American Horror Story - Season 9, Episode 01: Camp Redwood
Trailer
The ninth season is complemented by a strange incident in the summer of 1984 in a camp. In this camp, five friends managed to escape from Los Angeles to work as advisers at Camp Redwood. Everyone is adjusting to their new jobs but discovering that there is more terror in this place. Now, everyone is quickly discovering that there are tales of camp fires that are haunting everyone's past.
If you watch American Horror Story online, you know the first few episodes of any AHS season are usually not indicative of how they'll eventually play out, but for fans of slasher flicks, this was an honest and entertaining start.
It seems very possible that Ryan Murphy appropriated the writing budget for this episode and spent it all on thong leotards, shimmer stockings, and sleeveless polyester turtlenecks - because the story makes no sense, but lord, the cast looks fabulous.
So far, this season of "Horror Story" feels like it is set up to have a great "And Then There Were None" or "Harper's Island" vibe to it - the elements of "who is going to die and when" is a really fun part of the mysteriousness of the story.
Hopefully, the rest of the season sticks to a feeling of simpler times, when knife-wielding serial killers cut off the ears of young campers just for the thrill of it, no politics or theology to make bloodshed on screen more complicated than it needs.
It has everything you could possibly expect from a 1980s iteration of the hit anthology series: Vintage hairdos, biting dialogue, tight clothing - and, duh, a murderous slasher set to ravage the staff at a summer camp outside of Los Angeles.
The premiere episode of 1984 has played out exactly like a 1980s slasher film would--it's a perfect homage to the genre - but I'm wondering when it's going to go all American Horror Story on us. You know, aliens, the antichrist, that Lady Gaga blood orgy.
