American Horror Story 1984 (TV Review)

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Synopsis: In the summer of 1984, five friends escape Los Angeles to work as counselors at Camp Redwood. As they adjust to their new jobs, they quickly learn that the only thing scarier than campfire tales is the past coming to haunt you.

Review: When a series enters it's ninth season, you tend to get diminishing returns. American Horror Story started strong by giving us some truly original stories before delving into some of the most bleak narratives on television. The last few seasons have been so dark it has been hard to find any sort of levity or fun. With this new season, American Horror Story takes the lighter elements from Ryan Murphy's short-lived Scream Queens and combines it with the nostalgia of the 80s. The season premiere gives us a story as over-the-top as we have come to expect from American Horror Story but coupled with callbacks to slasher franchises like FRIDAY THE 13TH, HALLOWEEN, and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. While it is missing lead roles from Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, and Evan Peters, 1984 is starting out as one of the most fun seasons American Horror Story has ever had.

1984 sticks with the tried and true formula of any good slasher flick: a group of promiscuous twenty-somethings decide to become counselors at a camp that is reopening after a spate of horrific murders. While there, the killer escapes from a local mental hospital and resumes his rampage while focusing on one particular young woman who may be stronger than she first appears. Using that basic structure, 1984 accentuates the season with references to events happening in the titular year including the Los Angeles Summer Olympics and the serial killings perpetrated by Richard Ramirez, The Night Stalker. Ramirez himself appears as a character which gives us two killers in the premiere. Aside from The Night Stalker, we also get John Carroll Lynch (who played Twisty the Clown in prior seasons) as American Horror Story's version of Jason Voorhees, a raincoated psycho named Mr. Jingles.

From the opening flashback to Mr. Jingles' 1970 murders, we are given some pretty substantial gore that rivals some big screen slasher films. Frankly, I was surprised they showed as much as they did on a basic cable series. FX has been pushing the envelope for years now and 1984 has some kills that I would never have thought could air outside of HBO or Showtime. The effects work here is really well done and I expect that we will get more and more elaborate kills as the show moves forward but in this hour alone, there are at least six distinct kills shown on screen as well as over a dozen total dead bodies. It should go without saying that American Horror Story is pulling no punches this season.

As for the cast, we get the return of many ensemble members from Ryan Murphy series including Cody Fern, Leslie Grossman, Billie Lourd from AHS: Apocalypse, Matthew Morrison from Glee, and Angelica Ross from Pose. New cast includes Olympian Gus Kenworthy as Chet and Zach Villa as Richard Ramirez. The series lead (in the absence of Evan Peters or Sarah Paulson) is Emma Roberts. Roberts is an American Horror Story veteran but she plays against type here as Brooke Thompson, a sweet and seemingly innocent woman who becomes the focus for both killers. I would expect something from her past to be revealed that will show us if she is more Laurie Strode from John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN or more Laurie Strode form Rob Zombie's remake. In either case, she is somewhat bland in this first episode.

Series creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk have always had a diverse approach to telling their stories and 1984 is not without gay or trans cast and characters, but what seems to be lacking in this first episode is a distinctiveness to the male cast. While Emma Roberts' Brooke is a bit generic to start, Billie Lourd's Montana is instantly intriguing and very funny and camp owner Margaret Booth, a survivor of Mr. Jingles' rampage, has a lot of layers to her character. But the male cast all are fairly interchangeable right now. Cody Fern, who played the Antichrist last season, is a pretty two-dimensional closeted gay man, DeRon Horton's Ray is indistinct at best, and Kenworthy's Chet is a failed Olympian who can cut you with a beer can, but beyond his roid rage there isn't much to him. Matthew Morrison's well endowed Trevor is funny but more of a type. Murphy and Falchuk are clearly trying to showcase a range of actors here but so far their characters won't really be missed as Mr. Jingles starts picking them off.

While one episode is not enough to judge the entire season of American Horror Story 1984, it is off to the strongest start it has had in years. While Stranger Things mined 80s notalgia fairly organically, this show is not shy about it's music selection ("Cruel Summer" plays in the first 15 minutes), fashion choices, or pop culture callbacks (Jane Fonda workout tapes are very important). But, while it starts out feeling like this series may become a parody of the genre, it soon finds a rhythym that puts it right on par with the best in the genre. American Horror Story 1984 is fun which is an odd thing to say with so much death and blood, but because there are no lofty philosophical quandaries about the fate of humanity this season, we can enjoy the bloodshed without feeling guilty about it.

American Horror Story 1984 airs Wednesdays on FX.