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American Horror Story: Freak Show Season Premiere Review: “Monsters Among Us” (Season 4, Episode 1)

It's almost surprising that it took four seasons for American Horror Story to make its way to the freak show. After all, under Ryan Murphy's watchful eye, it has always been one of television's most passionate and potent celebrations of misfits and monsters. The real monsters aren't the ones society always fingers as such, a season of American Horror Story typically notes, before proceeding to expose the real atrocities hidden behind locked doors and faceless institutions.

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The premiere also gives us our first encounter with Twisty the Clown Killer (John Carroll Lynch, unrecognizable), who’s already primed to be American Horror Story‘s most petrifying creation to date. Murphy and company absolutely nailed his grotesque, unsettling appearance (that mask alone is the stuff of nightmares), and the warped physicality that Lynch brings to the part does a remarkable amount to sell it.

We first meet the deformed clown, who looks like an unholy cross between the Joker and a discarded rag doll, on the picturesque grasses by Lake Okeechobee, where a beautiful young couple is preparing to engage in a little afternoon delight. Murphy cheekily makes Twisty’s first on-screen kill double as a violation of the 1950s idyll, his mirthful savagery and filth standing in stark contrast to – then sullying – the wholesomeness of the lovebirds.

As it turns out, Twisty has been going around stabbing various residents of Jupiter and abducting witnesses to his attacks. Why? That’s a mystery for another day. There’s something more to his killing spree than simple sadism, but how he chooses his victims remains unclear to me. Now that he’s made his way to the freak show, and witnessed others slaying with the same fierce zeal that he exhibits, it probably won’t be too long until we learn more about this horrifying clown killer.

Another point of interest in “Monsters Among Us” is the theme of dreams, which comes up repeatedly. Someone claims that Elsa is “living in her own dreams,” which the freak show leader reveals to be true by episode’s end. All of the characters have big ambitions that fuel them. The music, too, suggests a pleasant reverie. As Twisty falls upon the young couple, the song coming out of their radio is “With My Eyes Wide Open I’m Dreaming,” by Patti Page, while the soft, dreamy strains of The Pentagons’ “Down at the Beach” can also be heard in the episode. Is Murphy simply trying to communicate a sense of romantic small town life about to be ravaged by outside forces? There’s likely more to it than that, but the greater meaning eludes me for now.