American Horror Stories charmingly pokes fun at horror film obsessives
"Drive-In" uses a cursed film print to laugh at and with the kind of fans and filmmakers who take cinema too seriously
TV Reviews Horror film
Alright, you know what, folks? As mixed as I was on last week’s two-part premiere, I am happy to admit that American Horror Stories has won me over this week. As fun as “Rubber(wo)Man” could be, it still fell prey to what many a Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk team-up does, particularly being too chock-full of ideas for its own good. But here, at the “Drive-In,” we’re handed something simple and clean: a cursed movie that drives people to murder.
From the get-go of the episode, writer Manny Coto and director Eduardo Sánchez commit to bringing humor to the proceedings. Practically every line seems designed to poke fun at the characters the episode presents. Everyone talks like they’re simultaneously idiots and also come from a place of extreme online and cinematic literacy. It is flat-out hilarious watching a teen discuss how a Reddit post told him that Bob Ross gives good ASMR vibes, which supposedly makes girls horny, only to have his friend note that the way to get laid isn’t about relaxation, “it’s fear.” The pivot from saying those words to immediately talking about how men in the 1930s went to Dracula to get laid because Bela Lugosi would scare their girlfriends, and not because “they liked Tod Browning’s mise-en-scene” is maybe the funniest joke ever made about film nerds on a TV show.
And that’s the kind of energy that the entire episode maintains. It’s unsurprising that Sanchez (who co-directed The Blair Witch Project) and Coto (who started his writing career through episodes of Tales From The Crypt and Alfred Hitchcock Presents) would be firmly in their wheelhouse when bringing a story of cinematic horror to life, but what’s so pleasantly surprising is how willing they are to make fun of the genre and its fans in a loving manner. In a way, it has the same energy as Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood; just an onslaught of masturbatory callbacks to other works, with a shameless wink and nod. A character explains who William Castle is at one point while another complains about someone trying to lecture her on how to project films properly (noting that she told Kubrick to go fuck himself when he tried to lecture her on aspect ratios for A Clockwork Orange).
Every scene seems designed to infuriate horror fans who take themselves too seriously and delight those with a sense of humor about their obsessions. As one of many dumb bitches on Film Twitter, as well as someone who spent a lot of their teen years trying to be edgy, I have been prone to hyping up obscure films that nobody cares about and citing publications that agree with me. And that’s why “Drive-In” works; it loves those people as much as it hates them. If any bit of the episode comes as the greatest proof of that, it’s John Carroll Lynch’s return to AHS, this time as the deranged director of the cursed film, Rabbit Rabbit.
His character, Larry Bitterman—and, yes, I laughed out loud upon realizing they named the director BITTER MAN—is so unhinged and decidedly a caricature of your typical auteur. The offense he takes at people making out and fucking in a car instead of paying attention to his film is gold. The offense he takes at The Sting winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards over The Exorcist (the film that inspired him to bring subliminal messaging into his own work) is even better. Coto has no shame in going to town on making fun of the way many filmmakers believe that their work is the peak of art and culture, perfectly punctuated by the quote, “My name will go down in cinema history: Kubrick! Coppola! Spielberg! And Larry fucking Bitterman!”
As decidedly entertaining as the episode is based on its dialogue, it must be said that “Drive-In” is ultimately a fairly basic work of horror. What kicks off with the cursed film gimmick more or less becomes something of a typical zombie or virus film with tons of disposable characters except for its leads. Neither Madison Bailey nor Rhenzy Feliz is particularly memorable, but they’re serviceable enough in roles that require them to deliver nothing more than the usual aloof teen horror movie stock character work. Nothing in the episode is actually scary, but the team instead goes for a playful cinematic language that’s grounded in goofier horror. The close-up on Ben J. Pierce’s eye through the steering wheel as they’re bobbing up and down on their friend’s cock, staring at the film and becoming increasingly swept away by insanity, is exquisite. Not to mention just how much fun the quick cuts between the 35mm projector to everyone else losing their minds over the film are.
The kills might be the biggest improvement from the last episode to this one. While they still don’t give quite enough attention to all the blood and guts that there should be, especially in an episode quite literally framed around people killing each other during a movie, there are some highlights. Getting to watch someone get their only remaining eye stabbed by scissors and someone’s head caved in with a film reel is exactly the kind of thing American Horror Stories should be indulging in more. “Drive-In” is proof that the series can give us bite-size horror that isn’t reliant on American Horror Story history and lore, and I can’t wait to see what other nonsense it has up its sleeve.
Stray observations
- I can kind of have a field day talking about this episode and its references to both history and cinema, but I’m really pleasantly surprised at how they weaved in Tipper Gore (played here by Amy Grabow). For those who aren’t aware, the former Second Lady was behind the Parental Guidance labels on albums with sexually explicit lyrics, violence, or drug use. She was pretty much seen as a censor by many when it came to art that could be considered “controversial” and using her as the inciting force for banning Rabbit Rabbit was smart stuff.
