American Horror Stories Episode 3 Review: ‘The only horror here is the writing’

American Horror Story is an anthology anthology of American Horror Story streaming above Hulu lacks any fit or quality of its creator. Instead, the show featured Z-list actors acting out scripts that felt like first-time screenwriters were given half-baked ideas but were turned down by AHS and asked to make a practice among them. The two premieres of American Horror Stories were pretty awful, but it was the third episode that really cemented the show’s place as one of the worst shows in television history.

At Drive-In

American Horror Stories Episode 3 “Drive-In” has a simple premise but is interesting enough. A horror film was released in 1986 called “Rabbit Rabbit.” While watching it, the audience transforms into violent zombies and begins to kill anyone in sight (think 28 Days After). After one viewing, the director was called before Congress, and the film was quickly banned (and the director attacked Tipper Gore). The film became an urban legend until a local movie theater obtained a copy.

The episode revolves around two high school students who have been dating for six months, Chad (Rhenzy Feliz) and Kelley (Madison Bailey). Chad is pressuring Kelley to have sex with him. After she rejects his efforts, Chad’s friends offer to take her to see a horror movie because it is believed to be an aphrodisiac for women.

Of course, things went south at the theater, and the audience started killing each other. Chad and Kelley are spared because she’s changed her mind, and the two are about to have their first time at Chad’s Subaru when it all falls apart. The two are able to escape and find the source of the film. Instead of calling the police, however, they find a handgun and leave to find and destroy the second copy of the film before rumors of a second viewing.

The two meet the director, Larry Bitterman, who claims to have created the zombifying effect from high-profile messaging. He claims that he is a cinematic genius who wants to make a horror film where the horror comes from the audience, not the film itself. Kelley shoots him in the knee and forces him to reveal where the second copy of Rabbit Rabbit is. Chad sets it on fire on the stove in Larry’s trailer, and the two leave, leaving him to burn to death.

The episode ends with Chad and Kelley finally making it. However, it has been revealed that Netflix is ​​currently streaming Rabbit Rabbit. The final scene is through Chad’s bedroom window as the whole city begins to go crazy due to the effects of the film.

Dumb, dumb, dumb

The full script of American Horror Stories episode 3 came about when a person was writing their first draft in a community college class. Within the first five minutes, you knew what was going to happen. The entire premise is written down. There’s a movie, it drives people crazy, and people will watch it. There is no mystery or twist here.

I like the premise of a horror movie where the horror is in the audience instead of on the screen, but the way it’s handled here makes no sense. How does the sublime message somehow turn humans into zombies? I would understand if it just drove people crazy, but these guys are straight forward mutants.

There are also pacing issues. What makes it obvious that a blue team wrote the episode is that the characters appear on the screen, get the fairy tale, and are immediately killed. For example, the cameraman is an elderly woman who has many shots in which she talks about driving to and from and how she works at movie theaters in New York City and knows everything about billions of dollars. frame rate. She’s on screen enough to make you think she would be a main character, except she’s not. Instead, she just turns into a zombie and gets stabbed in the head by Chad.

Also, it’s great that this series is more LGBTQ+ inclusive than most other shows. However, this is the second setting in American Horror Stories that exposes the stereotype of gay promiscuity and kills them. Dee (Ben J. Pierce), who I consider gay and quirky just like his actor (that’s not really mentioned on the show), shows an interest in Chad’s friend Milo ( Leonardo Cecchi). He encouraged Kelley to “don’t be afraid of the dick”, and as he drove in, assured Milo that he wasn’t one of those people who “had to wait” before engaging in sexual intercourse with him. But, of course, Dee caught too many movie scenes among the bugs and turned into a zombie and bit off Milo’s penis.

Even Dumber

Horror works best when you can identify what’s happening on the screen. Immersion is a hallmark of good horror, which makes me wonder why they call the series American Horror Stories. This episode is buggy, but I don’t feel like it’s trying so hard.

Scammers like Chad and Kelley not calling the police and running out to confront Larry are stupid because their only reason is that the police won’t believe them. With a full investigation of the crashed cars and dead bodies, the authorities may be able to accept some of it. At the very least, they could explain that they thought Larry had something to do with it, and with such a massacre, the police would probably at least arrest him.

The ending is possibly the most mind-boggling part of the episode. First of all, Chad and Kelley are going back to his room trying to do that, and he’s not grounded? I mean, his Subaru crashed into a building and killed someone. The police didn’t come to say, “Hey, we have a warrant for Chad here. Looks like he killed a classmate by running them into a building with his car. “It’s not like the police would say, ‘oh, they’re zombies, that’s cool.’

Also, aren’t the two of you too painful to have sex? Their best friends died horribly in front of them, and all they could think about was going back to Chad’s room to do mambo. I know people react differently to stress, but damn it. Also, why are the two even dating? They never say, “I love you,” or really act like they’re together. Chad was only concerned with not “die a virgin”, and never really mentioned anything about respecting Kelley’s decision to wait. Kelley’s only motivation to have sex with Chad seems to be that he wants it and they’ve been dating for six months. I really don’t understand their relationship dynamics at all.

Are you trying to tell me that Netflix doesn’t show any of the movies it streams? Wouldn’t the people who watched it try to digitize it go crazy and couldn’t get the job done? After all, Larry says that there are only movie copies. Even if it were somehow digitized, wouldn’t the guy from Netflix whose job it is to review content before publishing it would go crazy and set some alarms?

Review of American Horror Story episode 3: Is it worth watching?

I am sometimes skeptical of skepticism, but there are too many holes in the plot here to work out. It’s just a mess that doesn’t try to do anything other than conform to exhausting horror clichés.

The credits say that Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Manny Coto (all industry veterans) wrote the episode, but I don’t believe this one bit. This script was written by someone who is only familiar with the horror genre and television in general. It’s so bad that I wouldn’t be surprised if it was made by AI.

Some horror is so bad it’s good. This is not. It’s bad, it’s sad.