How successful can a full-on horror show be? We are not talking procedural television here, with the monster of the week replacing the typical patient (House) or crime of the week (CSI et al ). Can 40-50 minutes per week, centering around normal dysfunctional family make for compelling television? The kind of show that draws in the ratings and the big names and is on a sure-fire path for a second season? The viewers have answered a scared shitless aye, with 3.22 million following the show eager to know what happens next.

For the unwashed, here are the first four minutes of the pilot:

A girl with Down’s Syndrome is standing in front of an old gothic house, telling a couple of annoying male twins that they are going to die in there. The kids act as if they’ve never watched a horror movie in their short life of nine years, and so, they enter the house. They start breaking stuff. Then they follow the stairs down the basement. They find a dead rat. They find jars filled with: an ear, a hairless animal, a baby’s head. They split up (smart move). One goes in search for the other. He eventually finds his brother with a slit throat, yet still somehow alive, wearing a begging expression on his face; camera switches angle, holy-fuck, was that a bald rotting midget in a dress? Scream. Camera zooms out to the house; girl still standing there, fade to black.

You slowly turn to your partner sitting on the couch next to you, or to your cat, or in my case to a pillow to cry, and ask, “why is this on primetime television?” With the creative minds behind shows like Glee and Nip/Tuck, Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe winners in the cast list, the answer is: “about freaking time we had some proper horror on our screens”. In a time where show runners play it safe renewing old tested formulas for the 10th consecutive season, making cheap reality shows about the most mundane people and stuff, exploring this aspect of entertainment is a logical progression. We love the thrill, and being scared affirms that, and heck, we can do both behind the safety of our screens. The dozen or so, horror, slasher and thriller flicks that come out each year are proof of that; there’s a market for feeling scared just like there’s a market for unwashed female underwear in Japan, and isn’t that really bloody scary?

But the overall genre lacks a distinct continuity when it comes to mass appeal and success. Plenty of horror movies are released each year, but not many that stand out. Usually the ones that the non-enthusiast-yet-movie-buff will hear about and seek to watch are those with a few controversial scenes, hyped up by the media concerning a movie that has reached a new level of stupidity.

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And there’s a reason for that. Horror makes for bad sequels. The first movie is usually great and scary as shit, but there’s little you can do with, a) a limited budget, and b) no new ideas ("More blood", yells the director, "that should do the trick"). Horror relates to the emotion of sudden fear which is in the same category of other primal emotions that are impulsive, and through surprise can cause laughter and tears. They are momentary, and they don’t really need much fodder to be activated. That’s why you don’t usually laugh at the same joke twice, ‘cause you’ve heard it before, and the entire genre of horror suffers from a serious case of being-there-done-that-itis. 

A successful horror story is usually over in 90 minutes, with little to no explanation as to why all the blood and screams and darkness filled the screen. But this show wants to crank it all the way up to eleven, stretching the story for a good eight hours; so unless you are working at a Japanese factory that makes unwashed female underwear, can you imagine watching the same horror movie for eight hours?

Creaky old houses have been a source of inspiration for writers ever since the first electrical failure caused the occupants to blame a ghost.  Such stories are easily recyclable. The allure of American Horror Story lies in the attention to the overall approach. The main characters appear real, believable and just as unlikable. Each guest actor brings in something interesting: their backstories/murders and performance. The make-up department has succeeded in creating both beautiful distractions and satisfying scares. Songs overly fitting on specific moments make the impact of scenes ever so powerful. The director manages to keep the viewer on edge with an atmosphere of unpredictability, giving us only slightly more information than what the characters themselves possess.

But it is not flawless. One can choose to watch it solely for the drama, ignoring the horror elements entirely, simply shutting his or her eyes when the next deformity or death appears on screen. The house and its haunts are the main reasons that drive the characters' actions, and it seems there is no overarching story behind the plot, just an underlying thematology of a family in crisis, of damaged individuals so unwilling to change that their inner ugliness takes shape and form. It becomes tiresome when the plot doesn’t move forward and scenes exist just to surpass each other in terms of shock or awkwardness.

Near the last few episodes a coherent story becomes obvious, with a clear set of goals that was lacking in the first half of the season. The ending is a smooth sequence despite the cliffhanger, and it eases slowly to the inevitable. It is a ballsy show that fearlessly reminds us of Columbine, that kills kids and teenagers, pregnant women and babies. And all the characters just seem to become caricatures of themselves exposed to random violence, as if they are part of a serious form of parody. Bad things happen in this show, scene after scene, and the question why is never answered, following the typical format of horror.

Stephen King distinguishes between three types of terror: the gross out (gore and deformity), the horror (the supernatural, the unexplainable) and the terror (the looming shades caught by the corner of your eye, the inexplicable fear of silence and of dark rooms). This series is an excellent blend of drama, mystery and all of the above.