# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
American Horror Story - Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk On the Horror Genre

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
American Horror Story "Murder House" - Official Trailer (HD)

# data[].attributes.headline
A Critical Analysis of American Horror Story: Murder House

# data[].attributes.subject
A Critical Analysis of American Horror Story: Murder House

# data[].attributes.body
The show American Horror Story directed and created by Ryan Murphy is an anthology series that takes place in various different time periods and settings. The show has a running theory behind it that it represents Dante’s Inferno, or the seven rings of Hell. Each season there is a new storyline and a new series of unfortunate events.  The genre of American Horror Story is anthology horror. Some characteristics of an anthology piece are the fact that the cast and the settings in each season are ever changing. American Horror Story follows this to the letter. Horror genre conventions are also prevalent in American Horror Story. The gore and psychological terror that the show brings to an audience without a doubt, terrifies them which is the goal of the genre. The season that will be the focus of this critical analysis is Season One. Murder House follows the Harmon family, who just moved to California after multiple tragedies struck their family, leaving them damaged. The first season of American Horror Story explores the all-American family by exposing the ugliness that hides behind their facade. The deep symbolism in this show is a commentary on what the “perfect family” is really hiding. All of the families involved in this season of American Horror Story appear to be perfect, but are actually hiding pain and suffering. The purpose of my essay is to explore how the creators of American Horror Story use story and genre, critical orientation, context and the look of the program to create a commentary on the “perfect family” and why it is a fantasy to believe in one.

As mentioned before, Murder House follows the Harmon family after making a recent move to California. Vivienne, the matriarch of the family, had suffered a harsh miscarriage at 7 months. In coping with this, Ben, the patriarch of the family, began an affair with one of the college students he taught. After Vivienne catches him in the act, they decide to start fresh in California and move into an antique mansion, their daughter Violet in tow. The show follows the journey of the family within the house, as the begin to realize there is something not quite right about the house and its neighbors. Constance Langdon, their next door neighbor seems to have a strong attachment to the house for reasons the family cannot understand. While adjusting to their new lives, Ben reopens his at home therapy practice and takes in a patient named Tate. Tate has multiple issues and openly mentions how he has fantasies and dreams about killing people to remove them from the “filthy goddamn world” that they live in.

As time goes on, the family starts to realize that there is something wrong with the house. While the season progresses, their time in the house becomes increasingly more dangerous for the now pregnant Vivienne and her family. Tate is revealed to be one of the ghosts of the house, and rapes Vivienne under the guise of being Ben. She then gets pregnant with twins, one of them being Tate’s child, who turns out to be the antichrist many seasons later. Eventually, all of the Harmon family become a victim to the house, and they are destined to spend all of eternity there. Once they die, they are bound to the house and cannot leave. This leaves the Harmon family to deal with their issues, and forces them to live amongst their many enemies who have died in the house previously.

The show’s creator is Ryan Murphy. He is one of the top creators for the television channel FX. He is famously known for other popular works such as The Politician, 911 and Glee. The show first aired in 2011 and has had a season every year since. Something that makes American Horror Story deviate from its anthology genre is the cast. While it is true that every season is a different story line, some of the cast has consistently stayed the same up until this years season, 1984. Murder House featured a slew of experienced and well recognized actors, as well as some newcomers who were barely a force in Hollywood before the show. The most popular and longest running actors are Sarah Paulsen and Evan Peters. While Sarah played a smaller role in Murder House, Billie Dean, a medium to the stars, she would go on to lead many seasons afterwards. Peters plays Tate in this season, and consistently had a role as the heartthrob, young, attractive man in every season afterwards. Connie Britton plays Vivine Harmon in this first season, and this is the only season she appeared in. Her counterpart, Ben Harmon, is played by Dylan McDermott. Their daughter is played by Taissa Farmiga, Vera Farmiga’s younger sister. Taissa would go on to join AHS again in season three playing Zoe, a young witch. However, she would not be involved in AHS again for some time after that. While all of these actors are certainly honorable, there is one particular actress who will always reign supreme in the American Horror Story universe. That woman is Jessica Lange. Jessica Lange has had many iconic roles before this show, but starring in AHS just proved her range and acting ability. Lange plays Constance, mother to Tate and Addy, who has down syndrome. She is able to play the role of a badass, yet insecure and unstable woman who knows what she wants. Lange has been revered as American Horror Story’s most precious gem, as with every role she stepped into she left the audience with a raw and real performance. Her characters are probably the most complex to pick apart and rebuild, and Constance also plays a huge part in the perfect family symbolism Murphy is trying to convey.

