American Horror Story: Roanoke Update! Ryan Murphy Spills More Details On Big Twist!

19 October 2016

Well, we’re not sure if a spoiler warning is in order here or not. There wasn’t a spoiler warning on the story, and Ryan Murphy pretty much gave the details casually, possibly because we are less than 48 hours away from “Chapter Six”. Most of it is pretty good news…

So, we got this all from a new piece that is exclusive to Entertainment Weekly. If you want to cut to the chase and read the story online, here’s the link (it’s their scoop, not ours).

Okay! First, Lady Gaga’s primal witch character, Scathach, ties in to Coven. Turns out that RM has confirmed she was the “first Supreme”. He alludes a little more to a Coven crossover, and we have to be honest: Coven was our least favorite season (admittedly, it didn’t help any that it had a tough act to follow, which was Asylum). But that’s just our opinion, and Coven did have some high points (Misty, Marie LaVeau, and Fiona was pretty fun, off the top of our heads). Murphy went on to say that American Horror Story will return to the Coven storyline in future seasons, but he doesn’t know when that will be.

Speaking of different seasons, we will see more Freak Show. To quote Murphy directly: “Next year, we will be going back to some Freak Show characters, deeper histories and mythologies. So we’re sort of still exploring season 4 in season 7.” Fine with us, especially if we get to see Naomi Grossman as Pepper again!

Taissa Farmiga fans, rejoice! She will return this season! Ryan Murphy told EW.com that he brought Farmiga back in (after her sitting out Freak Show and Hotel) because it was a matter of coming up with the right part for her.

He also confirmed that, though there are only ten episodes (GODDAMNIT!*), the finale will be a pretty big deal. “The finale is the wrap-up to Roanoke but the mythology and some of the characters will continue in subsequent seasons. So it’s the ending but not the ending,” says Murphy. Hmmmm…

Also, Murphy really stresses that the “upcoming twist” will be the biggest twist the series has had so far. Since we are on Season Six, that is saying quite a bit. We are trying to manage our expectations, but the other fans we’ve heard from are expecting nothing but being completely blown away. Several have said, in fact, they will be really pissed off if it doesn’t make their jaw hit the floor. Horror Boom is still sticking to our “Found footage, plus going behind the scenes of the filming of My Roanoke Nightmare, possibly including some American Horror Story regulars such as Sarah Paulson and Kathy Bates playing themselves” theory.

We found another Entertainment Weekly online story that went up after Chapter Five ended last week, with co-creator Brad Falchuck. In it, he says that fans should be prepared for these next batches of episodes to be their own thing. He explains, “I really think it’s three seasons: it’s like [episodes] 1 through 5, 6 through 9, and 10 is its own thing.” He also stresses, regarding the twist: “No matter what you think it is, it’s not that.” Well, that certainly doesn’t sound boring! We just hope we get to see Evan Peters again.

Here’s the teaser for tomorrow night’s episode one more time. The “never stop recording, no matter what,” found-footage statement reminds us of the original [REC] (2007). As everyone who has seen the movie will recall, that didn’t turn out well for absolutely anyone**, though we’re glad they kept recording so we could have the living shit scared out of us.

Souce: Entertainment Weekly Online

*Hell, we were really bummed out when we realized “Hotel” would only have 12 episodes. How do you think we feel now? No holiday break! What are we supposed to do now for our “post-Christmas depression”? On the bright side, we still have a chance for the two-part Halloween episode. They’d better not skip it this year.

**unless you count La Nina Medieros, AKA ‘The Attic Monster’

Our theory is that they spelled out “PIG” on purpose…

Want Intel On Upcoming ‘American Horror Story: Roanoke’ Events? Lookie Here!

30 September 2016

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OK, so we don’t exactly know every single little thing (and face it, you wouldn’t want to know everything any more than we would) but this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly* features Ryan Murphy and some of his favorite talent on the cover, with a big chunk devoted to AHS Roanoke. He drops some VERY interesting teasers on the episodes to come, and though he’s not dumb enough to give outright spoilers, there is quite a bit of information on what to expect this season, even some specifics about tie-ins to other seasons (hint: they’re not the seasons you’d expect). Here’s some specific highlights from the Entertainment Weekly cover story, plus some extra goodies!

