American Horror Story faithfully recreates the slasher films of the 80s

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I have been chomping at the bit for the new season of American Horror Story to begin and now it’s finally here and it’s 1984 all over again. I’m old enough to have been ending my teenage years and heading into my early 20s in the 1980s, and being an avid horror movie fan, I saw pretty much everything that was released in the 80s. I was there on opening night of Friday the 13th and I’ve sat through many more films like it, in theaters and one the then new technology of VHS tape. So, I have firsthand knowledge of what a 1980s slasher movie/TV series is supposed to look like. A couple of years ago, Freeform tried to pull off a summer camp slasher TV series with Dead of Summer and the results were … meh, saddled by the fact that the show was on the Disney-owned cable network. They weren’t ever really going to be able to capture the spirit of the 80s sex, drugs and booze-filled slasher films but they gave it a shot. Needless to say the show only lasted one season.

AHS 1984, however, gets it right … ironically enough on the now Disney-owned FX Network (if anyone is afraid of the show being Disney-fied, I think the premiere should put that fear to rest). There’s already been plenty of sex, blood and Matthew Morrison’s (stunt double’s) ass on display (not to mention whatever it is Morrison has stuffed down the front of his gym shorts). The opening scene sets up the story in 1970 when an entire cabin of summer campers and counselors is slaughtered by the camp’s janitor, known as Mr. Jingles because of his keys.

In 1984, a group of friends, or what passes as friends in Los Angeles, is looking for a way to get out of the city for two reasons: the Olympics are about to start and there’s a serial killer on the loose. And serial killers are more active in the summer because people sleep with their windows open, according to Brooke (Emma Roberts), the show’s virginal character. Luckily aerobic instructor Xavier (Cody Fern) has a gig as a counselor at Camp Redwood and they are short-staffed because everyone is working for the Olympics. So slutty Montana (Billie Lourde), dishonored athlete Chet (Gus Kenworthy) and token Black dude Ray (DeRon Horton) all jump on the camp counselor bandwagon. Brooke is hanging back because she’s taking summer classes. That is until her apartment is broken into and she’s nearly murdered by Richard Ramirez, the real life serial killer known as The Night Stalker (who also popped up in an episode of Season 5’s ‘Hotel’). Brooke manages to get the best of him and a neighbor scares him off but not before warning Brooke that he will find her. She decides to join the group for the trip to Camp Redwood.

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Of course as this is just the first episode, most of the time is spent setting up the characters but as the group makes a stop for gas, the gas station owner Roy (Don Swayze) gives them all a little bit of Crazy Ralph from Friday the 13th and tells them not to go to the camp because ‘you’re all gonna die.’ And like Crazy Ralph, he meets a bloody end later. On the road to Camp Redwood, Xavier runs over a guy but his wounds indicate he was injured long before the van rolled over him. Brooke insists they take him to the camp and get help. Before they get him in the van, he grabs Brooke’s hand and says, ‘I tried’ before passing out.

At camp they meet the owner, Margaret Booth (Leslie Grossman), a Bible thumper who will tolerate no shenanigans, co-ed cohabitation, sex, booze or funny cigarettes (‘What is that, clove?’). They also meet the cook Chef Bertie (Tara Karsian), who worked at the camp before the massacre shut it down, and the camp physician Rita (Pose‘s Angelica Ross). Aerobics instructor Trevor (Matthew Morrison) joins the group later in the day. Rita is the first to tell the new recruits about the camp’s tragic history, but Xavier tries to brush it off as a campfire ghost story. Margaret confirms Rita’s story is true because … she was there. She barely survived the slaughter, but ended up losing an ear, Mr. Jingles’ trophy, and now that they all know the truth, it’s completely rattled Brooke. (We also learn that the hiker the van hit is also missing an ear.) Brooke is so rattled, in fact, that she begins to quickly unravel when she sees the hiker pinned to the door with arrows (another F13 homage) and believes she’s being chased by Mr. Jingles. Of course there’s no evidence of any of that happening so is her imagination getting the best of her?

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Of course she’s not as crazy as everyone thinks because in a perfect re-creation of the scene from the original Halloween where Dr. Loomis approaches the mental hospital where Michael Myers is being held, and all the patients are roaming the grounds in a torrential rain, Mr. Jingles (John Carroll Lynch) has managed to get himself out by staging his suicide by hanging. Instead of the male Loomis, here we have the female Dr. Hopple (Orla Brady) and the hospital administrator Art (Mitch Pileggi) now having to deal with an escaped maniac (who killed poor Roy at the gas station and took his truck).

So the question now is — will there be more than one killer? Brooke thinks she saw Ramirez at the camp, but did she? Montana saw a pickup flash its headlights while she and Trevor were having a little playtime in the allegedly bottomless lake. A red herring? It wasn’t Mr. Jingles because he hadn’t escaped yet. Did Brooke see the hiker stuck to the infirmary door and was Mr. Jingles chasing her? And who will die first? I thought for sure it would have been Ray after his hand was injured and Brooke left him alone while she went to get bandages. But no, the minority did not die first … or at least not this week.

If you’re a fan of 80s slasher flicks, it looks like AHS 1984 is going to be right up your alley, from the summer camp setting to the various horror film references to the cheesy synth music to the garish 80s clothing and hair. It took me right back to that night in 1980 when I was 17 and saw Friday the 13th on the big screen. I can’t wait to see more!

What did you think of the season premiere? Sound off in the comments below!