AHS: 1984- “Camp Redwood” is Pure, Campy Fun (Ep. 1)

September 20, 2019

*Minor Spoilers Ahead*

Entering its ninth season, FX’s lucrative American Horror Story franchise looked to be undergoing a bit of a refresh. Gone were series regulars Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, and Kathy Bates. The season was to be set in the nostalgia-heavy 1980s. And even the series title had been shortened to AHS, as in AHS: 1984. So you’d think with this much change from previous seasons of the macabre series that viewers would begin to lose interest and move away from what has been so familiar to them, similar to the issues that plagued another long-running horror series, AMC’s The Walking Dead. And yet, anticipation for this current season seemed to be at or near an all-time high for the franchise. Perhaps it is the love for all things ’80s right now? Or perhaps it is the slasher premise of 1984. Likely, it’s a combination of both. With the season premiere, “Camp Redwood,” it is clear that the show intends to deliver on all that promise.

If you are a fan of 1980s slasher movies, or even just aware of them, the show will instantly feel familiar. Taking place in, well, 1984, the story follows a group of twenty-something Los Angelinos who decide to serve as counselors at Camp Redwood. Of course, as you might guess, the camp has a dark, bloody past. The episode begins at an indeterminate time period (we later learn the year is 1970) with a pre-title sequence in which a trio of horny counselors are making out in a cabin bed, loosely hidden from the other, sleeping campers by a flimsy sheet. Unbeknownst to the three, a raincoat-wearing individual has entered the cabin, killing every camper he passes on his way to their bed. In short order, he dispatches of the counselors in extremely gruesome fashion. As he leaves the cabin, we see the mutilated remains of all the unlucky campers.

In keeping with American Horror Story seasons of past, the show does not hold back when it comes to blood and gore. As for homages, Friday the 13th is a clear inspiration in the season premiere, and likely the entire season. There is the trademark van transporting the counselors, a la Friday the 13th Part 3, with illicit materials being passed around amongst them. A character (played by Don Swayze, Patrick Swayze’s brother) who is not quite Crazy Ralph from the first two Friday films but serves the same purpose is introduced early on (“You’re all gonna die”). He fares about as well as old Ralph did at Camp Crystal Lake. And you can’t have a killer-loose-at-a-summer-camp story without the requisite campfire exposition. The story also draws a bit from other summer camp slashers such as 1981’s Madman, cult classic Sleepaway Camp, and I Know What You Did Last Summer, but Friday the 13th is the clear parallel.

However, there is an extended sequence midway through the first episode that is nearly a shot-for-shot homage to the slasher that launched the genre, John Carpenter’s Halloween. As a car heads toward a mental asylum in pouring rain driven by a woman (Dr. Hopple, an amalgamation of Dr. Sam Loomis and nurse Marion), she sees that many of the patients have spilled out into the courtyard and are meandering aimlessly. Sound familiar? As Dr. Loomis once exclaimed, “He’s gone from here. The evil is gone.” That evil here? Mr. Jingles, a dishonorably discharged Vietnam vet turned camp janitor who committed the massacre seen at the episode’s start. He finds out via newspaper that the camp has re-opened and stages his death in order to escape and return to the scene of his crimes.

Set against the backdrop of the Los Angeles Olympics, the camp (and not just the summer variety) is in full force in AHS: 1984. But, and this is the key point, it is complete, unadulterated fun! From the opening titles, full of ’80s nostalgia set to an era-appropriate synth-heavy take on the AHS theme, it is clear that creators Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy have a deep love and understanding of what makes ’70s/’80s slashers so enjoyable. The characters, the dialogue, and the ridiculous ’80s fashion make for a very enjoyable and breezy viewing. And I don’t know what their music licensing budget is, but I hope they didn’t blow it all in the first episode. Excellent ’80s tunes such as Bananarama’s “Cruel Summer,” Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me,” Def Leppard’s “Photograph,” and Hall and Oates’ “Private Eyes” are liberally peppered throughout the show.

Of course, none of this works without some interesting characters. Series regular Emma Roberts stars as demure final girl-type Brooke Thompson (who ends the episode looking very Carrie-like, only mud- not blood- covered. Another regular, Billie Lourd, is prototypical bad girl Montana Duke (what a name!). Returning cast member, Cody Fern, plays leader/preppy-type Xavier Plympton. But the real scene-stealer is series newcomer Matthew Morrison as mustachioed lothario Trevor Kirchner. Lourd’s Duke not so-subtly refers to one of Trevor’s, ahem, appendages as “a baby elephant’s trunk.” Um, yeah. And in addition to Mr. Jingles (John Carroll Lynch, previously seen as killer clown Twisty in AHS: Freak Show and Cult), the show also brings back real-life Los Angeles-area serial killer Richard Ramirez (Zach Villa), aka the Night Stalker, last seen on the American Horror Story: Hotel season. The dual killers, one reminiscent of many fictional horror film monsters and the other an all-too real monster, should make for an interesting dynamic this season.

A common criticism of recent season of American Horror Story is that the series moved away from the campiness and fun of the earlier seasons. That does not appear to be an issue here, as this season may be the funnest yet. It remains to be seen how Falchuk and Murphy will be able to sustain the premise of a slasher film (which generally run 90 minutes or less) over the course of a full season. But for fans of the series, fans of classic slasher flicks, and/or nostalgia junkies, AHS: 1984 will be everything they’ve been waiting for and more.