HOLLYWOOD—It has been way too long, after what seemed like the longest hiatus as a direct result of the pandemic, the exciting series “American Horror Story” is back, and this time it is focused on the ‘Double Feature.’ I loved “AHS: 1984” last season for the first four to five episodes and the season went downhill. However, ‘Double Feature’ reminds fans of classic cinema the great things about getting two movies for the price of one, usually 2 good movies people. ‘Double Feature: Part 1’ is all about the Red Tide, while Part 2 is all about Death Valley.
The premiere episodes, ‘Cape Fear’ and ‘Pale’ saw the audience introduced to a family moving to a new home near beachfront property. The family includes Hollywood writer Harry Gardner (Finn Wittrock), his wife Doris (Lily Rabe) and their daughter Alma (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) who stumbles upon a road where a lot of roadkill is spotted by Alma and just before the credits begin to role, the dead animal is yanked away from the road. The family settled on Provincetown, MA, which appears quint, but there townspeople are mysterious and the pressure for Harry to craft another hit, while taking care of his pregnant wife.
What is with the red lights on everyone’s porches and why does it appear Harry’s presence has people on edge, especially Sarah Paulson’s character Karen who warns Harry to leave town. Uh oh, I’m getting vibes of “The Shining” with Harry’s character. I mean he’s annoyed by his daughter playing the violin. There are creatures literally chasing our protagonists and it resulted in their deaths on the beach discovered by Harry. Who brutally murdered them? Looks like the parents date night was ruined by Doris getting a bit sick, but why did Harry think it would be okay to have a night on the town? Please someone make that make sense to me.
So we meet Mickey (Macaulay Culkin) who attempted to make the moves on Harry to his displeasure. Just as Doris and Alma fell asleep those strange creatures were waiting once again outside their home ready to attack. Harry should have been headed home, but he was intrigued with conversation with Austin Summers (Evan Peters) and Belle Noir (Frances Conroy). Karen might be out there, but she once again warned Harry to steer clear of Austin and Belle in addition to a host of others.
Harry was attacked by one of the creatures, which forced him to bash his bloody head in. Ok, so our protagonists live in a town of blood sucking people, but the question that remains is why? Karen broke down after getting a mysterious call that warned her she had 3 hours. Did she just hand over a crying baby to Belle Noir? Smart we finally got characters who realized that when you first encounter bad things you get out as soon as possible, you don’t wait around for more bad to transpire.
Too bad Austin got in his ear, and then his agent phoned him threatening him that staying where he was at was best to write his next big hit. Looks like the pressure got to him and he took that black pill Austin gave to him unaware that his daughter was watching from a distance. That ultimately led to a writing frenzy where Harry was snapping left and right, at his daughter (in a vile way), his wife, and he had a sudden urge for blood. So much to the point when Doris cut her finger chopping veggies, he ran to her finger to such the blood as if he was a vampire.
Yeah, that is the theme I’m getting from the first two episodes of the series, at least for ‘Red Tide’ we’re dealing with some sort of vampires or blood suckers where once you have a taste you crave it like a drug that you cannot escape. Two episodes in I am indeed intrigued, but I want to see what else “AHS: Double Feature” has to offer to viewers. New episodes premiere Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.
