If you are a fan of the horror genre or perhaps the American Horror Stories series, then there may be some exciting news for you! Season 3, Part 2 of “American Horror Stories,” came out on Hulu on Oct. 15. “American Horror Stories” is a spin-off of the well-known and liked show “American Horror Story.” Although they aren’t perfectly alike, American Horror Stories is meant to give you that similar scare by providing a new horror story each episode.
Before I begin, I want to preface that I only watched the first two episodes out of the newly released season for this review. The first episode I watched was “Backrooms,” and honestly, the episode itself had the potential to be excellent; I liked the concept of it. However, I feel that for it to have been successful, it would have had to be its own season instead of one episode. What bothered me the most was that I could figure out the plot twist within the first ten minutes. In “Backrooms,” Danny’s son, Roman, goes missing. Danny starts experiencing what he at first believes are hallucinations where he appears in different backrooms. He sees people in masks and his son calling out to him. The masked people could’ve been used more, especially to elevate the plot and make it scarier since they were actually a bit unsettling.
From that moment on, I had an idea of the plot twist but decided to keep watching and see it unfold. After some research, Danny finds out that he isn’t just experiencing hallucinations. He visits a man in prison who experienced being in the same backrooms as Danny. The man admits to Danny that to get rid of it; he had to admit to his lie where he accidentally killed a woman. We see Danny immediately get defensive and so the truth unfolds.
I did find the execution of Roman’s death a bit weird. I didn’t exactly expect it to be an accident like it had been for the man in prison, but I thought the death was written a bit sloppy. He kills his son in a public park, and somehow, no one was there to witness it? And it took police that long to find footage from the exact place he went “missing”? It seems as if they wanted to explore the backrooms concept but just got bored with it or didn’t know how to make it look good in a forty-minute episode.
I enjoyed watching the episode, but so much more could’ve been done. Also, I noticed their ending is inspired by and gives strong “Beetlejuice” vibes, with Danny waiting for his turn in what I imagine to be hell. Actor Michael Imperioli did an amazing job in the role of Danny and I believe he made the episode as enjoyable as it was. It wasn’t the acting or effects that was the problem for me, but more so the lazy execution.
Now, the second episode, where do I even start? “Clone” did not have as much potential as “Backrooms.” It features a couple, Johnny and David. David is much older and has health problems, but most importantly (for this story) is a billionaire. Johnny gets a call while at work telling him that David’s health has worsened. When Johnny gets to the hospital, they announce to him that David has created a clone of himself to keep Johnny company while David gets better. Typically, clones in horror don’t have a good reputation, so I thought I had figured out the plot twist this time again, but to my surprise I did not.
Clone David was originally evil and had even killed one of Johnny’s friends; this behavior was predictable. However, once Johnny accepted and showed him love, he also learned emotion and love. In the following few scenes, we see Johnny in love with Clone David, even though Johnny had initially felt more creeped out by him than anything. I felt that this episode was all over the place. The writers may have been attempting to shock us with constant events and twists, but instead it felt more like watching an uncomfortable sketch comedy. I don’t think that there was anything in this episode that I enjoyed, especially that ending.
It is revealed by the end that, essentially, David is in love with himself and only needs himself. He’s a billionaire with a huge home and built himself a company clone so that he is not alone but also not bothered by anyone else.
As a horror enthusiast, I am disappointed. Both episodes, especially “Clone,” lacked the horror aspect meant to be part of the show. I recommend sticking to American Horror Story or watching other episodes to see if the show is for you. Was it entertaining? Yes. Was I happy after watching it? No.
Rating: 2.25/5
I have to admit, as an avid AHS and AH Stories fan, I was excited to see the second part of S3, however, whilst the episodes were okay, and just okay, they didn’t have the flare that AHS usually thrills us with, it was almost as if they rushed out a few scripts following the strikes last year and churned out whatever.
They weren’t terrible, I was just a little underwhelmed is all
So why is this review packed with episode ruining spoilers? And no spoiler tag on the page anywhere. I just wanted to see what the reviews are saying on various sites and this stupid ‘review’ spoiled both episodes. Put spoiler tags or leave them out like a respectable reviewer would
After spoilers in this are dodgy.
I also disagree with the review – I thought backrooms was awful mainly down to the lead actor who was very poor.
By contrast I thought clone was much better, more interesting, more disturbing, and in part that was down to some of the best acting in a long while in the American horror story universe.