American Horror Stories: Lake-Recap

credit: American Horror Stories

American Horror Stories almost managed to right the ship with Lake. However, somehow, some way, things still pulled back from the edgy, horror-filled feeling that many people have been hoping for to focus once again on an antagonist that is more controversial than terrifying. And sadly, the supernatural creatures in this episode are righteous and have a beef with the person who killed them. As far as those they kill throughout the years in an apparent bid for ‘justice,’ the argument feels way too familiar, given that those who come later and are blameless end up paying the price for their ancestors. The fact is that this episode picked up a very social justice-like feel to it, giving the feeling that it fits with the rest of the season since, from the start, this season came out showing that it was less inclined to scare people and more likely to preach to them about one issue or another. The feeling is that this doesn’t need to change. 

credit: American Horror Stories

Seeing Alicia Silverstone in this episode was interesting. 

It would appear that American Horror Stories is attempting to bring in talented actors that people enjoy seeing rather than take the time to develop a script and tell a convincing story. That sounds a bit harsh. But the truth is that whoever is writing these episodes is either under the supervision of someone that’s ceased to care about quality or hasn’t yet realized that trading horror for realism isn’t what fans came to like about AHS. Season 1 might have had plenty of issues to deal with, especially the overall fan reaction, but at the very least, it was still modeled after the elements that made AHS famous. Something about this current season makes it easy to believe that someone went and told the writers to give it a Hallmark touch rather than stick to the path that had already been laid out and was wide enough to accommodate a large number of ideas that could branch out in many different ways. 

There was a big chance for this episode to be the best thus far. 

Think about a lake, a boat, a quartet of dumb teenagers that didn’t think past their desires, and a potential horror story that could have chilled the audience to the bone. All the elements were there, yet the execution was so poor that it couldn’t even be called watered-down, as it was waterlogged after the first couple of minutes. When two siblings and their friends decide to head out to Lake Prescott to do some diving, presumably to find something of interest, one of them doesn’t come up after being restrained by a hand that breaks free of a mound of dirt, keeping him in place as his sister attempts to get help. By the time she gets back, her brother is dead, as one would have expected, and the grief slowly tears at their family, but it still feels like it barely scratches the surface of this story since, apart from a couple of jump scares, there’s nothing there. 

credit: American Horror Stories

The scares aren’t there, but neither is the story. 

It’s almost as though this story is buried under the need to vilify the antagonist, that is eventually revealed to be the father, who’s a distant relative of an individual that not only created Lake Prescott by flooding the valley but also killed those who opposed him as well. This fact might have changed the story and created a burning need to see the father as a villain that had continued a legacy of hatred and harm, but it came off so flat that it took an effort to care at all by the time the end had come. The fact that the spirits of those that had died in the Lake came forth to attack the father was a ‘meh’ moment that left one feeling grateful since it meant that the end was in sight. It’s hard to say this about anything that has to do with AHS since the franchise is a great way to experience horror, but the second season thus far is little more than a seriously flawed copy. 

Does this show deserve a third season?

The knee-jerk reaction to this question is a huge ‘no,’ but with a bit of time to think it’s not hard to think that another season could help to right the ship if enough effort is put in and the writers are asked to go back to the formula that worked in the first place. Trying something new isn’t that big of a deal, it’s necessary to be fair, but when it doesn’t work, it’s time to change and perhaps go back to the original style that did work. At least from there, a few tweaks can be made while adhering to the original style. 

Seriously, the first season was a lot better.