(Spoiler alert: the entirety of episode 2 of “American Horror Story: My Roanoke Nightmare” is spoiled below. You have been warned.)
Last week, “American Horror Story” fans got knocked for a loop when the show’s sixth season started off in mockumentary format. Lily Rabe and Andre Holland played the supposed victims of an eerie attack in North Carolina, and Sarah Paulson and Cuba Gooding, Jr. played them in dramatic re-enactments on the show-within-a-show, “My Roanoke Nightmare.”
On tonight’s second episode, we learned a little bit more about the killer colony that Shelby encountered at the end of the season premiere. We also found out just how our ill-fated couple was able to get that house in North Carolina at such a cheap price. Check out our liveblog/recap below.
10:06 PM ET: We open up with Kathy Bates performing a macabre sacrifice while showing off her new crazy accent for the season. A guy wearing a pig’s head gets roasted on a spit as punishment for theft, but somehow this isn’t enough to convince Shelby to move out. She tells Matt at the hospital that she thinks its a hoax by the creepy mountain neighbors from the first episode to scare them away. Much like any horror movie victim, Shelby can’t take a hint.
10:14 PM: Time for another tried-and-true horror trope: the kid with the creepy imaginary friend. Lee brings her daughter Flora over for some personal time. Her kid tells her about an imaginary friend named Priscilla who talks about blood and other things that aren’t supposed to be a part of make-believe games. Then Lee hears glass shattering and finds a broken window that’s been smashed by a vase filled with flowers … and a hat that seems to come from colonial times.
10:20 PM: More creepy haunts for Shelby and Matt. In the middle of the night they hear a pig squealing and head outside to investigate. They find a giant version of the “Blair Witch”-style stick figure burning in a forest clearing, with a pig’s head on top and slabs of meat hanging off of it. “This was more than burning a cross on the lawn,” Andre Holland’s Matt says, “there was something demonic about it.” They show it to the cops, who agree to park a squad car out in front. That doesn’t stop Matt from seeing a creepy vision in his house of two sadistic nurses shooting out the brains of an elderly woman who won’t take her meds.
10:25 PM: Matt brings the cop in, and of course the ghosts are gone. The next day, Lee’s ex shows up to pick up Flora, and they find her in a closet. Flora tells them that Priscilla is wearing a funny dress — a 16th century dress perhaps? — and that she’s going to kill them all and save her for last. Lee’s ex takes Flora and leaves in a rage.
10:31 PM: Time for Lee to join in on the creepy hallucinations. After getting drunk following the incident with Flora, she gets tucked into bed by Matt and Shelby. When she wakes up, she sees the nurses Matt saw earlier for a split second, followed by visions of pig tails nailed to the wall and the dancing pig man in the mirror.
10:37 PM: Shelby and Matt see a strange woman outside their window. When they head out to find her, they discover a bunker with a videotape inside. The tape features the man whom Shelby and Lee saw in the tape from the first episode.
10:45 PM: OK, the videotape has a massive exposition dump about the nurses, so here we go. The man on the tape was a professor who came to the house in 1997 to investigate the two nurses, who used the house as an assisted living home and would kill the elderly admitted there. They had two criteria: their clients had to be people their families didn’t want to deal with anymore, and their names had to start with a specific letter.
They killed five patients in a specific order, and spray painted the first letter of each of their names on the wall in the house. Matt peels off the wallpaper where he saw the two nurses in his vision and finds the word “MURDE” spray painted in red on the wall. They go back to the tape, and the professor explains that the official story is that the two nurses fled the country after killing the five patients. But he thinks that the women were intending to kill someone with a name beginning with “R” to finish their plans. The only thing is … something more evil stopped them.
The tape ends with the professor searching the house for something. He’s attacked by an unknown assailant, and the tape cuts out. Shelby and Matt go to the door and see a bloody cleaver sticking out of it.
10:51 PM: The bank refuses to buy back the house, so Shelby and Matt are stuck with it. Meanwhile, Lee brings Flora back to the house, scared that her ex is going to get a judge to revoke her visitation rights. When Flora gets back to the house, she sees Priscilla beckoning to her outside. When the adults realize she’s gone, they head outside to search for her. The episode ends with them seeing Flora’s jacket hanging from the top of a very high tree.
NEXT TIME: More freaky visions, more police outside of the house, and in the interviews Lee tells the people talking to her to turn off the cameras. Will the mockumentary format begin to twist?
