Saturday, November 12, 2011

RANDOM RAMBLINGS: THE PROMO CLUES TO AMERICAN HORROR STORY

So, in my previous post I solemnly declared my undying love for FX's and co-creators of Glee, Ryan Murphy's and Brad Falchuck's latest TV-phenomenon American Horror Story. As I'd been waiting for this show for quite some time before its release a couple of months ago, I watched the promo clues with much anticipation. Both creeping me out and catching my attention, I was intent on solving the puzzle. I must say though, even after six episodes I'm not sure I'm any wiser.

OBS! THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS!

Clue #1 - Cello

Masked rubber hands playing the cello bow on a woman's belly? Sexy and gross. I'm dying to find out who Rubber Man in fact is, during which time he lived in the house and what kind of guy he was. A pervert who liked to dress in rubber and play his cello? Tate stuck in his teenage S&M fantasies? I'm all ears to different theories!


Clue #2 - Baby
 

This porcelain baby is also seen in the promo photos (previously posted in FEASTY FRIDAY: 4 X SEXY POSTERS) and could both be representing the lost child of Mrs. and Dr. Charles Montgomery and all the babies who were killed in their underground abortion clinic.

It could also represent the babies that both Hayden and Vivien are carrying. Also, Nora Montgomery's appearance was first seen in 'Home Invasion' S01E02 after Vivien got pregnant, where she presented herself to Ben as a patient in a very dire situation; she's pregnant and needs his support to have an abortion. (Wow, Ben really could start a women's support group by now.)


Clue #3 - Couple
  

I'm not sure whether this clip is to represent a specific couple or if it's just referring to the couples of the house in general. The house has seen its share of life stories and brutal deaths; Constance shooting her husband after he has (or tries to have) an affair with the housekeeper Moira.

Chad and Patrick had their gay love story ended when Rubber Man drowns/snaps Chad's check in the apple bobbing barrel. Whatever happened to Patrick we haven't been told yet. This could be the 'murder/suicide' that the real estate agent was talking about in the pilot episode.

Then we have the builder or the house - the drug addicted Dr. Charles Montgomery and his wife Nora, who's baby son gets kidnapped by a boyfriend to one of the abortion girls, and chopped up in pieces. After going crazy and getting the Frankenstein complex, Dr. Montgomery starts sewing body parts from animals together, putting vascular looking wings on a two-headed pig. Nasty. The loss of their baby and the underground operations finally drive Nora mad after she walks in on her husband sewing pig's hooves onto their dead baby's body. Even nastier! (And what's interesting is that this must have some connection with the last episode 'Piggy, Piggy' S01E06) As if that wasn't enough, Nora evidently gets shot in the back of her head. Although that event, as well as the death of her husband, is still to be explained.

Larry taught us the gruesome destiny of his family and after playing the viral online game I know that there might be additional destinies and ghosts added to the equation.


Clue #4 - Black suit

The figure in the black suit is a reoccurring appearance in the show. First seen in the pilot episode as an inventory left behind on the attic by the previous owners the viewers were first to believe that the suit had belonged to the gay couple; Chad and Patrick. Which it also might had. But the person wearing the suit during Chad and Patrick's ill-fated Halloween night was neither one of the two. So who is the guy/ghost in the rubber suit?

On Halloween night one year after the death of Chad and Patrick, Rubber Man returns to the house standing in the hallway just behind Violet as she's watching the door (with crazy Larry on the outside). This could be the ghostly Rubber Man or just Tate wearing the suit in an attempt to either scare or seduce Violet (as he's seen earlier in the episode wearing the suit just to scare her).

The most memorable appearance of Rubber Man is however in the pilot episode, when he comes into the master bedroom and seduces Vivien, as she believes it's Ben being kinky wearing the gimp suit.

Clue #5 - Fire

Although the clip shows (again) the face of a porcelain doll, the distinct crack of a fire can be heard in the background. And fire seems to be an evident clue to the history of the house. We know that Larry was allegedly turned mad by the house in an Amityville Horror sort of way and it forced him to burn his whole family in.

