American Horror Story - Double Feature

"Red Tide" – 70% – American Horror Story: a cross-section Stephen King. One part of the team read The Shining, the other Pet Sematary, and the third Salem's Lot. The result exceeded all imaginable expectations, confirmed Finn Wittrock's talent, brought back many beloved faces, and, after quite a long time, managed to surprise with how well the series can scare and thrill... and then it all went wrong. The episode "Winter Kills" drifts away from established certainties, turns the secondary (and sufficiently explored in previous seasons) theme of social criticism into the main theme, burying the show. And that's a terrible shame because, despite the thoroughly genre composition, there was more potential than ever before. "Death Valley" – 40% – Despite a promising premise, this is the worst that the AHS universe has ever offered me. A collection of overworked conspiracy theories that are only lightly touched upon and clumsily stitched together. The black and white visual of the past storyline is well done, but what's the point when all interesting motifs are gradually abandoned and blend into a strange farce. Faithfully B-movie in quality, as befits a Double Feature, but probably not in the way the creators hoped for. (07.04.2022)

The question is whether Double Feature can work as a gift for missing last season, among other things. The first story, Red Tide, is a pretty decent variation on the classic "family moves to a haunted house for new experiences, affecting their relationships and careers" situation. The novel admixture in this case is a kind of derivative of Nosferatu. Familiar faces have the opportunity to do something new again. The second half of the series is worse. The Nosferatu derivative doesn't have a compelling finale, and the second story, Death Valley, is an extreme oddity that benefits from the 50s and 60s phenomena, including Marilyn Monroe. (10.12.2021)