NOTE: SPOILERS INCLUDED FOR AMERICAN HORROR STORY SEASON SIX : ROANOKE. IF YOU ARE NOT CAUGHT UP ON EPISODES ONE TO THREE, STOP READING AND CATCH UP. What the hell are you waiting for, anyhow?

Dandy Mott origin story, anyone? Remember that rotten, murderous, rich little prick from Freak Show? Finn Whitrock’s Dandy turned out to be much more dangerous and horrible than Twisty the Clown. He definitely deserved the horrible death he got while the surviving characters watched while happily chomping popcorn. Ryan Murphy says that we can expect the shows to “explain how the Motts began”. We hope that means we’ll get to see Frances Conroy this season, because we really missed her during Hotel.

Roanoke might seem more stripped down–RM’s rule going in was “no script longer than 36 pages, no cut longer than 41 minutes”**–but we still will get plenty of gore. For instance, he says, “If you ever want to see how you do a human disembowling, watch episode four and you’ll learn a lot”.

You would think Kathy Bates as “The Butcher” and her gang of long-dead colonists (Lady Gaga plays one), along with the murderous bloodthirsty nurses, would provide enough scares. We also get “Piggy Man”, as another horrifying apparition (or is he?), and the EW story refers to him as “one of the main baddies”. Piggy Man, who we saw in one of Dr. Cunningham’s found-footage VHS tapes, is the same one as the legend discussed in Murder House.

While EW was visiting the set, someone was getting set up with a “crotch harness”, but it isn’t for what you’d think after watching AHS Hotel. A character is killed after a very nasty staircase fall.

Here’s the big surprise: Halfway through the season, beginning with episode 6, everything you thought you knew about Roanoke gets flipped on its head. BIG TIME. Says Murphy: “The show has a huge turn, and the thing that you think you’re watching is not what you’re watching.” We are willing to bet that is going to include a departure from the mock reality crime show format.

Here, piggy piggy…

Our speculation on the big twist? The scope of the show is going to widen, because the fact that the “real” family (Shelby, Lee, and Matt Miller) who “My Roanoke Nightmare” is based on all are alive and appear to be in one piece kind of ruins any suspense regarding who will survive and who is not. The story in the reality show might seem to wrap up, but we’ll see the evil continuing on outside the show. Maybe Angela Bassett, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Sarah Paulson themselves will be haunted, though that could get a little ‘meta’. Maybe we’ll see a little more a little more of Cheyenne Jackson (it took us a while to pick up on it, but he is the interviewer of the documentary My Roanoke Nightmare).

Your guess is as good as ours… and there are plenty of theories to explore online. Let’s hope the episodes get longer than the bare minimum, and hey, maybe we’ll even see a fish-eye lens shot or two.

We do have a few more miscellaneous nuggets from the Entertainment Weekly cover story. The whole “The Mist” misdirect isn’t mentioned (though it was pretty clever), but as far as all those involved in the filming and prep leading up to the surprise premiere date, they–and this is a direct quote– “took a blood oath not to reveal anything”. Scripts got shredded, actual security was hired, and even Sarah Paulson could only get two scripts in advance. Also, several phony semi-leaked plot descriptions were written under the name American Horror Story: Cul-de-Sac. Everything worked, up until some sleazes who wanted a payday from TMZ snuck onto the set and took a few photos, but fortunately, that was only a few days before the surprise premiere. Oh, and Murphy also knows the concept for next season… and then some.

Oh, and any rabid Even Peters fans who have been really, really upset he hasn’t shown up yet three episodes in? Take a deep breath and try to be patient, he IS signed on for this season. He isn’t even listed as a special guest star, but as a part of the main cast. They may be saving him (along with Finn Whitrock and Matt Bomer) for after the big mid-season switcheroo!

*Source: Entertainment Weekly, “Unlocking American Horror Story” by Tim Stack @ewtimstack, September 30, 2016/Issue #1433

**Not going to lie, this bums us out. The last few season’s extended episodes (“Hotel” was especially generous with these, even though there were only 12 instead of the usual 13 episodes) spoiled us, we guess. We’re going to pretend really hard that we did not only see ten “chapters” listed for this season on the reliable IMDB episode guide, though…

10 Trivia Facts About The Conjuring 2 (2016) – We Bet You Don’t Know Them All!

20 September 2016

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James Wan’s The Conjuring 2 did well in theaters and with critics, and it’s finally available for rental! There are no major spoilers here, just some fun trivia that we would be surprised if you had heard all about before now.

