The American Horror Story series is back again with the new 80’s slasher film-themed season, 1984. Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk bring 80’s horror films to life with the ninth installment of their anthology horror series with references to the decade, comedy, and gore. The show follows a group of teens who work as camp counselors at Camp Redwood, a summer camp that underwent an unfortunate event after all but one of its counselors were brutally murdered by Benjamin “Mr. Jingles” Ritcher (John Carroll Lynch). The camp was shut down until the only survivor of the attack, Margaret Booth (Leslie Grossman), bought the camp and reopened it for the summer. Following the reopening, Mr. Jingles escapes the mental asylum, heading straight towards the camp, leaving everyone there in intimate danger.
The show has some returning faces starring in the show such as Emma Roberts, known for her roles in Coven, Freakshow, and Cult. Alongside her is Billie Lourd, known for Cult and Apocalypse, Cody Fern, and Sarah Paulson, who has starred in all nine seasons. This season will not include a fan favorite of the AHS series, Evan Peters, who has starred as well known characters through the show’s history for the past eight seasons such as Tate Langdon from Murder House and Kai Anderson from Cult. This news was announced by the actor himself stating that he would not be returning for the ninth season.
The show brings nostalgia to the 1980’s slasher fans and brings back the cheesy plots and cliches that paved the way for other horror/slasher films. The costumes are very period-specific staying as true as they can to the 80’s attire like Fern’s bleach-streaked wig, Gus Kenworthy’s crop-tops and short-shorts. It’s no surprise that this series follows a plot of another camp terrorized by a deranged killer, Friday the 13th. Of course, just like Michael Myers from Halloween, Mr. Jingles escapes a mental facility seeking to finish what he started.
If you are a fan of old slasher films, then this is the show to watch. 1984 reignites old memories of some of the most classic films from the 80s. The actors do a fantastic job at portraying their characters’ personalities in matching the traditional slasher/horror movie tropes. The atmosphere built replicates films like Friday the 13th in such a heartwarming way to fans still taking a modern view on it. Currently, two episodes have been released with the first building the story and revealing the main characters and the killer. The third episode “Slashdance” is set to air on October 9 at 10 p.m. ET on Fox.
