American Horror Story

[FlowerChild]

Was just wondering if anyone else has been following this series. I just watched the first season finale, and I thought it was absolutely brilliant.

I was really wondering how the authors were going to stretch what appeared to be a typical haunted house story out into a single season, let alone more, but I'm fairly blown away by how well they're pulling it off. They've caught me totally by surprise with several plot twists now, and it's become clear that the thing definitely has legs.

Anyways, if you're a horror fan, look it up.

[Miss_Kat]

Honestly, I adore the crap out of horror, but I couldn't get past the first episode of AHS. It was about as close to painful to watch for me as is possible for a TV show. Does it improve past the pilot or is the rest of it more of the same?

[Mr_Hosed]

I'm with you Kat. I grew up on Nightmare and Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Hellraiser, love Steven King and D. Kuntz, etc. You get it, horror nut.

I couldn't watch more then about 10 minutes of the pilot. Just didn't hold my interest at all. And I actually really like Supernatural. Go figure.

[FlowerChild]

Honestly, I adore the crap out of horror, but I couldn't get past the first episode of AHS. It was about as close to painful to watch for me as is possible for a TV show. Does it improve past the pilot or is the rest of it more of the same?

Honestly, I so loved the direction they took it in that I'm having a hard time remembering the beginning, so I guess it did :)

love Steven King

Steven King is only any good when Stanley Kubrick is around to get rid of the giant bat-winged alien flying out of the attic at the end.

Seriously...the guy is a master of blowing great setups with the worst endings imaginable. He keeps trying to be H.P. Lovecraft with crap like the above, and always just winds up blowing his own stories right out of the water. I think the only thing I've ever read by him, or seen in movie form, that didn't ruin in at the end, was Dead Zone.

[FlowerChild]

Oh yeah, and American Horror Story has Gimp suits. Nuff said :)

[Mr_Hosed]

LOL. Come on! Giant man eating bat creatures are cool! ;)

I should have qualified that I suppose. I love the Dark Tower series... until the last book. Got a bit long. Kuntz is still my favorite horror author though.

Oh, and the Gimp suits actually did peak my interest, until I realized the show was network television.

[FlowerChild]

Oh, and the Gimp suits actually did peak my interest, until I realized the show was network television.

If I remember right, there's actually some male partial nudity in there, so it's not so network that it really feels this way. It's also pretty damn bloody at parts.

Clive Barker is probably my favorite horror author, with Lovecraft being a close second.

Come to think of it, in all fairness to Steven King, I did like the end of The Myst, at least if the movie version was the same as the book.

I've just seen and read so many things by him that had me shouting "Oh, come on!" at the end, that it's the overwhelming impression I have of him. The all time classic had to be The Stand, where I remember watching a mini-series version of it in the early nineties or so, and just watched in stunned silence as the hand of god literally came out of the sky and disarmed the nuke at the end.

Worst...ending...ever...

Conceptually, it was on par with the immortals suddenly being from the planet "Zeist" in Highlander 2 for completely invalidating a work of fiction and making you feel embarrassed for ever liking it to begin with.

[Mr_Hosed]

LMAO. I remember The Stand. I don't think I've ever actually watched the whole thing. IT is probably my favorite King adaptation, followed by The Mist. Thing is, The Mist was more Frank Darabont then King.

Anyways, back on topic, I may have to give America Horror Story another try some time. At the moment my TV watching is extremely selective and limited. I really do wish someone would put out another great sci-fi like Farscape though.

Oh, and Highlander was RUINED by the second movie and that crap about refugees from an alien war.

[FlowerChild]

IT is probably my favorite King adaptation, followed by The Mist.

IT? Isn't that the one where the giant mind controlling alien spider crawls out of the sewer at the end? :)

And what? No 'The Shining'? Dude, like I said, Kubrick fixed it :)

Anyways, back on topic, I may have to give America Horror Story another try some time. At the moment my TV watching is extremely selective and limited. I really do wish someone would put out another great sci-fi like Farscape though.

