Stream It Or Skip It: ‘American Horror Stories’ On FX On Hulu, Where The Stories Are Shorter, But Just As Scary As ‘American Horror Story’

The idea behind American Horror Stories is that Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk are taking their American Horror Story formula and applying it to weekly, self-contained stories. The first story, “Rubber (wo)Man”, spools out in two 45-minute episodes. Think of it as a feature-length horror film split into two, with commercial breaks (for those not watching on Hulu’s ad-free plan, of course). But does the formula translate to the shorter format?

AMERICAN HORROR STORIES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A teenage girl is riding in the back of a car, her two dads in the front. They hear “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” and begin to sing to the radio, much to the daughter’s embarrassment.

The Gist: In this first story, Scarlett (Sierra McCormick) is moving to a massive new home with her house-flipping dads Michael (Matt Bomer) and Troy (Gavin Creel). The house has a reputation around Los Angeles as a “death house,” with stories that say the ghosts of people who have been murdered there are roaming around. Michael and Troy want to use that reputation to their advantage, turning the stately old mansion into a “haunted B&B” of sorts, and do the renovations themselves. Scarlett, as most 16-year-olds would be, rolls her eyes at them and is truly afraid the the rumors are true.

When she is in her room, a ball rolls in from nowhere, then she goes to her closet and sees a rubber S&M suit hanging there. She puts it on, and momentarily likes how it feels and looks. But then she gets creeped out and throws it in the garbage; however, it comes back the next day.

Scarlett has other things to occupy her, though; she’s got her eye on Maya (Paris Jackson), a popular mean girl. When Maya flirts with her at school, Scarlett’s best friend Shanti (Belissa Escobedo) thinks Maya has an agenda. Scarlett is just happy that Maya doesn’t think she’s a weirdo. Later, Maya invites her to a sleepover at her house with her buddies. When Scarlett texts, “Your friends are bitches,” Maya texts back, “I know. I’ll protect you.”

Scarlett’s dads have discovered that Scarlett has continued to watch violent porn after she was caught watching it the year before.  Then, she dons the rubber suit that night, grabs a knife and “pranks” her dads, scaring the crap out of them; she slashes Troy’s arm in the process. They bring in a therapist, Dr. Andi Grant (Merrin Dungey) to talk to her; the doctor thinks that the dark energy of the house contributes to Scarlett’s dark emotions.

During the sleepover, Maya gets Scarlett alone, and Scarlett opens up to her about her fantasies about violence. As she’s doing it though, not everything is what it seems, setting in motion events that are best left not to spoil.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? American Horror Story crossed with an anthology format more akin to The Twilight Zone, or Hulu’s Into The Dark.

Our Take: The first episode of American Horror Stories displays everything that we love and hate about its parent series, AHS, and the Murphy/Falchuk catalog in general. At times it’s genuinely creative and shows a sense of humor that doesn’t distract from the scary stuff. At other times, it’s predictable. At still other times, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, with logical gaps that we’re still thinking about as we write this.

To give further details about “Rubber (wo)Man” would be to spoil things, but what we can tell you is that something happens when Scarlett dons that rubber suit, including her eyes becoming black. We guess that’s the darkness taking over, but there really isn’t any explanation as to whether it’s a spirit or something else.

Also, there are flashes of someone else in a rubber suit, some one with more of a male physique. That person’s presence might be explained by what we find out in the second part of the episode, when we’re introduced to Scarlett’s new girlfriend Ruby (Kaia Gerber). But we were left wondering where that person fits within the overall story.

There are also some inconsistencies regarding how the living interact with the dead in this story. Perhaps those are also there on purpose, but it left us wondering not only if the living can see and touch the dead and vice versa, but just how the dead can harm the living, and how in the hell are the dead able to communicate with the living via smartphones (yes, you read that correctly).

The performances are mostly good, with pros like Bomer, Creel and Dungey offsetting the stiffer performances by Jackson and Gerber. McCormick is the focus, though, and she does a good job of making Scarlett as normal as can be while suppressing the darkness that’s aching to come out.

We just wish a bit more thought was put into the story’s logic. At times it feels like there’s not enough material for the 90-minute runtime, and at others it feels like details have been left out. The first episode was scarier than the second, but the second was more fun than the first. It was mostly an entertaining episode, just inconsistent.

Sex and Skin: Most of the nakedness is basic-cable safe, in bathtubs. Any sex is implied.

Parting Shot: Scarlett tells Dr. Grant that she’s never felt better, and then opens her bedroom door to see the rubber-suited man that’s been roaming around. At first she’s taken aback, then intrigued.

Sleeper Star: Dungey shines more in the second episode, with Dr. Grant seemingly accepting her fate much better than some of the other people in this story.

Most Pilot-y Line: When Scarlett sneaks out of the house to go to Maya’s sleepover, she sees Troy and Michael zonked out on their bed — they had a Xanax and an edible — and watching The Crown. Specifically, it’s a scene with Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher. Yes, it’s a fun wink to Murphy’s new corporate partners, but felt weirdly out of place.

Our Call: STREAM IT. American Horror Stories takes Murphy’s and Falchuk’s indulgences and compresses them down so they’re easier to tolerate. Yes, they’re still there, but the time limitations help them concentrate on story, character and gore, which is why people like the AHS franchise so much.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream American Horror Stories On Hulu