American Horror Story: 10 Reasons Asylum Is The Best Season
Possession, demons, and angels of death - here's why Asylum is the best of AHS.
American Horror Story's sixth season is over, and now comes the agonising wait until next year. With the dust settling on Roanoke, it's a goof time to go back to the show's early days to see what made it so great to begin with.
After the success of the first season, FX opened its doors once more to the horror anthology show for a second time, and so was born the Antichrist of Asylum. Whereas Season 1's Murder House set the scene for the horror of Horror Story, Asylum took it, locked it in Briarcliff Manor, then threw away the key.
Set in the dripping walls of a mental facility, newcomers like James Cromwell, Ian McShane, and Joseph Fiennes joined the existing cast members, who were back and badder than ever. With a new setting and a whole new era to sink their teeth into, Ryan Murphy plunged the show to dark new depths.
As the show entered its second season there was a sense of maturity in the events and the script. Gone were the campy jokes, and in came cannibalistic monsters, psycho santas, and demonic possession. It is almost universally accepted as one of the best of the six seasons; so, with a subplot about aliens aside, here's why American Horror Story: Asylum was the best season.
10. It Was Completely New
When we entered the shwo's second season no one was really sure how it was going to work. At the time there had been relatively few horror anthology shows around, let alone on mainstream television. But coming home to find our favourite alumni from Murder House in completely new roles, as well as some new faces, it was a breathe of fresh air. After the first season wrapped up Murphy promised that the following year would go somewhere new, and boy did we:
"The story is a period piece in a mental institution based largely on truth, and truth is always scarier than fiction."
Capitalising on the success of the first season, FX snared the likes of Chloe Sevigny, Joseph Fiennes, and James Cromwell. The marketing prior to the season was a series of teasers that lured the viewer into what was awaiting. The teasers for Murder House had been good, but Asylum blew us away with the likes of the white nun and a full blown gothic promo.
There was always a feeling that Asylum upped the horror from Murder House, and the second season was probably sink or swim. Murder House had gained cult success, but Asylum was a bigger affair. More expansive settings, a larger cast, and bigger stars - it literally took the horror, skinned it, then made it into a lamp!