American Horror Story: Season 2

DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:

There may not be much agreement over which season of American Horror Story is the best, but Season Two, Asylum, wins my vote hands down! The season is a sadistic pastiche of demon-possessed nuns, Nazi doctors, serial killers, prosecuted lesbians, alien visitations, and one lovable pinhead named Pepper. Oh, and lots of caning of shapely male buttocks. A little something for everyone!
The acting is, of course, over the top….the usual gang of AHS stalwarts; Jessica Lange, Zachary Quinto, and Lily Rabe all play their characters with malicious delight, and Evan Peters is the tortured innocent and the brunt of much of the abuse. Sarah Paulson’s role as the lesbian undergoing some “unconventional” conversion therapy is particularly impressive.
I work in a former asylum building that was completed in the 1820s, and it looks much like Briarcliffe, albeit with less blood, fewer demons, and no Nazi doctor hiding out in the basement (at least not to my knowledge!)

– Teresa

The best AHS season hands down. A true horror story. It takes pure evil (demons) and stereotypical evil (Nazis) and somehow makes them the LEAST evil people in this show. A pure human serial killer/rapist manages to make Satan look like a relatively good guy (girl?). A true horror story is one that makes humans the monsters in the face of traditional evil. This is also very unique in that it combines religion, science, and aliens and somehow combines them seemlessly. It’s beautiful. Angels, demons, nazis, aliens, and crazy people…this is the crowning achievement of American Horror Story and I don’t think any future season can come close.

Also, Zachary Quinto. That alone gives this season 3 stars. With everything else, truly a 5 star show.

-Lady Lunestria

This is an excellent series! I found myself on a rainy day of vacation wanting to watch the entire Season 2 in one day!

The second season of American Horror Story follows the patients, doctors and nuns who occupy Briarcliff Mental Institution in Massachusetts in 1964, intercut with scenes from the present. Sister Jude (Jessica Lange) and Sister Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe) maintain the institution that was founded by Monsignor Timothy Howard (Joseph Fiennes) to treat and house the mentally and criminally insane. Psychiatrist Dr. Oliver Thredson (Zachary Quinto) and scientist Dr. Arthur Arden (James Cromwell) treat the patients within the facility. The patients, many of whom claim to be unjustly institutionalized, include lesbian journalist Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson), accused serial killer Kit Walker (Evan Peters), and alleged murderer Grace Bertrand (Lizzie Brocheré).

As the season unfolds, information is revealed about everyone’s past, present, and personal lives. Sister Jude was once a philandering nightclub singer who unintentionally killed a young girl in a drunk-driving hit and run accident in 1949. This led her to become a nun and she was later selected to work at Briarcliff. Sister Mary Eunice is a shy and innocent nun who fears Sister Jude. Later, she becomes possessed by the Devil during an exorcism of another patient and becomes a cruel and willful woman. She anonymously taunts Sister Jude about the drunk-driving accident. Sister Jude is terrorized by the memory and goes to see the family of the dead girl. While there, she learns the girl survived the accident with only a few broken bones. Sister Jude figures that God had a plan for her all along, and decides that it is her job to destroy all the remaining evil at Briarcliff.

The evil includes the sadistic scientists Dr. Arden and the secret serial killer Dr. Thredson. Arden is a former Nazi whose experiments have produced “Raspers”, mutated former patients, who lurk in the woods surrounding the institution, and who are fed the flesh of dead patients. He and Sister Jude often clash with their differing views of how the facility should be run. Dr. Thredson is a psychiatrist assigned to evaluate accused serial killer Walker, although it is revealed that Thredson actually committed the murders Walker is accused of, and got himself assigned to Walker’s case to make sure he could pin the murders on him. Walker believes his wife Alma (Britne Oldford) was kidnapped by aliens and Thredson makes it his mission to pin her disappearance and possible murder, among others, on him. Walker is duped into taping a confession and is arrested for the murders. He later escapes custody.

Thredson also tries to “reform” another patient that has been wrongfully committed. Lana Winters is an ambitious journalist who attempts to expose Briarcliff’s mistreatments. She is in a relationship with girlfriend Wendy (Clea Duvall), who is blackmailed by Sister Jude into committing Winters. When Lana asks Thredson for help contacting Wendy, it is revealed he is the killer and has also murdered Wendy. At first, Thredson tells Winters that the killer is still on the loose. Thredson agrees to help Winters escape the asylum, but she learns his dark secret and that he sees her as the mother he never had. He keeps her prisoner and tries to turn her into his mother figure. He rapes her, and is later going to kill her for his “indiscretion”. A struggle ensues and she escapes, only to end up back at Briarcliff. She later learns she is pregnant with Thredson’s baby.

Meanwhile, believing his wife is dead or missing, Kit Walker has taken up with inmate Grace Bertrand. She is accused of murdering her family and it is revealed that she actually did commit the murders, but her father was sexually abusing her and her stepmother ignored the abuse. She and Walker get caught having sex before his arrest and they are separated with the intent to be sterilized. However, she is abducted by aliens and is later returned, very pregnant and ready to give birth. Walker has allowed himself to be caught and brought back to Briarcliff to help Grace. He negotiates with Monsignor and arranges for Grace, himself and their baby to be released. The three arrive at his old home to find his wife Alma, alive and with her own baby.

While all this is going on, the possessed Sister Mary Eunice is able to get Sister Jude deposed and committed. Mary Eunice takes over Briarcliff, with Dr. Arden’s help. She nurses the weakened Monsignor Howard back to health and he tries to perform a failed exorcism on her. She rapes him but later tires of all that is going on and Howard kills her by throwing her off the third floor balcony. Dr. Arden, after becoming loyal to Mary Eunice, cremates her while immolating himself.

Lana Winters successfully captures a confession from Dr. Thredson, but decides to corner him in his house to say she has turned the tape over to the police. He states, because he is insane, no jury will convict him and she shoots him in the head, stating “Prison is too good for you”. In the present, she has become a famous television investigative reporter and gets Briarcliff closed down for its inhumane treatments. Winters reveals that Monsignor Howard committed suicide. She also reports that Kit Walker took in Sister Jude, after Alma was committed to Briarcliff for killing Grace Bertrand for talking about possibility of the aliens coming back. Alma later dies in Briarcliff. Jude’s dementia worsens and she is taken into the woods by the children, where it is assumed they help her mental state. Her mind gets healed for a while but she later grows frail and dies. Kit Walker is later abducted after he contracts pancreatic cancer.

Winters’ grown son (Dylan McDermott) has vowed vengeance against her, the mother who never loved him, especially when she claims he had died at birth. He shows up at her home and threatens to kill her, finishing his father’s work and making him proud. She ultimately convinces him that he is not like his murderous father, and in this moment of his near-regret, she is able to take the gun off him and shoot him in the head.

-Andora

DVD Wholesale Main Features:

Actors: Evan Peters, Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Frances Conroy, Denis O’Hare
Directors: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, Bradley Buecker, Craig Zisk, David Semel, Jeremy Podeswa
Format: Multiple Formats, AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number of discs: 4
Studio: Fox Searchlight
DVD Release Date: October 8, 2013
Run Time: 572 minutes