‘American Horror Story’ Season Four: A Carnival Ride
Season four of American Horror Story will be set in a carnival, according to writer Douglas Petrie. Petrie, a guest on the Nerdist Writers Panel podcast, also said that, “It doesn’t have a title, but… that’s the idea. Very roughly, that’s the idea.”
And do we really need any more than that to start conjuring up our own dark ideas about season four of “AHS?” Since there were rumors involving the word ‘circus’ earlier in the year, it’s interesting that they’ve now used the word ‘carnival’. The tight-rope walkers, trapeze artists, and animal trainers that reside under a circus’s big tent don’t seem to evoke the same apprehension as those creepy fortune teller machines, darkened fun houses, porcelain smiles of the merry-go-round, and confusing labyrinths inside a house of mirrors.
American Horror Story co-creator Ryan Murphy also weighed in earlier this year, telling Entertainment Weekly, “We try and do the opposite of what we’ve done before. Jessica Lange has already started practicing her German accent so I’m very excited!”
“AHS” season four is supposed to be set in 1950, just five years after the end of World War two. And Jessica Lange is German? Another tease from the creators that brings to mind Nazis, swastikas, and world domination type scenarios. Since each season consists of completely new story lines, it’s impossible to guess just what Season four has in store. A Nazi fun-house? There’s something to think about before going to bed tonight.
The first three seasons of the American Horror Story timeline have included 2011, 1964, and 2013 mixed in with the 1800’s. Locations have included Los Angeles, Massachusetts, and Louisiana, with rumors that season four of “AHS” will take place in New Orleans, or possibly Santa Fe, New Mexico. Mention New Orleans and you’ve got your graveyards and voodoo. And although Santa Fe doesn’t immediately call up creepy images, there was a Japanese American internment camp there in the late 1940s, and it is also home to Los Alamos National Laboratory. Think Manhattan Project, atomic bombs, particle accelerators, and secrecy. Now I have images of a merry go round operated by Nazis, spinning fast enough to accelerate particles into another dimension. The creators of American Horror Story have pulled back the curtain just far enough for us to see the jagged shadows on the wall, and let our imaginations do the rest.
With big hitters like Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates, and with story lines and characters as surreal as any Dali Painting, FX’s American Horror Story is sure to keep people guessing for years to come.
Something wicked is certainly coming this way, and you can look for it this October.
[Images Via FX Network]
