By Clare Driscoll, ’15
After a nine month wait, American Horror Story had its season six premiere on Wednesday, September 16. But, the science fiction thriller newest installment has been shrouded in mystery since long before the first episode aired.
Each season, American Horror Story chooses an entirely new set of characters and an entirely new time period, in which they add a supernatural twist to historic American events. So far, this has included the freak show fad in the 50’s, the mistreat of patients in mental hospitals during the 60’s and even the salem witch trials in 1692.
The newest season is titled “American Horror Story: My Roanoke Nightmare”, referring to the English colony of Roanoke formed in 1585. The colony has been dubbed “The Lost Colony” because of the entire population’s disappearance soon after its founding. There have been many speculations as to what happened to these people, including a wide spread disease or cannibalism, but no conclusions have been made.
So far this season, viewers have been introduced to Matt and Shelby Miller, a young couple who moves to South Carolina to get away from big city life. But, days after moving in, the Millers begin to experience odd happening in their new house. These occurrences include objects being moved from where they were placed, a pig body being left on their front doorstep, and the word murder written in blood on one of the walls. They soon learn that these events are being perpetrated by the ghosts of the citizens of Roanoke trying to keep them out of the house.
The plot to this season seems extremely similar to season one’s“Murder House”. In that season, a family moved into a new home only to find that it had been haunted by ghosts who were stuck on the property for eternity. Because of the distinct parallels between the two, this new season is not as intriguing for long time fans. Due to the cliché forms of scares, such as the ever-present jump scare, it feels very similar to most typical horror movies. This leaves most viewers feeling that they are watching a story they have seen thousands of times before.
The main difference between the first and sixth season is the format of the show. “My Roanoke Nightmare” is set up like a true crime documentary where some actors are victims of the mysterious happenings at Roanoke while another set of actors play the actor portrayal roles of the documentary.
In this season, many of the most frightening aspects of previous seasons have been lost for cheap thrills to just garner a reaction from the audience. The splitting of the roles in the true crime format has also made it harder to connect with each character as they go through the struggles each person goes through.
Though season six has begun with unoriginal ideas, many can hope for a big plot twist later on to distinguish it from past seasons. Out of ten I would give this season a five because of the surface acting, cheap thrills, and basic plot.