Javier Botet played “The Crooked Man”. Search “Javier Botet” in the content for this site and you’ll come up with a hell of a lot a pieces he’s tagged in. Mr. Botet has portrayed many of the most frightening, nightmarish characters in the last ten years of cinema, including “the Medeiros Girl” in the fucking terrifying climax of [REC] (2007) and two other movies in the same franchise, the titular character of Mama (2013), who can kill you just by showing up, and the horrifying ghostly female apparitions featured in the only scary scenes in Crimson Peak (2015), among others. He is 6 ft 7 and weighs about 110 lbs, and he is also double-jointed. If you didn’t know Mr. Botet’s work well, you would think that the Crooked Man apparition in The Conjuring 2 was created by using CGI animation …but you would be wrong.

Guess who?

2/3. See that featured image up at the top of this piece? Notice the letters on the bookshelves? V-A-L-A-K. Also, check out the colorful letters on the window below…

4. Lily Taylor blew her voice out from screaming during filming of the first Conjuring. Vera Farmiga did her one better and blew out a damned lymph node from screaming (multiple takes were needed, which made it worse) filming her role as Elizabeth Warren during The Conjuring 2. Jesus! Ouch! [source: IMDB]

5. Did you know that to promote the DVD/Blu-ray release, the studio put out a trailer that consists of the original trailer backwards, and it is somehow even creepier that way? You can watch it right here (EW.com made it an exclusive, so no insert)… and (hint) listen.

6. Speaking of very scary voices, the actual recording of the possessed Janet Hodgson is played over the end credits. The dialogue in the movie follows the recording closely. If you are feeling brave and the lights are on, you can listen to it below (this recording goes for a full twelve minutes, unlike the condensed version played in The Conjuring 2). Regardless of your level of skepticism, does THIS sound like an 11-year old girl to you? The working class Hodgson family did not exactly have access to sophisticated voice-altering technology. Today it could be easily be faked …but not back in 1977. Listeners beware, however; this made the hair on our bodies stand on end.

7. You probably spotted Annabelle (you don’t forget that thing’s face) in her glass cabinet, along with the music box from The Conjuring in the Warren’s museum, but did you see the black and white painting hanging in the Warren’s office?

It’s the house from The Conjuring, along with that very distinctive tree. Minus Bathsheba’s shadow hanging from the tree, it looks very close to the image on the theatrical poster.

8. Here’s an extremely creepy one. During the Amityville séance cold-open, Elizabeth Warren is terrorized by (among other things) a demonic-looking little boy whose eyes glow a white-silver. Director James Wan was inspired by the following notorious photo claiming to show the youngest victim of the DeFeo massacre (copyright: Paranormal Guide), AKA the “Amityville Ghost Boy”.

Click here to learn more about this photo from Paranormal Guide.

9. There is yet another image where you can pick out the demon Valak’s name. This one, you need to be looking for (thank you, IMDB trivia section, for telling us the time mark in the movie). You can see the “V” in the “love” plaque, and the rest…

How did THAT get there?

10. Finally, we are pretty sure this is just PR from the movie studio to promote the home video release of The Conjuring 2, though warning potential viewers of possible unexplained, dangerous paranormal activity directly caused by watching a copy might not be the best media strategy. Here are alleged scary incidents pointing to some kind of “visual curse” that is the result of watching…

Oh, GIMME A FREAKIN’ BREAK! Stupidest thing we ever heard, pffffft! We rented the movie on VOD and watched it Saturday night, and we’re fine! Calling bullshit on this one, because… because… what was that noise?

American Horror Story Season 6: The Mist – Actual Leak or Another Fake-out?

6 September 2016

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We heard a rumor about this a week or so ago and just figured it was click-bait or a PR stunt (and it still might be the latter). Thus, we sort of blew it off. Then, Mrs. Horror Boom here was setting up a series recording on her new Xfinity console and was surprised to find THIS. Oh-HO!

That’s right! Keep in mind that while this looks very much like a leak, Ryan Murphy and the other AHS producers have admitted recently that “all except one” of the teasers for American Horror Story Season 6 are “misdirects”. They’re all pretty frightening, by the way. The latest one scared the crap out of us and we didn’t even play the audio…

Jesus H. Christ! There’s this new one too:

Anyway, the only common theme we can determine so far are 1. Monsters and 2. Creepy-crawly spiders and insects. Which doesn’t really matter anyway, since only one of them is the real theme.