In the pilot episode Ben seems to be under some supernatural influence as he walks downstairs (while Vivien's having kinky sex with Rubber Man) turning on the gas stove. Just before he burns himself, Constance enters the kitchen telling him that it's not his time yet and that he needs to "enjoy the house".


Clue #6 - Coffin

This clue is really interesting because I can't for my life figure out the meaning of it! My only guess would be the long shot that the owner of the black suit liked to play it dirty and kept some kind of human slave in the house and made her sleep in a box/coffin.


Clue #7 - Stairs

Again with Rubber Man. He definitely plays a vital role and it'll be fascinating to find out which role it is. The stairs however have a significant meaning when it comes to the subconscious and "stairs in dreams generally mean that you are coming to a conclusion about some issue. The ground floor in dreams symbolizes the reality in any given situation - the facts. The upstairs symbolizes the higher consciousness or conclusions surrounding some issue. It means that you have come to a decision. Going up and down stairs may suggest that you are coming to some new conclusions or keep changing your mind" (taken from Dream Dictionary).

It could be that the stairs are symbolic for each new discovery of the house's history or each new ghostly acquaintance.

The stairs could also be a direct clue to the 'evil' that lives in the basement of the house (as Rubber Man's standing at the top of the basement stairs in the clip). Obviously something wicked is going on in the basement; rubber balls are rolling back and forth. Dr. Montgomery had his weirdo operations going on down there. The ginger twins in the 1974 flashback were scared by something hiding in the basement. Adelaide literally warned them not to go down there. Violet's bully friend was violently shocked by what phenomenon Tate brought out down there, The intruders during 'Home Invasion' S01E02 get their throats slashed in basement, and so on.

Clue #8 - Melt

 This clip is so Russell Edgington-chained-to-Eric in a True Bloody way that I seriously can't figure out what it means. If it does mean that the show will include vampires I will be sad. This show was not meant for fang banging, it's strictly S&M, gore and ghosts that are on display. Some poor guy with xeroderma pigmentosum would be totally fine though. If it's Larry or some previous occupant melting in a fire, the clue would make sense. Or a warning what will happen to Ben if he keeps getting influenced by the house and sleep walks turning on the stove.

Clue #9 - Red cello
 

Again with the cello bow playing on a belly. This time altering between a regular and a pregnant one. It's obvious that Rubber Man has some influence over the females in the house and the cello clips are somehow a statement of that.

This one's also referring to the fact that Rubber Man's gotten Vivien pregnant and it might be so that if Rubber Man has been around the house for some time (since after they invented rubber, I guess), she might not be the only woman he's impregnated. We don't know for sure that Constance's late husband was the father to either Adelaide nor Tate. 


Clue #10 - Rubber bump

Uugh, Rubber Man with a prego bump is a bit disturbing. But as I wrote in Clue #9 - Red cello, it could be so that Rubber Man has impregnated more women that just Vivien. Do we know the reason why Adelaide was born neurologically atypical or why Tate turned out to be a Bowling for Columbine kind of guy? Impregnation by ghostly Rubber Man's got to be destined to have some side effects.


Clue #11 - Belly
 

I'm just hoping that the sonogram of Vivien's belly DID NOT show an evil spawn with hooves. That's just too much Christian mythology for my taste. I'm more for the unexplained, non-churchy stuff. It will be interesting to see whether she'll give birth to her fast growing baby or not, and if it'll be obvious that there's something wrong with it and that it's not Ben's baby. Maybe it'll turn out like Terry and Arlene's baby in True Blood, alarmingly cunning due to it's evil genetics.


Clue #12 - Family portrait
 

This clip doesn't say much more than what we've already learned from the six episodes that have been released. It's evident that past history plays a vital role in the current events; the twins from the 1974 flashback are seen running down the hallway, Adelaide is holding hands with her childhood self and young Moira's flashing her thighs to Ben as her older version's scrubbing the floor. Vivien is touched by the hand of Rubber Man, Violet's letting go of the hand of a very sad faced Tate and Larry bursts into flames as a calm Constance walks amongst them like the eye of the storm. This indeed is a portrait of the show.

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