- One minor disappointment I had is that the show didn’t actually spend just a little more time showing me what Rabbit Rabbit was. Every brief flash and sound I heard just sounded and looked like a neat ass experimental horror film and, obviously, showing would ruin the fun of not knowing how “the picture and sound fuck with the brain,” but I would have loved a little more.
- A favorite thing to note is the pivot in opening credits. American Horror Story has always had choice credit design and the fact that each episode seems to have its own special aesthetic paired to the plot is just lovely. Watching this one really made me want to pop on Christine.
- I’ll admit I don’t think any of Bailey’s delivery of the typical final girl vengeance lines, like “let’s hunt this fucking director down” and “you put us in a horror movie, now we’re just returning the favor,” didn’t really work for me. They just lacked any real gravitas and I think that’s a shame.
- I love love love the opening and closing shots of the episode, decidedly dumb as hell and very much in tune with the show’s penchant for sex and stupidity. What could be more AHS than a calm night of Bob Ross and no sex traded in for a wild night of fucking and Rabbit Rabbit predictably hitting Netflix and the whole city going to hell?
37 Comments
American Horror Story has always been the horror show for people who don’t necessarily like horror. Every season is a bloated meandering mess and the creators making fun of horror aficionados makes sense because ain’t none of them ever gonna see their garbage show as even remotely relevant to the genre.
The reason it worked when Tarrantino had unlikely people talking like film students is because the lines were well written, the actors had great comedy timing, and sometimes people just have weird interests. The young actors were just such bland cardboard cutouts that I didnt believe they had any interests, at all. The only time it worked was when Adrienne Barbeau was expounding on her thrilling life as a film projectionist. Now that’s putting a character’s whole life and personality into one monologue.
Yeah the “mise-en-scene” line didn’t quite work for me because it seemed random for these seemingly average teens to be throwing around terms like “mise-en-scene”. It was rare for even my nerdiest friends to use a term like that in high school
That was the point. I was one of those “edgy” pretentious teens that absolutely used that line to look smart. This episode basically smacked my teen self like a little prick and had me asking for more, lol.
A film that drives people to murder as opposed to a rubber suit that drives people to murder?Or is last week more the rubber suit serving as a conduit for her own latent sadist tendencies?Because if next week is X drive people to murder…we’re heading towards Stephen King and his spooky lamp territory.
I 100% agree with Rubber (Wo)man trying too many ideas and slightly missing the mark on plot, horror, and humor. This episode reminded me of Scream Queens season 1, a simple premise in a contained location. I think AHS storytelling shines more with fewer distractions.
As long as we don’t get such grand Murphy misfires as we got on Scream Queens like that episode where the otherwise completely reprehensible mean girls who mistreat everyone are suddenly used to make a point about how grossly men treat women, or something… (That show is such a blur for me…)
This was way better than the first two eps, which I thought were a true nadir for AHS in general (and I watched all of season 2, which was just fucking awful).
LOL what? I thought season 2 is considered one of the best? And as far as the nadir, man I don’t know, Cult and Freak Show…
Season 2 for me was the peak of AHS, but I can agree to rank Rubber (Wo)man as at least close to the awfully crowded nadir of AHS related things.
Some people apparently loved season 2. I thought it was an overstuffed mess, even for AHS. One of my least favorite seasons of television I’ve ever watched.I enjoyed Freak Show much more, but I’m in a very small population there, admittedly.
I agree, Freak Show had Twisty and Dandy Mott and it looked great.
Dandy was great. Freak Show for me was the one with too many plot points. A freak sized penis should be a Chekov gun for crying out loud. It really felt like one where, instead of dealing with the plot they had, they just kept on adding more and more uneeded elements–When Neil Patrick Harris showed up near the end I almost gave up. I did like its early parts and certainly wouldn’t rate it near the bottom.
I just go along for the ride, there are always incidental pleasure on AHS, even in the worst seasons (except Roanoke). They did go off in a weird direction with the Hollywood TV stardom plot and the whole “David Bowie song 20 years early” musical number never worked for me. Still, Jessica Lange is a goddess and always worth watching.
Can’t disagree there (I forgot about that TV stardom plot…) The Life on Mars thing seemed like one of those ideas Murphy/Falchuk (or whoever) came up with and simply could not let go of, despite the fact that not only was it anachronistic (which… fine) it never amounted to anything really for the character except that I guess they had always dreamed about hearing Marlene Dietrich sing Bowie…
I think Freak Show was when they started doing weekly musical numbers, so contributed greatly to this show’s demise. There was some good stuff in that season, but ultimately it was a chore to get through.Suppose the teenage witchy season was where it all started to unravel, but for the nadir I have to go for Hotel, just because I was so indifferent and numb by then I barely remember a single second of it, even with the star power of Gaga on board.
“I guess they had always dreamed about hearing Marlene Dietrich sing Bowie…”That explains it!
