Season six of American Horror Story boldly ups its game

The first few episodes of American Horror Story’s sixth season have officially debuted on FX along with the new theme: My Roanoke Nightmare. There are several changes to the new season’s style of horror and how they are depicting the story, all for the better in my opinion. In fact, this could potentially become the best season of the show so far.

The last few seasons of AHS have focused more on the gore in horror instead of jump-scares and actual fear. The show struck viewers with pure shock value and gruesome moments too graphic for many potential viewers; this type of gore is still present in the current season, it includes ripping arms off and disembowelment, but it is paired with creepier creatures and classic horror suspense. The jump-scares and thrilling apprehension of what lays ahead are reminiscent of the first season of AHS: Murder House, which is at the moment still my favorite season.

Another beneficial adjustment to the show’s style is their postponed announcement of the season’s theme. In past years, the showrunners would announce the theme on social media and in teasers; however, this year, the teasers revealed nothing about the theme of the upcoming season and left fans guessing at what it could be. The theme was revealed partially through the first episode of season six as My Roanoke Nightmare. While many fans were upset about not knowing the new theme, I personally found it more intriguing, especially for the horror genre, that you didn’t what the characters were going to face. It made the reveal more significant.

Unlike the other seasons, this season is arranged like one of the Discovery Channel’s ghost haunting shows, with an actor/actress playing the victim of the haunting, sitting in an interview and narrating, and a different actor/actress reenacting the event. It’s been an interesting change, and I’m hoping they end up creating a twist with the interviews and involve those characters in the main plot eventually.

The plot of this season revolves around the lost colony of Roanoke, a true story describing the mysterious disappearance of 100 American colonists in the late fourteenth century. There was never any resolution over what happened to them even hundreds of years later; the only clue left behind being the word “Croatoan” carved into a tree. In the show, the disappearance is explained in a series of flashbacks, and the ghosts of the colonists seem right now to be the major antagonists of this season.

With the long-awaited appearance of my favorite actor, Evan Peters, in the latest episode, this season of American Horror Story looks like it will be one of the show’s best runs. The changes to the show’s style creates an intriguing atmosphere and I cannot wait until next week’s episode.

American Horror Story: Roanoke airs on FX at 10pm each Wednesday and past episodes are available through On Demand and the FX website.