15 Movies Every 'American Horror Story' Fan Should Watch (Photos)
"American Horror Story" spent six seasons building a reputation for striking visuals, off-the-rails writing, and plenty of movie references peppered throughout. One could easily get a crash course on the history of genre cinema just by studying the references that Ryan Murphy and his team have pulled from countless films. Here are the films that have had the most influence on "AHS," and where the series has referenced them (WARNING: Major movie and "AHS" spoilers lie ahead!)
FX
The reference: The plot of the first season of "AHS" (a.k.a. "Murder House") is lifted from several classic films. Halfway through the series, we learn that Vivien Harmon is pregnant with two children, each with a different father. One of these children is destined to be the Antichrist, and Vivien's demonic pregnancy leads to her eating various organs -- including a brain, to feed her hellspawn.
FX
The film: Both the pregnancy and the "diet" come from Roman Polanski's classic film "Rosemary's Baby," in which Mia Farrow plays a woman who is impregnated with the Antichrist thanks to a deal her husband made with a Satanic cult. Similar to Vivien, Rosemary gains a craving for raw chicken meat and innards. According to her autobiography, "What Falls Away," Farrow was asked by Polanski to actually eat raw liver for those scenes.
Paramount
The reference: The other major plot thread of "Murder House" is, well, the Murder House. The Harmons move into a house in Los Angeles that has been the site of multiple murders over the years, and the horrors of the past come back to threaten their lives in multiple ways.
Wikimedia
The film: As any horror film buff can point out, this premise comes directly from "The Amityville Horror," a book and film inspired by the accounts of George and Kathy Lutz, who claimed to have experienced several terrifying supernatural experiences while staying at a Dutch Colonial house in Long Island that was the site where six people were murdered.
MGM
The reference: Evan Peters' fruitful "AHS" career began with his performance as the messed up serial killer Tate, who pretends to be an innocent boy to win the heart of Violet Harmon, but rapes and kills many people in his attempt to preserve their relationship. Tate is introduced with a whistle theme that makes it clear which movie his character is based on.
FX
The film: That tune comes from "Twisted Nerve," a movie about a boy named Martin, whose dangerous obsession with a girl has him pretending to be a mentally disabled kid to earn her sympathy. Soon thereafter, axes are meeting human flesh. The film got renewed interest in 2003 when the tune whistled by Tate in "AHS" was used by Elle Driver in "Kill Bill."
The reference: The twist and resolution of "Murder House" loosely resembles that of one of the most critically acclaimed horror movies of the 21st century. The Harmons eventually learn that they have been killed and cannot leave the house. They then decide they will spend eternity scaring away future tenants to prevent them from suffering the same fate.
FX
The film: This is similar to the ending of "The Others," which stars Nicole Kidman as Grace, the mother of two who discovers paranormal encounters in her house. Like "Murder House," the family discovers they are dead and have been scaring away the family that moved in. Though they won't be sharing the house with murderous ghosts like the Harmons, Grace tells the kids that they are going to make sure that anyone living who buys the house knows that they were there first.
Dimension Films
The reference: In "AHS Asylum," one of the many inhumane acts inflicted on the patients of Briarcliff is behavioral modification. Lana Winters and Kit Walker are subjected to brutal Ludovico techniques, and one doctor tries to cure Lana of her homosexuality by using drugs to induce vomiting while presenting her with pornographic images.
FX
The film: The brainwashing scenes come from two very famous '70s films. Kit's treatment is lifted directly from Alex's treatment in Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange." Meanwhile, Lana's electroshock therapy is reminiscent of the Shock Shop scene from "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." In both instances, "AHS Asylum" uses nearly identical shots to the scenes they are referencing.
Warner Bros.
The reference: The major villain in "Asylum" is Bloody Face, a serial killer who wears the skin of his victims. This is a clear reference to one of the most popular villains in horror movie history.
FX
The film: That villain is Leatherface, the killer in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," which has been referenced on multiple occasions on "AHS." In the very first episode of the series, bone wind chimes blow in the breeze in front of the Murder House, which is a reference to Leatherface's penchant for making furniture and art out of the bones of his victims.
Universal
The reference: Season 3, "AHS Coven" references multiple films about witchcraft. One recent film about teen witches makes its presence felt early on in the series, when one of the young witches takes revenge on a fraternity that gang raped a member of the Coven, but also kills the leader of the fraternity who tried to put a stop to it.
