Entertainment

“American Horror Story” Thrills

“When witches don’t fight, we burn,” says a deliciously dark Fiona Goode (played with excellency by Jessica Lange). This statement alone assures the audience that they’re in for a magical and wicked good time for “American Horror Story: Coven,” the third season in the hit anthology series. With each season comes a new theme of fantasy and real horrors, and this time around, the witches of Louisiana are here to cast a spell on you.

It’s modern day New Orleans and after discovering that she is a witch possessing a unique bloodline (traced back to the Salem Witch Trials), Zoe Benson (Taissa Farmiga) is sent to Miss Robichaux’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies. It’s a mysterious school where she encounters three other young witches, who too possess magical powers and this bloodline.

It’s not long before the “Supreme” witch Fiona Goode returns to warn them that witches are in danger and that they need to be prepared. After flashing back to New Orleans 1834 with torturous, slave-dweller Madame Delphine LaLaurie (played by a sheer evil Kathy Bates), Goode looks to the past, in order to help their future against voodoo and its Queen.

Without an exceptional cast, then this show would fall flat. Luckily, “American Horror Story: Coven” delivers in episode one, entitled “Bitchcraft,” with excellent acting by the actors, who bring the terror to the small screen. In the first episode alone, there are three standout performances already, and they are here to scare you.

Returning actress Jessica Lange is playing Supreme witch, Fiona Goode. She has no time for games and is prepping these youthful witches for an oncoming war against voodoo, witchcraft’s nemesis. Lange nails every line not only on point, but with utter and upfront honesty that is eerie in itself. Her carnivorous candor slays with hints of humor that add spunk. When she says, “don’t make me drop a house on you.” you can’t help but to laugh and to fear her as well. 

Newcomer to the series, Kathy Bates, plays Madame Delphine LaLaurie, a socialite and serial killer of slaves in an 1834 New Orleans. The episode opens with her hosting a dinner party with grace and poise for all of her guests to admire. We soon cut to her attic, which is filled with scarred, dismembered and shrieking slaves. One particular slave is shackled and strung up, awaiting his impending torture. This so-called classy lady now flips the switch and becomes 100 percent horrifying. Bates embodies this real-life figure with pure evil and is absolutely cringe-worthy with her brutal inflictions.

Although she makes a brief appearance in the season opener, Angela Bassett makes a strong impression. Playing Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, she has it out for LaLaurie and confronts her face to face with revenge in mind. Bassett shines with her wrath, mysterious demure and Cajun accent. Laveau doesn’t appear very long on screen, but through a flashback and connection to LaLaurie, the Voodoo ride has just begun and isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

While these three women steal the show, supporting characters can’t be ignored, because they too are great. Returning cast members Evan Peters, Taissa Farmiga and Sarah Paulson all start off strong for the first episode. They’re no beginners to the crazy and scary ways of the series and it shows. Each one sinks into their characters and is ready for what is thrown at them.

The series has been known to take on controversial issues in the past and they don’t stop with this new season. With a rating of TV-MA, they have good reason to be rated so. It’s packed with controversy, which includes scenes of rape. For those who aren’t aware of how the show likes to push the limits (in their first season subtitled “Murder House,” they had a school shooting apart of the storyline), then “Coven” and previous seasons are not for the easily offended. This show is without a doubt for mature adults only.

“American Horror Story: Coven” delivers an enormously entertaining episode that packs a punch. It’s here to shock, entertain and push the limits for television. This episode is an immense thrill ride that immerses the audience into a true American horror story: the spooky and eerie magical past of New Orleans.

PHOTO TAKEN from bloody-disgusting.net