‘American Horror Story: 1984’ Trailer Is a Queer Slasher Summer Camp Fever Dream
The first full trailer for Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's ninth season of the horror anthology boasts a very pretty cast.
The first full trailer for Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s FX series “American Horror Story: 1984,” the ninth season of the “AHS” anthology, has dropped. As suggested by early teases, this season is indeed a homage to the teen slashers of the 1980s, but this time fully embracing the latent queerness of such films as “Friday the 13th” and “Nightmare on Elm Street.”
The cast, some of whom are openly LGBTQ, includes Cody Fern, Emma Roberts, Olympic athlete Gus Kenworthy, Billie Lourd, Leslie Grossman, John Carroll Lynch, Angelica Ross, Matthew Morrison, DeRon Horton, and Zach Villa. Kenworthy has had bit parts on TV before, but this is the skier’s first starring vehicle.
This cast would ordinarily be an almost embarrassing display of hotness, but not in these clothes. The period-specific ’80s garb looks more like the idea of ’80s fashion, from Cody Fern’s bleach-streaked wig (honey, you don’t go there) to Gus Kenworthy’s crop-top and short-shorts (okay, well, no complaints here). One by one, these hot, horny people will be picked off.
“1984,” which launches September 18 on FX, looks most heavily indebted to “Sleepaway Camp,” the 1983 slasher camp classic remembered for its outrageously twisted ending and such endlessly quotable lines as “She’s a real carpenter’s dream: flat as a board and needs a good screw.”
Fern, Roberts, Paulson, Lourd, Grossman, and Lynch are all returns from previous “American Horror Story” seasons. Aussie actor Fern — who is currently owning the gender-bending fashion trend that is so in vogue right now among Millennial-fluid male actors — was achingly good in Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s 2018 “American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace.” In that Emmy-winning miniseries, Fern played the saddest, and prettiest, of Versace-obsessed serial killer Andrew Cunanan’s boyfriends turned victims.
“American Horror Story” has been going steady since 2011 across nine seasons ranging from excellent (“Asylum”) to disastrous (“Apocalypse”). This year’s season earned five Primetime Emmy nominations including, natch, Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Ryan Murphy BFF Jessica Lange, who will once again devour the scenery for his upcoming Netflix series “The Politician.”
Behold the first trailer for “1984 below.