American Horror Story: Double Feature – Red Tide TV Review

Plot: A struggling writer, his pregnant wife and their daughter move to an isolated beach town for the winter. Once they’re settled in, the town’s true residents begin to make themselves known.

Review: After two years off the air, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s horror anthology American Horror Story is back for its milestone tenth season. Just last month, the creative duo unveiled their newest series American Horror Stories and in a couple more we will get the latest entry in American Crime Story, but it is the original AHS that I have been craving for a long time. As much as I have enjoyed this show, it has often been hit or miss, especially since Jessica Lange departed as a repertoire player. In recent years, American Horror Story has drifted further and further from true horror to more of an homage to pulp and camp offerings. The ninth season, which took us back to the slasher heydey of 1984, was a decent mix of both humor and scares, but the dynamic of this year’s Double Feature approach looked to return to the bloody, violent, and terrifying roots that this series started with.

Double Feature aims to fix one of the challenges American Horror Story has dealt with over the first nine seasons of its existence: filler. The first five seasons consisted of 12-13 episodes each in keeping with the standard cable network order. This often led to storylines that felt padded or stretched and reduced the quality of the storytelling. Recent seasons have stuck between nine and ten chapters, but Double Feature is trying something new. Broken into two parts, the season will be comprised of the six-episode Red Tide followed by the four-episode Death Valley. With some shared cast members, it remains to be seen if these will be standalone mini-seasons or if the teasers are truly promising a crossover narrative. As it stands, the first two episodes have debuted and we now have a good idea of what to expect from Red Tide.

Set in Cape Cod, Red Tide opens with a muted color scheme and a dead-serious tone we have not seen for many seasons of American Horror Story. We meet Harry Gardner (Finn Wittrock), his wife Doris (Lily Rabe), and their daughter Alma (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) as they head on a three-month vacation. Harry is a writer trying to break out of a funk and Doris is a hypochondriac redecorating their home. Arriving, they soon discover the denizens of the small ocean-side town are strange and possibly dangerous. Amongst them are TB Karen (Sarah Paulson) who rants and raves at Harry about dangers in the town as well as male prostitute Mickey (Macauley Culkin). We also meet playwright Austin Sommers (Evan Peters) and romance novelist Sarah Cunningham (Frances Conroy) who have a secret cure to Harry’s writer’s block.

As the secret cure is revealed, we also learn there is a price to be paid as Murphy and Falchuk use the conceits of the vampire story to tell a tale about addiction and obsession. While this anthology has touched on vampiric ideas in the past, this is the first true look at the horror staple from this team. The bloodsuckers vary in appearance from the more traditional bald-headed Nosferatu look to humans hiding their fangs behind the scenes. What I found especially chilling was the parallel between drug addiction and the vampire, something that is not new but works very well in this story thanks to the lack of the camp factor that pervaded seasons like Freak Show and Hotel. By keeping this season more serious (at least in the first episodes), the repercussions of what happens to these characters are far scarier.

As fun as 1984 was, I also appreciate the return of many of the legacy ensemble cast who sat out of the ninth season. In addition to Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe, Evan Peters, and Frances Conroy, all of whom go back to the very first season of American Horror Story, this season also brings back Denis O’Hare, Billie Lourd, Leslie Grossman, and Adina Porter. Putting Finn Wittrock in the lead role for Red Tide also gives the actor a nice spotlight before he turns into a superhero for HBO Max’s Green Lantern series. Rabe and Wittrock are solid leads while Peters, Conroy, and Paulson get to chew the scenery in their supporting roles. There are many other actors set to appear in upcoming chapters to this story, but so far everyone involved is delivering some of their best work on this series’ entire decade-long run.

American Horror Story: Double Feature is starting out strong with the most engaging tale they have presented in a long time. Mining one of the oldest genre conventions was a risky proposition, but this is one of the freshest takes on the vampire story that also manages to give us Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s signature style of scares, pitch-black humor, and social commentary. It remains to be seen if they can stick the landing with only four more episodes to this part of the season or how it may connect to the Death Valley half, but for the first time in several seasons, American Horror Story has recaptured what made it such a good show when the first season premiered.

American Horror Story: Double Feature premiered Part 1: Red Tide on August 25th on Hulu. Both of the first two episodes are now available to stream on FX on Hulu.

American Horror Story

GREAT

8