Honestly, this leak could be a “leak” right from Ryan Murphy/FX themselves to throw us off further. “The Mist” is a little too close to the Frank Darabont-directed 2007 film (based on the Stephen King novella) a while back, and that film definitely featured lots of monsters, including some very spider and insect-like ones. It isn’t like AHS to do a tie-in with another, very established horror feature. Also, would it really leak this soon?

Then again, Rotten Tomatoes (which is the listing that started the buzz about the leak) listing the full title is one thing. Comcast Xfinity, though, made us take notice enough to pass it on to you.

Any ideas? Let us know below…

YES! Angela Bassett Joins ‘American Horror Story: Hotel’

1 May 2015

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Great news! Oh, and if you missed it, Evan Peters, Wes Bentley, and Chloë Sevigny will also return. For those who were not thrilled by the announcement about Lady Gaga appearing in American Horror Story Season 5, AKA American Horror Story Hotel, don’t panic. This is an ensemble cast, and she will not be replacing Jessica Lange as the lead. I doubt they’d give her a meatier role than, say, Kathy Bates. We’re not huge fans, but we’re also willing to give Gaga a fair chance. Meanwhile, keep on hoping that Lily Rabe, who we really missed last season (though getting to see her play Sister Mary Eunice again in the episode “Orphans” was almost worth her only being in one episode) will sign on to return! Also, we kind of miss Zach Quinto…

American Horror Story Freak Show: How Would You Rate It? Take Our Poll, We Wanna Know!

19 February 2015

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Well, now that the dust has settled after the season finale of American Horror Story Freak Show, hopefully you can look back and put it into perspective with the rest of the series: Murder House, Asylum, and Coven. You can tell us how you rank it in with all the other seasons, plus we’ve put it some other possibilities (that we’ve heard more than one person say). We would ask you to mainly base your rating on pure entertainment value, but also take into account whether you’d want to re-watch, and… oh hell, just base it on whatever you want. It’s your choice.

We have grimly resigned ourselves to the fact that nothing will ever top Asylum, but we’re still willing to watch. Also, Asylum would be really, really hard to top anyway.

If the many answers start to confuse you (seriously, we started to get confused writing them) just write your own answer (such as: “I liked Asylum best, then Freak Show, then Murder House, then Coven least” or “Freak Show is a tie with Murder House, which I thought was better than Coven but not as amazing as Asylum”); whatever you want.

Before you decide that Freak Show really wasn’t any improvement over Coven, watch the Coven Finale again.

We rank Murder House over Freak Show because Murder House, especially this episode, gave us nightmares and Freak Show did not.

Horror Story Eyes a ‘Huge Reinvention’ — Will Jessica Lange Be a Part of It?

20 January 2015

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TVline.com here has some interesting information about American Horror Story Season 5. Beware: some of it might make you a little nervous. Here is the actual quotation from the article, given by John Landgraf, CEO of FX Networks:

Pressed to reveal the theme to follow Freak Show (which finales on Wednesday), Landgraf deferred, “I know what it is, but I can’t [say]. I have to let [series boss] Ryan [Murphy] do his thing on that. But it’s very different.”

Landgraf went on to say of the franchise, “One of the things I love so much about that is that it can be radically, radically reinvented in terms of tone, setting, period, characters, cast.” And along those lines, “I think there’s going to be an unusually large reinvention in between Book 4 and Book 5 relative to, say, between Book 3 [Coven] and 4 [Freak Show].

The only Season 5 clue Landgraf perhaps let slip was when asked about the show returning to the present day (as it thus far has done with odd-numbered seasons). “That’s my hope, yeah,” he answered.

He also gives a vague reply when asked if Jessica Lange will return, but everything we have heard to date (including from Lange herself indicates this season with her as Elsa Mars will be her last. Ryan Murphy says he keeps asking her, but she has not changed her decision as of this writing, and it’s not a huge leap to say that she won’t be back (except perhaps for a cameo).

Hit “View original” in the lower left to read the whole piece on TVline.com!

American Horror Story: We’ve Got Titles and Episode Summaries for The Final Two Episodes (SPOILERS!)

