CarterMatt’s Scare-O-Ween: Can ‘American Horror Story: Hotel’ do anything different?

Throughout the past few editions of our Scare-O-Ween series here at CarterMatt, we have done our best to explain how some shows out there really are not making the most of the Halloween opportunity they are given every year to create a fun, exciting tribute to the holiday.

We really cannot say the same thing about “American Horror Story.” While this franchise may have its fair share of flaws, it always goes big around October 31. The “Asylum” two-parter was all about an enormous storm, and around this time during “Freak Show,” we were saying goodbye to a beloved character in Twisty.

So what are we going to be seeing on “American Horror Story: Hotel” this year? First things first, how about a conjuring? Some of the most notorious killers out there are going to be surfacing at the Hotel Cortez, and it includes Lily Rabe as Aileen Wuornos, a killer so infamous that she had a film about her in “Monster” released many years ago. You also have Darren Criss apparently coming on as a hipster, and someone who is going to meet (more than likely) a rather gruesome fate.

Could the show be doing more to celebrate Halloween itself? Maybe if you want to talk about diving a little bit into the lore of the holiday sure, but we don’t know how you can ask for more creepy characters, costumes, big set pieces, or surprises. It’s almost a guarantee that a character will due in the two-parter, mostly because this always tends to happen. This season of the show even has children present, which is important now in how trick-or-treating is a big part of the Halloween mythos.

The one thing that we would put on our Halloween wishlist for “American Horror Story” that we’re not sure they will bring us is an enormous scene that unites many of the characters in the same place. While we’ve enjoyed getting to see a wide array of different people, the show has been somewhat sparse and isolated. We think that throwing everyone into a metaphorical cauldron could cast a very unique spell on the show.

In the end, we figure that we’ll get a great opportunity to see just what Ryan Murphy’s vision is come Wednesday night. We’ll have a full review up right after the episode airs.

If you want to get some other news right now when it comes to “American Horror Story,” head over here to watch / listen to the most-recent edition of our podcast with Jason Prager! Also, you can sign up here in the event you want some other great TV news on everything we cover sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: FX.)