It’s back and creepier than ever. FX’s hit horror anthology show “American Horror Story” returns for its fourth season and this year, the story is about a freak show.
One would think that freak shows aren’t scary or creepy, but when you put in a killer clown, it gets real. In an interview with Buzzfeed, the creators of the show wanted to make the clown creepier than Pennywise played by Tim Curry in Stephen King’s “It.”
“We said in the writer’s room that if we were going to do clowns, we were going to create the most terrifying clown of all time,” said “American Horror Story” creator Ryan Murphy.
The creators did a very good job on Twisty the Clown with the skin ripped off of his face and the lack of lips on his smiling mouth. This leaves viewers with one question on their mind; “what the heck happened to him?”
Twisty the Clown could have his own show but having his life as a side story, for now, is very clever. The show doesn’t want to overwhelm the viewers too much with so many stories at once, so to split the actual freak show and Twisty the Clown was a smart move on the writers’ part. It is obvious that this killer clown will eventually end up at the freak show. But for now, we like him as far away from the freaks as possible.
Among the “freaks” are Jimmy Darling (Evan Peters, “X-Men: Days of Future Past”), bearded lady Ethel Darling (Kathy Bates, “Tammy”) and Michael Chiklis (“When the Game Stands Tall”) as strong-man Dell Toledo. When one really thinks about some of these new characters, there are some that relate to familiar horror/thriller films. For example, Dandy Mott, Finn Wittrock’s (“The Normal Heart”) character, can remind you of “Psycho” killer, Norman Bates. So it’s no wonder why people are so hooked and into them when these characters are based on the best of the best.
Throughout this season one should be paying attention to Jessica Lange’s character because rumor has it, this will be her last season with “American Horror Story.” Lange has been a part of the anthology since season one playing the deranged grandmother to the infant Antichrist.
The one big thing the creators changed this year is that the first two episodes were about an hour and a half long. We’re not quite sure if this is going to be an every episode thing but it’s a pleasant change. It is the perfect length for this season. The other seasons had more mystery, demonic and witchy themes, which we know a lot about. Those themes have kept people going to the movies for years, but there aren’t many movies or shows about a freak show. The show gives the audience more time with the characters to truly understand them.
“American Horror Story: Freak Show” is off to a different, but impressive, start. It has delivered welcome changes to the “American Horror Story” format along with new characters that will stay with us in our nightmares.
