AMERICAN HORROROR STORY: ASYLUM – A SEASON OF SINFULLY TWISTED MINDS WHICH MAY OR MAY NOT BE SO

by Federico M. Bones

FX's “American Horror Story” has recently ended its second season. We’ve seen a whole new story absolutely detached from the first one, yet as powerful and fantastic – only much more disturbing.

What’s this season about?

If the first season was about a horror house, this season we are introduced in a mental asylum in mid 1960s America and its modern-day wreckage.

In 2012, a couple gets into the dark, abandoned building that once worked as an institution for the criminally insane looking for exciting adventures and sordid, creepy sex. They are raunchy, daring: they have sex on an ECT… is it a chair? A bed? A Table? (it’s whatever, it serves it purposes well enough). She even “blows” him while he films a dark room through a hole in the wall with his cell-phone and… RRRRIP! He can film no more because his arm has been severed.

We are then taken forty eight years back, and witness the easy, countryside life of a man and his wife (Kit, played by Evan Peters and Alma, played by Britne Oldford.) After they have sex, there are dazzling, blinding flashes of light and deafening noises and voila! Alma is there no more.

As there have been some killings on the part of a serial killer called Bloody Face (really? Ok…), Kit is taken for the assassin and is admitted at the old sanatorium while a journalist, Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson), does the press coverage. He blames something far more sinister for the disappearance of Alma, but his plot is both unbelievable and inconvenient.

Lana is not just the common journalist: she’s one of those intrepid researchers who’d do anything for a good piece of information. She thinks Briarcliff staff members are performing sadist therapies on the patients, and wants to expose them. Unluckily for her, she is caught by evil nun Sister Jude (Jessica Lange), director of the sanatorium and taken as a patient after she’s discovered to be a lesbian.

In there, they’ll meet a wide range of peculiar characters: whether these are friends or foes, it’s up to them (and us) to figure out.

There’s a sex-addict called Shelley (Chloë Sevigny), a cute killer called Grace (Lizzie Brocheré), an angelic nun called Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe), an honourable Monsignor (sexiest-Shakespeare-ever Joseph Fiennes), a micro cephalic girl nicknamed ‘Pepper’ (Naomi Grossman) and last, but definitely not least, doctors Arthur Arden (James Cromwell) and Oliver Thredson (Zachary Quinto.)

When all of them interact, things will blow up in a completely unpredictable set of events. Imagine, for instance, a so-called Anne Frank arriving there and accusing Doctor Arden of being a disguised Nazi. Is he really a Nazi? Will power-lover Jude withstand an alleged Nazi working for her? Will he go down without a fight?

Imagine, for instance, evil spirits possessing people. Imagine serial killers dressed as Santa Claus. Imagine sex, drugs and rock and roll put into an electric mixer together with Aliens, music and an Asylum run by Catholics and there you have AHS: Asylum.

Is it worth watching this season?

Well, the table’s been laid. I think it’s up to each of you to choose whether to watch it or not. As for me, I thoroughly recommend it. Even if my anger at AHS creator Ryan Murphy has been clearly stated before, I cannot deny that this series is awesome.

I don’t think it’s much of a horror story in the traditional sense. I wasn’t a bit scared as a member of the audience. Disturbed, maybe. But not scared. It’s surely terrifying for the characters (and possibly that’s actually the meaning of the title: AHS may mean ‘A story of American Horror’ and not an ‘American Story meant to horrify you.’) Besides, it’s not just American Horror Story but American Horror Stories, as there are characters come and go in and out. Con: some of them don’t have a really deep insight, lasting only one episode (two at the most.)

Within the brutality, the non-existing subtlety of this show, we can find some outright references to classics of the Horror genre, just like in the first season. Easily spotted are the references to ‘The Exorcist’ (in the opening credits and later on when a possessed boy teases a nun) and the one to “Blairwitch project” (crosses hanging in the woods) at the very beginning of the first episode. Murphy & Co. have picked a thick bunch of movies, taken some parts of them (whether they are visuals and/or storylines) and put them in their show. For a fuller list, click here.

