American Horror Story: Freak Show Season 4 [Blu-ray]
DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:
It’s another season of blood and gore but AMERICAN HORROR STORY never fails to deliver. FREAK SHOW takes us behind the scenes of a carnival that seems to stay in one place. No wonder they have trouble getting an audience. Our favorite stars are back and this season lovely Jessica Lange is Elsa Mars, the owner of the freak show and mother hen to her outcast troupe.
I loved the previous 3 season of AMERICAN HORROR STORY so I was eager to watch Season 4. It was hard to get beyond the first couple of sad and violent episodes but I stuck with it. Expect to see the most frightening clown you could imagine. Twisty the Clown is the stuff of nightmares.
At times, Season 4 seems confused and directionless and then it gets back on track. Twisty will haunt your dreams and then he is gone and then his back and then gone. The writers seemed not to know how to follow through with Twisty’s story.
The problems with FREAK SHOW are the multiple stories and the “fake” freaks. This season Sarah Paulson plays Siamese twins–two heads with one set of arms and legs. The visual effects don’t often work well and we see one Paulson face at a time or Paulson with a fake head. Evan Peters is Lobster Boy with fake hands, Kathy Bates, with a seriously odd accent, wears a fake beard to be the bearded lady.
The real gems of this season are the life “freaks” and let’s not call them freaks. They are vibrant people overcoming serious abnormalities. As I watched the show, I wondered how they made Paul the Illustrated Seal look so real with his deformed arms. How did they make Ma Petite look like a living baby doll? Fantastic visual effects to make Legless Susi “legless.” I researched the characters and found the actors have special conditions that make them “different”. These fine actors are the stars of the show. Mat Fraser really has deformed arms and Rose Siggins lost her legs up to her hips. And amazingly, Jyoti Amge is a full grown woman just over 2 feet tall. These actors are amazingly talented and I hope they were return in future seasons.
In the end, the real freaks are murderous Twisty the Clown and pretty rich boy Dandy Mott (Finn Wittrock). Being a freak is not a physical deformity but rather having an evil mind and soul. In the carnival world, the freaks are a family and stay together. There is a strong homage to the 1932 cult classic freaks that actually featured circus freaks getting their revenge. Don’t miss with one of their kind or be prepared to pay the ultimate price. Season 4 doesn’t play as much on the supernatural as in the past. Only one other worldly character appears to take the soul of the most evil.
There is an amazing array of actors in this season beyond our regulars. This season’s visiting singer turned actress is Patti LaBelle. Pepper the pinhead is back and barely seen until she is featured in a sad and tragic story. They even cross over to the connection to Season 2 AYSLUM. What could be better? Season 4 will keep your interest but the writers have lost their way with the Elsa Mars character. Her story goes all over the place.
Sometimes we hate her and other times she is an object of pity. The season finale is an incredible disappointment as if the writers had to quickly tie up their story and took a page from the TV show LOST.
Although I was disappointed at times in Season 4, I was totally addicted and can’t wait for Season 5.
– Jack E. Levic
DVD Wholesale Main Features:
Actors: Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Michael Chiklis
Directors: Ryan Murphy, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, Michael Uppendahl
Format: Blu-ray, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: English (DTS 5.1)
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Region: Region A/1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number of discs: 3
Rated: NR Not Rated
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Release Date: October 6, 2015
Run Time: 108 minutes
ASIN: B00OQUZP96