FX
The film: The concept of teen witches using their powers to get revenge at a price is most prominent in "The Craft," a '90s cult hit in which four teen witches cast spells to improve their lives at a high school that ostracizes them. This includes a spell that makes a jerk jock fall in love with one of the witches, but like the spell cast against the frat in "Coven," it backfires hard.
Columbia
The reference: One of the most memorable images from "Coven" was Cordelia Foxx's white eyes after she was blinded by acid. Though she lost her sight, her blindness gave her the power to see the future.
FX
The film: The image of a woman with marble-like eyes comes from "The Beyond," an extremely gory Italian movie about a New Orleans hotel with a portal to hell, called the Seven Doors of Death. That may have also inspired the Seven Wonders ritual in "Coven," which involves a rite of passage into hell.
Medusa Distribuzione
The reference: In "Coven," the Seven Wonders is a test that determines whether a witch is powerful enough to be named the Supreme. The test is explained in a silent film that references one of the oldest known movies about witches.
FX
The film: That movie is "Haxan," a 1922 Scandinavian documentary about witch hunts and superstitions. It's known for its lavish dramatizations of witch trials and occult rituals that has earned it an unintended legacy as a horror classic.
TCM
The reference: The fourth season, "Freak Show," references two horror movies through villains that threaten the freaks. One is Stanley, a con artist who planned to kill the freaks for money, but was discovered by the freaks' leader, Elsa, who was on to him thanks to a controversial horror movie.
FX
The film: Elsa claims to have a copy of "Freaks," a 1932 film about deformed carnival performers who attack a woman who plans to seduce, marry and kill the richest of them to gain his inheritance. Though the film was banned in several states, Elsa said she had a copy of it. Like the con artist in "Freaks," Stanley is turned into a human duck and paraded about as Elsa's newest attraction.
TCM
The reference: The other villain that's a walking film reference is Dandy Mott, a rich, spoiled brat who hunted Elsa's freaks because of his boredom with his perfect life. This serious case of affluenza comes from a far more recent film than "Freaks."
FX
The film: Many of Dandy's scenes are recreations of Patrick Bateman's murders in "American Psycho." In fact, Patrick and Dandy's motives are almost identical, and both killers get to show off their athletic prowess with exercise scenes accompanied by smug voice-overs.
Lionsgate
The reference: While "AHS" has earned praise for its homages, "Hotel" got accusations from some corners for crossing the line from tribute to rip-off. This accusation was particularly made when it came to one of the most famous hotel horror flick of all-time.
FX
The film: From the carpets of the Hotel Cortez to bedrooms filled with evil spirits, every episode of "Hotel" seems to have a reference to "The Shining." The whole season owes its pacing, premise and plot obstacles to this film.
Warner Bros.
The reference: The other big reference in "Hotel" comes in the form of the Ten Commandments Killer, who slays killers, adulterers and other sinners who do not obey Moses' Law.
FX
The film: The David Fincher classic "Se7en" has Kevin Spacey playing a similar killer, only instead of the Ten Commandments, he bases his punishments around the seven deadly sins. The film's finale, based on the sin of Wrath, is one of the most powerful scenes Fincher has ever directed.
New Line Cinema
The reference: The Butcher's band of murderous spirits in "Roanoke" is full of many vicious creatures, but arguably the most infamous is Piggy Man, an aggressive killer who hunts the "Return to Roanoke" production crew.
The film: Killers associated with swine have been seen throughout horror, but today it's most associated with the "Saw" series, as Jigsaw wears a pig mask while kidnapping his victims to put them in his gruesome games.
The reference: Throughout "Roanoke," The Butcher's victims were haunted with the sight of wooden totems strung up in the trees and in the house, where they would appear out of nowhere.
The film: This is one of the more blatant references "AHS" has made, as the totems are an exact copy of the ones seen in "The Blair Witch Project." "Roanoke" is also built on the "shaky cam" presentation that "The Blair Witch Project" popularized.
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Ryan Murphy and the ”American Horror Story“ team have made plenty of references to creepy flicks
"American Horror Story" spent six seasons building a reputation for striking visuals, off-the-rails writing, and plenty of movie references peppered throughout. One could easily get a crash course on the history of genre cinema just by studying the references that Ryan Murphy and his team have pulled from countless films. Here are the films that have had the most influence on "AHS," and where the series has referenced them (WARNING: Major movie and "AHS" spoilers lie ahead!)
FX
FX
