Friday, December 9, 2011

Hooked on Horror

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It's confession time.  I have a vice and I think this is the perfect forum to get it off my chest.  It's not alcohol (not sure if I have ever finished a beer in under an hour).  It's not the cigarettes that I glumly parted with the night before my wedding.  And despite the image I chose for this post, it is not S and M.  I'm just not that interesting. 
Here goes: I am hooked on horror!! It was probably those scary films that I watched as a child, while hiding under my parent's bedside table to check up on them late at night.  My Dad has always been a bit of a connoisseur of scary movies.  But here's where we differ.  His taste runs more to the slasher genre.  You know the kind.  There's always a blond, buxom, 18 year old babysitter who insists on checking on the children, after hearing a suspicious noise upstairs.  Meanwhile, you are hurling things at the TV, shouting, "Screw the kids! Just get out of the house!"
No, I have always been a sucker for a good ghost story.  I will watch any movie that features a ghost.  Period.  It does not have to be well made and cheesiness is expected. In the past, Lifetime has supplied me with my fix of ghostly dramas.  As far as TV goes, the options were disappointing to say the least! I had to settle for reality series that follow a team of buffoons around with night vision, hoping to make contact with the beyond. 
So imagine my excitement when I saw a preview for FX's new fall drama, "American Horror Story".  My brother and I share this passion for ghostly entertainment, and he turned me on to this series.  Every Wednesday night I get a text from him that goes something like this.  "A new episode of AHS is coming, yo." 
As if I needed reminding!
Here is what I love about this series.  It's less about being scared stiff and more about the drama.  Even if you are like my husband, who sees EVERYTHING coming, I guarantee you a few surprises that will leave your jaw hanging.  My favorite character is Tate, the psychotic, disgruntled teen-aged ghost who is in love with Violet, the vulnerable, lovely girl who resides at his former residence.   Tate is the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to plot twists.  My bro and I were trying to figure out what we like so much about him.   We agreed that Tate's attraction is his  lethal combination of psychosis and a tender heart.  Ha!
The drama is so good that I don't even mind that the living are having conversations with, being impregnated by, and being murdered by ghosts.  The fact that this is absurd does not even matter!  I often find myself rooting for the dead, who are actually less flawed and more fun than the living characters.  
If you are a fan of the macabre, (on TV that is)  check out "American Horror" on FX, Wednesday nights at 10pm. 





2 comments:

  1. And I'm hooked!! You and Fletcher have gotten me hooked on this crazy, disturbing show that requires a certain amount of anxiety for me to get through. I don't know what it is, but I just keep going back. For one thing, Jessica Lange is one of the most talented actors on this planet and I love to watch her do her thing. It's just an addicting plot. Thanks for sucking me in Cous...

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  2. I think I would get too scared!!! ( : Can't handle watching horror at all! ( :

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