What I liked about Asylum was, yes, it was overloaded and yet I felt they pulled it off–actually tying storylines together, etc, etc (and granted, if I rewatched it I might find that’s not totally true). Unlike most later AHS seasons which would just drop storylines they had only introduced for some shock element but had no idea how to conclude… I also found it oddly, genuinely moving, again unlike some future AHS seasons where Murphy/Falchuk often try to end on a sentimental note that just feels damn false (and they did this again with Rubber Woman)
At least Freak Show gave us Dandy Mott and his love of St. Petersburg and their real caramel corn. It started fun but like most AHS it crapped the bed.
I enoyed Asylum, the true nadir was Roanoke. It took me 2 tries to get through the first episode and then I watched the whole season for some reason and hated every minute. It had the same illogical horror movie tropes as Scream Queens but it was meant to be semi-”serious” and scary (I guess). Maybe I just didn’t get it. Also, because of the premise they didn’t even have an AHS opening credits sequence. I will be watching this one to see the new credits every week, if nothing else.
Roanoke also unfortunately had the format that they could simply just drop whatever plot point they wanted to because it was “meta”
Asylum is by far the best season of AHS. Apocalypse and Roanoke the worst.
Yes.
OK that was a fun hour. This was an excellent self-aware B-Horror show. I think it could have used about maybe ten minutes worth of buildup/character development in the first act. The last time a movie gave me the same vibes as this was Planet Terror.
And since it was only 40 minutes, they could have added those 10 minutes. It seemed odd that they slightly seemed to try to build up the characters/relationships of the various friends (I admit I wasn’t even sure if the non-binary character and, err, the other guy were actually going on a date or not, from the initial scenes mentioning it) but I also get that that was probably the point–to deal with all that short and fast.
Nothing brilliant (and it was a short episode at 40 minutes) but everything worked in a way that I think this show should be working. The two part premier, as everyone has said by now, seemed both like AHS Lite, and an AHS parody (which is quite saying something since AHS often feels like it’s at least trying for parody) complete with Murphy/Falchuk’s current trend with the show to end with one big happy ghost family.
But yeah—nothing mindblowing here but I thought the performances were appealing (wha? No mention of Adrienne Bardeau in the review at all?), they didn’t concern themselves too much with details (which is smart for 40 minutes) and giving a chance to do something with this franchise without Murphy and Falchuk’s direct involvement. Manny Coto is, incidentally, writer or co-writer of the rest of the short series… Not that he needs the exposure–he was apparently showrunner on Star Trek Enterprise and at least one season of Dexter (I’m too lazy to look up if it was one of the better ones–that show changed showrunners so often) and that slasher classic Dr Giggles……..
There is so much I agree with but…
another complains about someone trying to lecture her on how to project films properly
Adrienne Barbeau isn’t just “another”.
She was John Carpenter’s scream queen in The Fog and Escape from New York, filmed with Wes Craven and George A. Romero. “One of many dumb bitches on Film Twitter” should bend to her knees and be thankful for her belated entry into the Murphy-verse!
She was also Maude’s daughter!
She was also the sexy snake charmer in Carnivale, which I’m pretty sure someone watched before they came up with the concept for Freak Show.
Too bad they didn’t pay better attention to Carnivale. Freak Show is still the only AHS Season I’ve not only never re-watched, but never finished in the first place. I was so disappointed too because it kicked off great, I loved Twisty, and it was based on a real town in Florida that I live near. I do love “Freak Show” wine by Michael David, and I SUPER loved that in AHS: Cult when Evan Peters goes to the cop’s house there is a bottle of Freak Show wine on the cabinet behind him, that made me laugh out loud.
She was the original Rizzo – the 50s tough girl greaser, not the rat.
Yeah, since the reviewer says he was one of those nerdy filmgeek teens who knew this kind of obscure trivia I’m gonna say somehow he just forgot to mention who she was?!? Cuz she was perhaps the most obvious throwback to past genre films…
I kept looking for her name in the review and was gobsmacked she wasn’t even mentioned! One of THE original Scream Queens and Final Girls! Getting her was a major win and a wink. I am now dubious of Juan’s self proclaimed horror film nerd status. I mean, I don’t expect him to know she played Bea Arthur’s daughter on ‘Maude’ but how about almost every other film she’s been in?
And I think the job as a projector has a parallel to The Fog where Barbeau wasn’t just a DJ host, she operated the radio station. Both jobs require technical understanding and were traditionally a male domain. I haven’t seen much women in such jobs in the late 1970s or early 80s in films. It was rather 9 to 5 where secretaries had to cook coffee for their boss.
does one cook coffee?
Demons did it better.
The choice to portray Tipper Gore may have been smart, but it also justified her crusade. “Rabbit Rabbit” WAS dangerous. It would do horrible things to those who watched it. Gov’t was right to protect everyone from it. I’m not convinced the filmmakers thought of their choice long enough and realized what it meant.