9 January 2015

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Man, this season went too fast. The pacing has been a little, what’s a nice way to put this …uneven; some episodes nothing really happened except maybe Elsa being bitchier than usual and others went zipping around all over the place. We’ve still enjoying it much more than Coven, and the recent episode “Orphans” did more for us than the entire third season. Freak Show hasn’t actively pissed us off yet with plot holes and lazy writing, it’s just made us realize chances are that anything coming up in the last two episodes of this season and future seasons will never be as scary as Asylum and even Murder House (hey, one episode–“Smouldering Children”– gave me nightmares, and the “Infantata” scenes actively frightened me). I still hold out a tiny bit of hope, though. What with the new character being introduced, we wish they’d caught up sooner, or had a few more episodes to wrap up, because we love spending time with these characters, in this beautiful setting, with these amazing actors.

Here are the titles, if you want to read something that is spoiler-free and then stop…

Episode 12, airing next Wednesday January 14th, is titled “Show Stoppers”. Uh-oh.

Episode 13, the finale, is Titled “Curtain Call,” and airs on January 21st.

Ok, here comes the spoiler section. It won’t ruin everything, but it’s also not too hard to fill in some blanks that are probably supposed to be surprises.

SPOILERS FOLLOW!

Show Stoppers:
Dandy gives the Twins troubling information about Chester. Maggie vows to prove her loyalty to Jimmy. The Freaks enforce their harsh code of justice. (yeah!)

Curtain Call:

The Freaks rebel against new management. Dandy prepares for his début performance. Elsa arrives in Tinseltown.

Our speculations are as follows…

The “troubling information” Dandy gives the Twins about Chester will be that he is completely batshit, and probably that he murdered his wife and her lover, but is convinced the doll /dummy did it. There is a theory being tossed around online that Chester is actually the dummy (“Nutcracker!”) and she is real, which is interesting but would seem impossibly given the other character’s interactions with him. Maggie will probably prove her love to Jimmy by telling him everything that Stanley has done, and her role in it. The freaks enforcing their harsh code of justice? Stanley’s freakishly large penis will end up in a jar in the Morbidity Museum, and not attached to him. We still have hope that he will get the Todd Browning Chicken Lady treatment, or at least die very slowly, painfully, and gruesomely. Though we would really love it if Stanley got his dick chopped off, sold, then was mutilated to the point where he is turned into some kind of horrible monstrosity (with his tongue cut out, too) that ends up being a new “act” that patrons of the Freak Show will pay to see.

Freak Justice, Todd Browning-style.

We also think Danny Huston will be back as the doctor who carefully crafted and made Elsa her gorgeous wooden legs, and that he’ll make new hands for Jimmy. Not sure how well they’ll function, but at least they’ll appear to be hands. Maybe he’ll be the one to take care of Stanley.

As far as the finale? It looks like what Pepper (as above) saw on the cover of LIFE magazine in 1960 (I think that was the year) was not some kind of dream, and Elsa actually gets the career she has lusted after most of her life. It’ll be a lonely life for her, though. Chester won’t be the new management, since he’s not in the finale. That leaves Dandy. No-one likes him. Hopefully Maggie will remember his voice, or someone will put something together in time for him to get his before the show ends. His big début? Now that’s going to be something pretty grisly… and we hope, unexpected. Also, Dandy needs to die horribly. Oh yeah, Ryan Murphy also promised us we’d see Twisty again, though we have no idea how he’d fit in.

Let’s also keep our fingers crossed for a 90-minute finale!

TVLine.com Has Exclusive Pics From New American Horror Story Freak Show Episode!

6 January 2015

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We were going to re-blog this, but instead we thought we’d link to it and remind you that American Horror Story Freak Show airs its final three episodes (sigh) beginning this week. That’s Wednesday, January 7th! Same bat-time, same bat-channel.

Click here for the exclusive TVline.com photos, featuring Neil Patrick Harris as “Chester”, a magician/travelling salesman.

The episode is titled “Magical Thinking”, and NPH will appear in two episodes.

Happy Horrordays and Holidays From Horror Boom!

26 December 2014

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“Look, Mommy! I told you Santa would come!”

Yes, we’d like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy ~~Horrorday~~ Holiday! Sorry things have been a little sparse as the holiday grows closer, it snuck up on us this year and we got really busy as it zoomed closer. Also, did Your Old Pal The Cryptkeeper send this guy by to see if you’ve been naughty or nice?