American Horror Story’s popularity is undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with. There is no show quite like it. There is no show on the market that is as risque as AHS. Though there are rarely any lewd sex scenes or harsh language, its the material that makes it so controversial. People love to watch this show because its nothing like what is on TV today. Today if you turn on the TV, you’re going to see reality shows, teen dramas and crime shows. American Horror Story fits into none of those crime shows. It provides something new and though provoking, which leaves the audience on the edge of their seats every time they finish a new episode. The complexity and just how intertwined every season is though it may be subtle, is what makes the show so attractive to audiences. The first season alone garnered an average of 2.4 million viewers per episode. At the height of its popularity, AHS: Cult had reached up to 6.9 million viewers in one episode. To say American Horror Story has been a success is an understatement.

When I was choosing a show to write about, I wanted to write about something I knew and understood well. Since I am a fan of American Horror Story, I felt that if I was going to write something that was genuinely critical, I needed to figure out a way to watch it with a neutral mindset. Since Murder House is the oldest season, it was the one that was at the back of my mind. I haven’t seen it in a while, so I took the opportunity to rewatch it as a critic rather than as a fan. I feel as though I’ll be able to make a more clear criticism on the show, as well as get my point across better since I watched it as a neutral viewer. I chose the questions that I did because I thought that they would help further my thesis and purpose. I kept these two things in mind when I was choosing my questions, and the ones I selected will help me further my point.

The first category I chose to write about is the critical orientation of the show. What first attracted me to this show and this season specifically is that it was new and unheard of. No one has ever really done a show like this. Me personally, I was never attracted to teenage drama shows, so when I saw something on air that was more mature but had characters my age in it I became interested immediately.  The whole premise of AHS is also really interesting to me. Each season is different commentary on the state of the world using symbolism and gore. Another thing I find intriguing about Murder House are the realtionships in the program. Murder House embodies the facade of trying to put forth the perfect family. A perfect example of that would be Vivienne and Ben’s relationship. After he gets caught cheating on her, their relationship is permanently fractured. However, in attempts to mend their relationship for their daughter they want to appear to be the perfect couple. For example, in the midst of all the ghost chaos, a pregnant Vivienne decides that they need to sell the house and move out. There are also some serious marital problems going on because Ben went back to Boston to see his mistress after she fell pregnant. In order to portray themselves as the perfect family, they put together a little Halloween bash and make the house look beautiful so people will become interested in the house. The Harmons act happy and in love, meanwhile Vivienne has already told Ben that she wants him out of the house for lying to her again. This just show that no matter how hard they try to be the perfect couple they were once perceived to be, it just won’t happen. The cracks in their foundation are just to deep.

Another relationship that interests me is Constance and Tate. The Langdon family dynamic proves that no matter how perfect you may look, you will neve be perfect. It is revealed that Tate is her son at the same time its revealed that Tate died after being shot by the SWAT team. He was tracked down to the house after committing a mass shooting at his high school. The level of hatred that Tate has for his mother is extremely notable, he calls her various different insulting names throughout the season. One particular scene that sticks out to me when Constance was recalling her failure to bring the perfect child into the world. She called her womb cursed, due to all of the other children before Tate coming out with some sort of genetic disease. She thought Tate was going to be her perfect child because of his looks, but he ended up being the most grotesque child she had. Her other children may have been disappointing to her on the outside, but they were pure and kind on the inside. Tate was the exact opposite. Though he was that of a “cherub” child, his insides were pure rotten and evil. Constance believes that she was put on this earth to be a mother, but she is also cursed. To me, this explores the “perfect family” dynamic even more. Constance wanted the perfect life with a perfect house, children and husband, but instead ended up leaving the house, killing her cheating husband and ending up with a murderer for a child. Murder House seems to be saying when you try to be perfect, you fall apart faster.

The story and genre also play a big part in commenting on the facade of a perfect family. In Murder House, there really is no hero or heroine, and there’s no villain. These characters are raw and human, they each take turns being the good and bad guy. None of them are inherently evil but their personality traits are fatal flaws that make them a problem. For example, Hayden, Ben’s mistress is usually seen as the villain. However, if you look closely at her character arch, its easily seen that she felt used by Ben and when she fell pregnant, she wasn’t sure she wanted to continue feeling used. While she does go “crazy”, which plays to the horror genre, its important to look at her situation. She was a college undergrad who was pregnant with her professor’s child after he left her to move across the country. Each character is either the hero or villain depending on the circumstance. I think that is what makes these characters so real compared to other characters from different tv shows. While this show is of a supernatural phenomena, the main characters are incredibly developed and grounded in a reality which people could recognize and relate to.