Then, of course, there are fantastic actors to praise. Sarah Paulson, formerly a minor character, was one of the leads of this season. Her story was rich and intense, and she delivered her performance both in the 60s/70s and in modern day with the necessary depth and, paradoxical as it may sound, charm.

Jessica Lange is an icon of acting, even if she is not as good as, say, Meryl Streep. Her portrayal of the different stages in the life of Judy Martin (or Sister Jude) is good enough to make us rollercoaster between anger to pity non-stop.

James Cromwell and Joseph Fiennes are also fantastic actors, and they never fail to deliver. Perhaps Fiennes’ character doesn’t have much to show, as a Monsignor must show no feeling. But, anyway, Fiennes’ reputation precedes him and thus one infers he’s good.

Particularly remarkable is Naomi Grossman as Pepper. The make-up artists have done an amazing job and she’s stepped into the character more than excellently.

And I don't want to forget Lily Rabe as Sister Mary Eunice. I won't reveal much so as not to spoil, but she excells.

The younger generations are good, just that. I don’t feel we are seeing a legendary actor/actress coming out of there. Adam Levine as Leo, the lover of the beginning, had better keep on moving like Jagger, as on screen he’s just sex appeal in pants and a tight T-shirt.

I’m particularly fond of the music this company chooses to accompany the series. The choice of seemingly innocent songs for dreadful themes is, in my view, a very effective technique. They should go on doing that. Dominique -inique -inique s'en allait tout simplement, Routier, pauvre et chantant. Sorry, back to the point.

Absolutely fun though it was, I really thought the “Name game” number completely random. I understand it was happening in Sister Jude’s mind, but they’ve never been able to explain it convincingly. I love it, mind you. But I don’t think it fits in the story… It’s just a fantastic random number.

MADNESS ENDS

If you have a strong stomach, if you’re not scandalized by anti-Catholic hierarchy propaganda or disgusted at somewhat explicit sex scenes (no actual nudity), if you like to put on the shoes of suffering characters, if you’re willing to accept not fully-explained stories for the sake of explaining other stories, then you will certainly enjoy American Horror Story: Asylum.

I’ve been trying to figure out any possible clues for next season, but I’m awfully bad at it. There have been rumours that it will be about witches and Salem. But let’s see what comes out of those grimily creative, healthily crazy minds.

MEMORABLE QUOTES

Sister Jude: Mental illness is the fashionable explanation for sin.

Sister Jude: This is not a meat locker. Here, you will repent for your crimes to the only judge that matters: the Almighty God.

Kit: There is no God. Not a God who would create the things I saw.

Sister Jude: Your story about little green men? That won't do here.

Kit: They weren't human. They were monsters.

Sister Jude: All monsters are human. You're a monster.

Sister Jude: So, "Anne Frank," is it? What a relief it will be to millions of schoolchildren to know you survived.

Arden: Another mess to clean up, Mr. Spivey? You seem to have mistaken the broom closet for the playground where you used to expose yourself to innocent little boys and girls.

Spivey: No, never the boys, Doc. I had my standards.

Leigh Emerson: You know the difference between that Santa Claus and me? He only comes once a year.

Sister Jude: So you'll spend the next couple days here, reflecting on your behavior.

Leigh: How can I reflect when my hand's tied down? [tries to simulate masturbating]

Sister Jude: You're disgusting.

Leigh: We all got our crosses to bear.

Lana: [about reporters] We are vultures, attracted to the scent of rotted meat.

Sister Jude: I do hope you know what you are in for. The loneliness, the heartbreak, the sacrifice you will face as a woman with a dream on her own. 
Lana: You don't have any idea of what I'm capable of.
Sister Jude: Well, then, look at you, Ms. Lana Banana. Just remember if you look in the face of evil, evil's gonna look right back at you.

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None of the images posted belong to me, and were included pursuing no economic or financial interest whatsoever.