AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ROANOKE

SCORE: D

In this series of reviews, Joel Freecheck and Emily Walker will be switching off each episode of American Horror Story: Roanoke (season6), giving their thoughts on each episode.

!!! SPOILERS!!!

For being a fairly new viewer of American Horror story, I must say that this season is growing to be mundane, especially in the eyes of new viewers.  The first episode proved itself to be engaging , but as the season advances, it seems to be falling lifeless.

The style of filming for this season is just too prevalent. Watching this season makes me feel like I am stuck watching an episode of the Discovery Channel’s show “The Haunted” where families recount their experiences with supernatural horrors. The only difference is that AHS is proving to be remarkably less interesting. This film format exposes the fate that the main characters survive their experience, making the show lose a lot of leverage for keeping their viewers on edge by threatening the lives of the main characters. Which then doesn’t allow there to be much room for dramatic turns to get that scare in their audience.

This episode, in all honesty, didn’t impress. Throughout the episode Shelby, Matt, and Lee were on the search for Flora, but to no avail. Lee’s ex-husband passes away, and the video cameras installed in the farmhouse lead Shelby to be suspicious that Lee was the cause. Shelby, Matt, and Lee , just like people in every other ghost television show does, hires a psychic who goes by the name Cricket to check out the farmhouse. Cricket explains he feels the presence of a spirit by the name of Priscilla, and explains that he can find Flora through her, for a price of $25,000. An offer in which Lee eventually accepts. Cricket explains to her that finding Flora will be difficult. The group also goes to contact “The Butcher” who is the leader of the hillbillies that haunt the farmhouse, seeking to find flora and make peace with them, explaining that they will evacuate the property and be sure nobody lives on the farmhouse land again. However, during this bargain Matt vanishes. Shelby finds him with a mysterious woman. With her new heartbreak Shelby runs back to the house and calls the police who take Lee away. Matt also explained to Shelby that he had no memory of what she claimed to have seen.

Altogether, the show lost a great deal of possible leverage with their choice of film setup. Not to mention that the ghostly documentary format is overused, and it proves to be even less interesting when the audience remembers that the story isn’t real. With mistakes like this, the show may fail to capture new viewers.