We are now just a few weeks away from the ninth installment of American Horror Story, titled AHS: 1984. And although we have had a handful of teasers and cast announcements, we now have our first full trailer debut. And just as we imagined, it’s chock full of horny young people heading to meet their doom. What better place than at a summer camp from hell during the decade of decadence?
Like most seasons of American Horror Story, it seems like series producer Ryan Murphy is once again pulling from lots of famous pop culture sources. The summer camp murders is of course a nod to the Friday the 13th series, as well as tons of other summer camp massacre movies like Sleepaway Camp and The Burning. The aerobics scene is straight up a nod to the Jamie Lee Curtis/John Travolta ’80s workout movie Perfect; today it’s movie more famous for its memes than anything else. The workout studio is even “The Perfect Aerobics.”
And of course, the granddaddy of all slasher movies gets a reference as well. The masked killer escaping from an insane asylum to return to the scene of a previous crime is a sloppy wet kiss to John Carpenter’s original Halloween. Although, the killer’s look seems inspired by another decade’s cinematic mass murderer. He seems to look a lot like the Fisherman from I Know What You Did Last Summer. Will “Mr. Jingles” become the next iconic slasher? We’re pretty sure mazes are already in the offing for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios featuring this guy even as we speak.
AHS: 1984 will feature tons of returning actors from previous seasons, as well as from other Ryan Murphy produced series like Pose and American Crime Story. So far it seems that AHS staples Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters are not returning for this season. This will be the first since the show began. But I wouldn’t count out at least a cameo from both of them. They gotta keep their “every season of AHS record” intact.
AHS: 1984 premieres Sept. 18 on FX.
Images: FX Networks
