The group features some familiar faces like Emma Roberts as the innocent and responsible Brooke; Billie Lourde as the sex-driven, aerobics-obsessed Montana; Cody Fern as the confident ring-leader, Xavier; Leslie Grossman as the Jesus-praising, prude camp owner, Margaret; and John Carroll Lynch as the chill-inducing, murderous Mr. Jingles, the season’s number one antagonist.
Though there are many notable absences from this season like series regulars Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson, the new faces to the cast make up for the loss. DeRon Horton, most known for his role in the Netflix series Dear White People; Olympic Silver Medalist, Gus Kenworthy; and Matthew Morrison, most known for his role as Will Schuester in Glee, all make appearances in the season premiere.
Another one of the new faces includes Angelica Ross, who is currently making history as the first transgender actor to be a series regular in two television shows. Ross has a leading role in Pose, which was also created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk.
Other than the cast, the season’s theme is perfection. AHS is returning to something it does so well — using humanizing horror aspects to scare the audience. Even the most unrealistic aspects of horror somehow seem realistic with the show, so it’s even more terrifying to see them using the most realistic elements of horror complete with a sociopathic man, chase scenes and an eerie setting.
The series premiere shows Brooke meeting a new group of comrades in Los Angeles, but she quickly realizes the city isn’t as inviting as she believed when she suffers a break in at her apartment, where she’s almost killed. Her new group of friends convinces her to come with them to the summer camp, but when they hit a hiker with their van, things start to go awry.
Mr. Jingles escapes from a mental institution after reading that Camp Redwood is back in business, and heads straight there to wreak havoc. He terrorizes Brooke and kills their stray hiker, but unfortunately no one believes Brooke about the incident.
The ’80s aesthetic is incredible and bursting at the seams. The show may be criticized this season for its tacky dialogue and ridiculously telling foreshadowing, but this is an ingenious stylistic choice for the season. Instead of just channeling an ’80s aesthetic with outfits and lingo, the writers are creating an actual ’80s horror film complete with every slasher flick trope imaginable. Utilizing the season to not only have the theme and aesthetic, but to be completely modeled after an ’80s slasher film is absolutely perfect.
Down to the epic ’80s incorporated theme song, AHS: 1984 is shaping up to be one of the best — and goriest — seasons yet.
