American Horror Story: Murder House (Review)

Here we have the season that started everything, American Horror Story: Murder House. Murder House follows the Harmon family, Vivien (Connie Britton), Ben (Dylan McDermott), and Violet (Taissa Farmiga) as they move into a new home that has a long violent history. The story starts as Vivien is recovering from a miscarriage. After visiting the doctor she comes home to find her husband, Ben, cheating on her with one of his students. To try to keep the family together they decide to move across the country to California and rebuild a new start. In my opinion Murder House is not the strongest season of the show. It has a certain nostalgic value, as it is the first season and does contain a very coherent story. It also must be praised for setting the tone of the entire series, however I believe American Horror Story has grown into something greater than what it started as with Murder House.

This is not to say I dislike Murder House. On the contrary, I believe it is a very enjoyable season and love many of the story moments the writers hit. The acting is also top notch including great performances by Connie Britton, Dylan McDermott, Jessica Lange, Taissa Farmiga, and of course, Evan Peters. One thing that Murder House does extremely well is create complex believable characters. Taissa's Violet and Peter's Tate have both respectively become classic characters in their own way. Violet taps into a lot of young viewers angst and struggle to deal with the world around them while Tate, without spoiling too much of the story, evolves as the season goes on into a truly horrifying portrayal of psychopathy. Jessica Lange's Constance also stands out as the eccentric neighbour who seems to know way too much about the spiritual nature of the house.

Murder House excels its in clever use of plot to shock the audience and contains two of American Horror Story's biggest plot twists. It also manages to take a familiar subject matter in the horror genre, a haunted house, and turn it into something completely unique to the universe that Murphy and Falchuk have created. This is what the show has come to be known for. It seems familiar, but different at the same time creating a piece that horror lovers and those who just love story alike can get behind.

The season does however, have some growing pains to get through. Some episodes seem more relevant to the story than others. The episodes are all enjoyable in their own right, so this does not diminish the watchability of this season. In my opinion, which may be unpopular, I would have liked to see more of Violet's character outside of the confines of her relationship with Tate. In the beginning of the season the writers laid the groundwork to build up an interesting dynamic between her and her parents as she navigated through their rash decisions. I believe a more balanced structure between her scenes with Tate and her scenes with Vivien in particular. However, I will give the writers credit for how they concluded her storyline with Tate. This is not the normal way most writers would end that particular storyline and I applaud Murphy and Falchuk for taking that risk.

The cinematography works extremely well and adds character the visuals. You can tell that the groundwork was laid for which Michael Goi then turned into the signature AHS style starting with Asylum. The story blends well together and comes to a great conclusion wrapping everything up nicely. Once the season is finished you will wish that the story continued, but not because it seems unfinished. The viewer just grows characters attached to the characters to the point where they don't want the story to end. When it does end however, the resolution does not disappoint in the slightest. The Harmons and infamous Murder House will forever be cemented in horror history as icons that kicked off an entire franchise.

With wonderful storytelling and amazing production value, I give American Horror Story: Murder House 4 out of 5 cauldrons!