I liked Farscape a lot actually. For sci-fi right now, I'm quite enjoying Falling Skies, although it is cheesy at times, and rather heavy-handed with the religious bits. Battlestar Galactica was also quite good until they pulled a Steven King on the ending ;)

Oh, and Highlander was RUINED by the second movie and that crap about refugees from an alien war.

Not just aliens dude. Aliens from the planet *Zeist*. I've only ever seen it once, and that was in the theater when it first came out, but I remember the name quite clearly as I was saying "Zeist?! WTF?!" for several weeks afterwards :)

EDIT: Oh, and I quite enjoyed Stargate Universe too. They took a much darker approach to it than the rest of the franchise, and I really liked it as a result.

[Mr_Hosed]

They were from planet Zeitgeist? Er Ziest?! I think I have a mental block about that whole movie.

SGU. So underrated. I found some of the characters quite annoying at first, but it had some real bite to it by the end. Falling Skies is fun, if a bit contrived at times. It's clearly aimed at a family audience. Still, way better then Terra Nova.

I think at the moment the only decent sci-fi on is Fringe. Atleast I really enjoy the show. BSG, so true. Stupid ending. Though you knew it was coming if you watched the original when it was in syndication.

I totally forgot about The Shining. It's more Kubrick then King to me. "Here's Johny!" So classic. Much like Christofer Walken in Dead Zone. Pivotal movie roles.

[FlowerChild]

They were from planet Zeitgeist? Er Ziest?! I think I have a mental block about that whole movie.

SGU. So underrated. I found some of the characters quite annoying at first, but it had some real bite to it by the end. Falling Skies is fun, if a bit contrived at times. It's clearly aimed at a family audience. Still, way better then Terra Nova.

I think at the moment the only decent sci-fi on is Fringe. Atleast I really enjoy the show. BSG, so true. Stupid ending. Though you knew it was coming if you watched the original when it was in syndication.

I totally forgot about The Shining. It's more Kubrick then King to me. "Here's Johny!" So classic. Much like Christofer Walken in Dead Zone. Pivotal movie roles.

Yeah, Dead Zone would definitely be my number 2 pick for best movie adaptations of his work. Those two films are actually what inspired me to read any King to begin with, which lead me to read The Shining first, and it resulting in my first "wtf?" when the bat-winged alien took flight at the end.

It just clashed soooo badly with the rest of the book, which is why I can enjoy something like Lovecraft, which is almost always about alien horror, but where it is a consistent part of the feel of any individual story.

Dead Zone was pretty much bang on between the book and movie though, but I think King wrote that like 30 years ago or so.

I was recently reminded of his tendency for blowing endings with that mini-series that just aired. I was quite enjoying it until he turned it into an outright spook-fest at the end, blowing any suspension of disbelief right out the window.

I have my ups and downs with Fringe. Sometimes I love it, sometimes not, but I think we're widening our definition of sci-fi here to the point where we could include a lot of stuff, like The Walking Dead, that really doesn't have any relation whatsoever to something like Farscape or SGU :)

[Mr_Hosed]

True enough (About Fringe widening Sci-fi to shows like The Walking Dead). Frankly though, it's the only some-what pure sci-fi on at the moment, aside from Falling Skies... that I know of anyways.

I've never read The Shining. Fucking bat-like aliens. WTF?! I obviously have been judging him based on a few loose adaptations and The Dark Tower series rather then his full body of work.

I really do love Lovecraft. Bloody genius. One of the first authors to ever use the concept of parallel universes... and tentacle rape. You gotta respect the tentacle rape.

EDIT: Speaking of sci-fi. WTF has happened to the SyFy channel and all these idiotic comedy shows where the male leads are dofuses.

[Zhil]

Has anyone seen Splice? I was really impressed by that movie

[FurkeyRefills]

Has anyone seen Splice? I was really impressed by that movie

Yes, very interesting camera work and a pretty cool plot, my class had to watch it for a media studies assessment.
The whole changing genders and having sex with people made me feel very strange though.