As mentioned before, the genre is anthology horror. Obviously, when viewers tune into AHS they are expecting the gore and psychological terror that comes with it. But I don’t think they expect to become so emotionally attached to the characters, especially in the first season. There are many people who still stand by the fact that Murder House is the best season. When the audience watches a show that is an anthology, they expect the cast to be different next season. However, I think that’s different with American Horror Story. People all over social media express all the time how they miss the old characters, or how they wish they could get new content from older seasons just to see a glimpse of that character again. People become attached to these characters because of how real and surprisingly relatable they are to the audience.

Another category I chose was the context of the show. As I mentioned before, people get hooked on the show because of how scarily relatable the characters are. Personal issues obviously play a huge role in the relatability of the characters. I think the most relatable or recognizable issue in this season is the infidelity of Ben. The show accurately portrays how a married life can fall apart due to human error. The show also shows the aftermath that comes in the wake of such error. In most shows, the cheating scandal is easily forgiven by writing it off and saying “don’t do it again.” However, Murder House accurately shows the raw and real healing process. Some days, the family seems good and like they’re going to be fine, but other days are really bad. For example, when the Harmon family first moves in Vivienne and Ben get into a heated argument about their lack of sex life and the affair that he had. The screaming match ends in the couple momentarily making up, and seeming like their life was getting back on track. However it doesn’t last long due to Ben lying to Vivienne about going to Boston. The ups and downs and mistakes that the characters make represent real life because AHS is a commentary on life, in a really weird, gory way.

The audience reaction is a big part as to what makes AHS so popular. The show intends to make the audience feel uncomfortable, shocked and scared. All of these factors are something that gains interest in the audience. People like to feel uneasy and they enjoy being scared out of their minds. To me, I think what attracts people most to the show is the psychological horror of the show. If you look at the show topically, this season is about a haunted house in which the ghosts have a terrible vengeance for whoever moves into it. However, the audience is easily able to go more in depth with their thought process of the show. The idea of family and home is something that people feel is sacred and should be left untouched. So the fact that Murder House represents broken families and death within those families freaks people out, but it also makes them curious to keep watching.

Perhaps the most important part of a program is the look of it. This can include the set, lighting and the actors that portray the characters. In my opinion, all of the actors who were cast were totally spot on. To start, Taissa, who plays Violet, looks like your average teenage girl. She is able to bring relatability to the program to the teenagers watching because she looks like one of them. She also has an edgier look to her, as her character does in the show. Taissa just brings a certain _____ to Violet while playing her. Another person who absolutely fits their role is Evan Peters. As I mentioned before, Peters is usually cast in the roles that the women in the audience can swoon over. By playing teenager Tate, he fits the description of heartthrob teenager. The casting of such an attractive male was on purpose, to show that even ugly lies within beauty. Tate and Violet make the stereotypical “emo” couple. Young girls usually glorify Tate on social media, and even have shirts of him. This just proves that people will look past the fact that he is a school shooter and a rapist, because he is handsome to them. This again was done to confuse the audience and make them wonder what beauty really means.

AHS rarely ever has any “happy” colors in its set and the lighting is also dim. This plays to the horror genre, because it gives the audience a sense of doom. This is quite interesting for Murder House because home is supposed to be warm and bright, but this house is the exact opposite. Despite there being stain glass windows throughout the house and many other windows the house still remains cold and dim. This gives the audience a sense that this place really isn’t home to the Harmons. The coloring of the furniture and set also is something to note. Most of the colors are browns and deep reds. There are no outstanding colors in the house, which purveys seriousness. Another way the color palette is used is through the characters clothing. They are always neutral and dark. Again, this suggests the lack of comfortability and home. These characters all feel out of place, and like nothing is right with this house. Overall, the colors of the show absolutely affect the mood of the show, conveying hints of depression and anxiety.

AHS: Murder House has once again become one of my favorite seasons to watch and analyze. The show explores different families who are all broken in different ways, but all have trying to be perfect in common. It does an excellent job at portraying real life situations by using supernatural characters and unlikely situations. The family dynamic of the Harmon family is scarily realistic and can be seen in some normal American families to this day. For me, understanding the symbolism and goal of this show was quite easy. Being a fan of AHS for many years, I understand why Ryan Murphy decided to call it American Horror Story. The reason is that this stuff really does happen in America, and it goes directly against what the supposed “American dream” is. To further understand though, I watched multiple interviews with the cast and crew of Murder House. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed picking apart Murder House and in my opinion, it is one of the most complex shows that someone could sit down and enjoy.