Thursday, September 01, 2022

My Review of American Horror Stories: "Necro"

 


Written by Crystal Liu
Directed by Logan Kibens

Samantha: "Sometimes it's fun to go off script."

Well, this was a thing. A very twisted thing. Maybe one of the most twisted episodes in this franchise's history. Also maybe one of the strongest episodes in this spin-off's run. Horrified as I was by the concept of the episode, it was also one of the most gripping stories we've had.

Personal favourites this season of mine have included both Dollhouse and Bloody Mary but this episode will stick with me for a long while. It had all the trappings of a complete disaster area but managed to avoid all of them as well with some truly compelling central performances from two lead actors in the most fucked up love story we've had on this show.

On the outside, Samantha (Madison Iseman) seemed like a normal girl. She had a job she liked and a hunky boyfriend named Jesse (Spencer Neville) whom she intended to marry and some decent friends. So far nothing out of the ordinary there. Except for her extreme fascination with death, working as a mortician and a bloke named Charlie (Cameron Cowperthwaite). Then her world came tumbling down due to the worst kind of comprising video to stream on her wedding day that made her into a social pariah.

With an episode called Necro, there was an inevitability here. Samantha genuinely believed her new friend Charlie had died and in her madness, she had sex with his corpse. Only for Charlie not to be dead, Samantha to be horrified by her action and Charlie to out what she thought she did to him to a packed church.

Were Charlie's motives based on revenge? Apparently not. He was more interested in getting Samantha to embrace her weird self because he loved that she was similar to him. Like Charlie, the episode revealed that Samantha had her own brush with death at a young age with a parent. In the end, Charlie got what ye wanted and the ending of this episode took a hell of a turn.

Samantha shooting Charlie into a grave and then having sex with him as the two of them were about to be buried alive was the very twisted thing I mentioned earlier. What a way to end this one. Just when this franchise cannot get any stranger, they went and did this one for good measure.

- Cameron Cowperthwaite previously appeared in Cult while Spencer Neville appeared in 1984. Madison Iseman definitely deserves a role in the main series. 
- Originally this was meant to be the second episode of the season before pushed to seventh. 
- Standout music: #1 Crush by Garbage. Samantha was a fan of the group.
- Chronology: 1998 Maine for flashbacks of Samantha's childhood with the main action of the episode in 2022 California.

Necro was certainly a very twisted episode, offering a unique spin on the trope here. Fantastic perfomances from both Madison Iseman and Cameron Cowperthwaite and easily one of the strongest episodes we've had this season. Here's hoping the finale can bring this to a satisfying close.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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