The FX horror series, American Horror Story, returns to their ninth season with an inspired ’80s slasher theme.
With the recent buzz of ’80s nostalgia, series creator Ryan Murphy decided to join the hype. The new season takes place in Los Angeles, California during the summer of 1984. Paying homage to classic ’80s slasher and horror movies like Halloween and Friday the 13th, “1984” revolves around camp, curious teens, and a serial killer on the loose.
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“1984” brought back some familiar faces like series regular Emma Roberts playing Brooke, the stereotypical ’80s slasher virgin. Also returning is Cody Fern playing the eccentric Xavier and Billie Lourd as Montana. A new season means new faces and joining the cast is Gus Kenworthy playing Chet and DenRon Horton as Ray.
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The first episode of season nine, titled “Camp Redwood,” kicks off with a grainy flashback (revealed later in the episode) of the 1970 “Camp Redwood massacre.” Here we are introduced to our killer Mr. Jingles (John Caroll Lynch). Mr. Jingles slaughters an entire cabin full of campers and collects their ears as tokens. The sound of keys jingling, hence the name, lets the viewer and the characters know Mr. Jingles is approaching. Similar to ’80s killers Jason and Michael Meyers, Mr. Jingles walks with a limp which causes him to be slow.
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After the revamped retro title sequence, we’re introduced to our main characters. From the colorful tight leotards and legwarmers to Frank Stallone’s “Far From Over” this montage of their “slimmercise” aerobic class screams the ’80s.
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Brooke meets Montana in the shower rooms and quickly joins the gang. The girls walk-in on Xavier, Chet, and Ray having a conversation about “The Night Stalker.” Just when you thought you had one serial killer to worry about turns out there’s two. The Night Stalker has been on a killing spree and terrorizing the city of LA. Xavier offers the group to escape the city for the summer and become camp counselors at Camp Redwood. Later that night Brooke’s apartment gets broken into by nonother than The Night Stalker, yet he runs off when neighbors call the police. Brooke is terrified to stay in the city and decides to head up to Camp Redwood with the random strangers she met earlier -totally reasonable-.
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The group ignores the warnings they encounter on their journey to avoid the camp and ironically run a man over. Finally arriving at Camp Redwood, they are greeted by camp owner Margaret Booth (Leslie Grossman) who we later find out is the only survivor of the 1970 Camp Redwood massacre. Margaret decided to reopen the camp as a form of closure from the “worst summer camp massacre of all time.”
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The episode continues with the scene of Mr. Jingles escaping from the mental institution and on his way to Camp Redwood to seek revenge on the sole survivor, Margaret. Back at camp, Brooke goes to check up on the hiker they ran over only to find him dead and missing an ear. What appears to be Mr. Jingles in his black raincoat starts chasing Brooke in the pouring rain. Brooke manages to escape yet appears delusion to the rest of the group when her story doesn’t add up.
Later that night when everyone is falling asleep, Brooke hears the payphone ring outside and decides to go answer it -again totally reasonable-. As she answers the call, keys begin to jingle in the background and soon appears -plot twist- The Night Stalker.
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Who will be the first to die? How many killers are there?
A summer camp in the middle of the woods with two killers on the loose sounds like a recipe for disaster.
American Horror Story: 1984 airs on FX, Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.