[Zhil]

Yes, very interesting camera work and a pretty cool plot, my class had to watch it for a media studies assessment.
The whole changing genders and having sex with people made me feel very strange though.

Afaik, the only movie to ever have been created that has a tasteful sex scene with the "creature" in a horror film :)

It's not a brilliant movie, but what it does, it does well. Pretty decent use of warm/cold colors too iirc

[MoRmEnGiL]

Oh man this topic makes my geek-sense tingle.

Ok, here goes.

On topic, I haven't watched any ep yet, although I'm downloading the eps as they come(stockpiling is my middle name), so I will be definitely giving it a chance,especially since reading the op.

If you like horror anthology series,fear itself was quite enjoyable too. It doesn't reinvent the wheel or try to HBO it, but an episode a day before falling asleep was the order of the day. Daily. Or every other day. (I hate using the same word twice in a row, so I used it more times instead :P)

I'm a huge fan of H.P.L., and love Clive Barker too (and Graham Masterton, and Brian Lumley and Clark Ashton Smith, and a whole slew of writers usually associated with the horror genre), but on the King front.. I dunno.

I generally do not like King. He tends to drag and babble on. But I've enjoyed some of his stuff, Needful Things being the latest I read (about 5 years ago :P) and liked. There's just something about his writing I find a bit boring.

Jumping on to sci-fi series, my 2 absolutely favourites are Babylon 5 and Firefly. Nothing can even remotely compare to those two, even though I love Battlestar Galactica, Farscape, some Star Trek and even vintage ones like Space 1999 (loved this, I used to watch it as a kid on TV)

Since this thread was doomed to be derailed, I will recommend everyone who hasn't watched HBO's Carnivàle to do it asap. It is not a horror series by any means, but it has a brooding and mysterious atmosphere that is second to none.

[Zhil]

Since this thread was doomed to be derailed, I will recommend everyone who hasn't watched HBO's Carnivàle to do it asap. It is not a horror series by any means, but it has a brooding and mysterious atmosphere that is second to none.

I strongly recommend to anyone who hasn't seen it yet, not to do that. It's one of the best series ever written, yet it got cancelled, so you'll be raging your heart out once you reach the final cliffhanger episode.

[Miss_Kat]

Hmm, Flowerchild, now that you've voiced your overall disapproval of Stephen King (Desperation was the last book I'll ever, ever read by him - I prefer his son's work thus far to his), I may trust you on American Horror Story and give it another shot.

As for the rest of the topic that's evolved, my favorite sci-fi shows, like previously mentioned, are Firefly, Farscape, and Star Trek. (Yep. Trekkie.)

If you like horror anthology series,fear itself was quite enjoyable too. It doesn't reinvent the wheel or try to HBO it, but an episode a day before falling asleep was the order of the day. Daily. Or every other day. (I hate using the same word twice in a row, so I used it more times instead :P)

Ha, I just watched that whole series again a few weeks ago. It was really hit or miss for me, with a few being downright awful and boring (like the one about the vampires) while others were just phenomenal (like the suburban community one or the werewolves one).

[johnt]

I hated the first episode, watched the second episode because my friends insisted it got better, also hated the second episode. Not scary, not even unnerving. Just silly, camp and annoying.

[FlowerChild]

Since this thread was doomed to be derailed, I will recommend everyone who hasn't watched HBO's Carnivàle to do it asap. It is not a horror series by any means, but it has a brooding and mysterious atmosphere that is second to none.

Yeah, Carnival rocked. It's unfortunate they had to rush the end when the show got cancelled though. I really loved that one.

[Zhil]

Yeah, Carnival rocked. It's unfortunate they had to rush the end when the show got cancelled though. I really loved that one.

That was never meant to be the end though, just the end of chapter one. I read a few things about the planned future of the shows and we really missed out on the bulk of it. The first two seasons were just an introduction really.

[MoRmEnGiL]

Yeah, it is very sad, reading up on what Daniel Knauf had in store makes me a sad panda. Also the fact that the show's creators do not really own the rights for it, makes it doubly improbable that we will see a continuation of the story in another form. A pity really.