After going almost two years without a new installment, Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story Universe is officially back in action on the small screen in the form of American Horror Stories, a week-to-week, self-contained anthology spin-off of American Horror Story. American Horror Stories premiered last night on Hulu under the newly formed content hub FX on Hulu.
Now, before I get into this, I want to give a disclaimer: I am a self-proclaimed American Horror Story super-fan. I have watched every single episode aired since 2011 without fail. It has become such a staple in my life every year following the same structure; a season ends, followed by a hiatus for a couple of months, then the new season’s title is revealed, then new teasers for the season come out, the official trailer drops, the season airs, my depression leaves my body, and we go through the entire cycle again, year after year. It’s the one thing that I look forward to each year— so going almost two full years without any new content from the AHS Universe has been a LITERAL HELL for me.
Needless to say, when the first teaser and poster for this spin-off was released, I freaked out and was immediately filled with excitement. I was eager to finally fall back into this twisted world of ghosts, demons, and monsters— and the cherry on top is having our first taste of the new AHS installment is taking us back to where it all began, which has made the wait well worth it.
This new chapter takes us all the way back to the infamous season 1: Murder House. If you haven’t seen the main series—I’m sorry—the Murder House was the centric location of the mothership show’s first season back in 2011. We were introduced to the Harmon family, who move into a murder mansion possessed by a whole cast of evil spirits, most famously being the show’s headline antagonist Tate Langdon, who we see take on the Rubber Man persona multiple times throughout the season.
The ever-changing anthology series didn’t let the house’s tragic storyline end there. In 2015, the Murder House made a cameo appearance in the shows the fifth season, Hotel, hosting as the birthing place of The Countess’s deformed son, Bartholomew, and again in 2018’s Apocalypse, where it was revealed in the episode “Return to Murder House” that Tate and the other spirits aren’t actually the main source of evil in the Murder House, but instead it’s the house itself using those of its residents as a vessel for pure evil, the latest being the child of Tate Langdon and Vivien Harmon, Michael Langdon, whose real father is not actually Tate but instead the big man in red, Satan himself. Apocalypse ends with the Witches from 2013’s Coven buying the property and promising the spirits within that nobody will ever be coming to bother them again. That is until the rising supreme Mallory travels back in time to run over the son of satan—aka Michael Langdon, you following?—with four-wheel drive, killing him, thus saving the world and, of course, erasing the events of “Return to Murder House.” That is to say, it’s now open season at the Rosenheim Mansion, and the Murder House is officially back on the market.
All caught up? Cool. Now let’s get into the new episode.
American Horror Stories‘ two-part premiere opens with 16-year-old Scarlett (Sierra McCormick) and her dads Troy & Michael (Gavin Creel & Matt Bomer) driving to their new home, which is, you guessed it, the infamous Murder House. With the intention of turning the home into a haunted house-style Airbnb, the family moves in and immediately makes themselves at home.
While unpacking, Scarlett discovers a skin-tight latex bodysuit and mask hanging on the inside of a cupboard in the hallway. As you do when you find a BDSM latex sex suit left behind from the previous homeowners of the place you just moved into, Scarlett runs to her room and tries the suit and mask on.
Red flag? Yes. Moving along—
With the suit being a perfect fit, Scarlett checks herself out in the mirror only to find a male figure in the exact same latex suit looking back at her in the mirror’s reflection. Terrified, Scarlett makes the decision to discard the suit in the same manner that Harmon’s did in the Original series after discovering the same suit in the house’s attic while moving in, and she throws the suit in the trash bins out front.
Scarlett makes it home to the Murder House, and, humiliated and ashamed from the incident; she calls Maya threatening to end her life and demands she name each of the four girls in a note to hold them responsible for her death. Except Scarlett cuts them a deal, saying she won’t go ahead with it under the condition they come to her house to talk with her.
An invitation to the Murder House that’s known for housing over 30+ murders from a girl you just wrongfully humiliated and bullied publicly in the dead of night… WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?
The girls agree and make their way into the Murder House to meet Scarlett, and, as you would expect, Scarlett puts on her latex bodysuit and slaughters the four girls in the house’s basement to the classic tune of “Tonight You Belong to Me” by Prudence & Patience in a pure Tate Langdon-esque fashion. She hides the bodies in a—strangely perfectly sized—hole in the under-construction Murder Mansion and entombs them inside, closing out Part 1 of the 2-Part premiere event.
Thus begins Part 2 of the Rubber Woman duology, which, for the sake of this article’s length, I won’t get into; but instead leave entirely up to you to perceive. Nonetheless, the relationship between Scarlett and Ruby (Kaia Gerber), who you will meet in the second episode, makes the 2-Part premiere completely worth it.
To give you my thoughts: Going into this open-minded, I had no expectation of it being a “Return to Murder House” 2.0. But it truly felt like I was watching an American Horror Story fan-film like someone had rented out the Rosenheim Mansion with a camera crew to film their own interpretation of an American Horror Story season. That’s not to say that I hated it. In all honesty, I thoroughly enjoyed these two episodes and did fall in love with the characters it gave us, but what I realized is you can bring back the writers, the house, and the thrilling storytelling, but nothing will ever be able to fill the massive hole in a Murder House revival than that of the original ensemble of characters that Murder House served us back in 2011. It very much felt like a story that could’ve been told from almost any other location, but I understand that bringing back the Murder House was the best way to attract old fans, and I respect the decision. No matter how I feel about the story, the nostalgia rush that I got from various shots of the house throughout the two episodes was enough for me to look past the absence of our beloved resident ghosts.
Despite how people may feel about this spin-off rehashing things we’ve seen in past seasons of the original show, I see this as a great opportunity for Ryan Murphy to experiment in the AHS Universe and tell the stories that aren’t exactly sustainable enough to be dragged out into full seasons. I also see it as a great way for fans to stay connected with this world we’ve all fallen so madly in love with. I know not every episode is going to revisit past seasons of the mothership series, but it certainly opens up the door for future episodes of Stories to revisit locations such as Elsa Mars’ Freak Show or even back to the haunted waters of Camp Redwood.
If you’re a hardcore American Horror Story fan like myself but hate what Stories has given to us? That’s fine because from what it looks like, Ryan Murphy is purposely giving us new stories in this world that have no effect on the main show’s story or timeline— So even though we’ve backtracked all the way down to the Murder House; none of the ghosts, spirits or events from the show’s first season appear or even get spoken about in this Rubber Woman duology, so it’s easy for you to simply disagree with this new chapter in the franchise and keep it separate from the ongoing Murder House storyline that we’ve seen so much of throughout the past decade over on the main series.
Either way, American Horror Stories is here to stay, with new episodes dropping every Thursday as part of FX on Hulu’s Originals line-up. For me personally, I can’t wait to see where Ryan Murphy takes us next. *buckles up*
