My Review of American Horror Stories: "The Thing Under The Bed"

 

Written by Manny Coto

Directed by Courtney Hoffman

Mary: "Oh, you dumb bitch. I am not the victim of this power. I'm the master of it."

Jillian: "Mary, you don't have to do this."

Mary: "Of course I don't. I want to."

Well, this episode decided to evoke a childhood fear and set itself up for some probably unfair comparisons to Stranger Things. I've not been overwhelming positive about the second half of this season but I liked this one for the most part.

The episode opened with a young girl named Mary Gentile (Mileiah Vega) telling her father (Frank Pando) about the thing under the bed. Of course he doesn't take her seriously and there would be consequences for that later in the episode. Mary of course wasn't the only focus of this finale.

A lot of the focus would be on a young married woman named Jillian Fletcher (Debby Ryan). A woman who stopped taking her nightmare suppressing medication while also avoiding getting pregnant by her overeager husband, Mark (Matthew Holcomb). For Jillian, she didn't have to avoid the issue for too long because Mark got taken under the bed before he could get her pregnant.

Mark's disappearance did make Jillian into a suspect and generic detective Watts (Matthew Del Negro) was convinced of her guilt. Even her sister Megan (Melanie Field) momentarily turned on Jillian before fan mail led Jillian into coming into contact with a nurse named Niles Taylor (Jeff Hiller). Niles had information that Jillian very much needed to know.

Going back to the start of the episode, there was an older version of Mary (Melonie Diaz) now in a coma and Jillian going to Mary's home meant also going into a different dream like world. That's where the comparisons to a certain Netflix show could be made. In fact, those scenes felt less of a homage and more of a direct rip off.

With that being said, the last few minutes did work in the episode's favour. You had the older Mary awaking from her coma and the confrontation between Mary and Jillian ended on a horrible note for the latter. With this episode, I think the nihilistic ending might have worked the best but alas, poor Jillian.

- Jeff Hiller appeared in the opening episode Bestie but was at his most chilling as Mr Whitely in American Horror Story: NYC.

- The last episode from Manny Coto prior to his death in 2023.

- The show has yet to be renewed for a fourth season. This second half hit the top spot on Hulu but will that be enough to give it another season?

- Chronology: Every episode this season has been a modern day setting and this wasn't any exception.

Overall, I think that The Thing Under The Bed worked well as a finale. It's one of the better episodes in arguably the weakest season of this spin off so far. It made good use of its shorter run time and those last few minutes packed a suitable punch.

Rating: 7 out of 10