American Horror Story: 10 Things Freak Show Must Do Better Than Its Predecessors

5. There Are Two Sides To Every Horror Story

One of the key things that a horror film sometimes needs to balance itself is a dash of comedy €“ and American Horror Story is no different, but it either does this badly or really accidentally. Take the most recent episode €“ the finale of Coven. It had Stevie Nicks singing a song and opened with a music video €“ which naturally was a big pile of cheese... very, very amusing cheese. You have to believe that this wasn't an intentional move. You can't really imagine Ryan Murphy asking Stevie Nicks to appear in the finale in order to sing a song to make us all laugh. She always seems a bit too intense to ever consider such a move €“ although that season did also cover her showing Misty Day how to do the twirl with the shawl properly. So perhaps it was deliberately funny. But don't go the fully Army of Darkness route either. That is way too far down the comedy track to ever be considered a true horror film anymore €“ even if it is only compared to Evil Dead or the first sequel. The sarcasm or charm that AHS has occasionally shown needs to come more to the fore €“ more lines like Jessica Lange referring to Bewitched in Coven.