Halloween was never like this
The witching hour is upon us again, but Halloween was never quite like this. At least, not where prime- time TV is concerned. American Horror Story: Asylum is commemorating the evening in its own inimitable way, with a frenetic hour of frights.
The episode, Nor’easter, is about a storm that barrels down on Briarcliff Manor, a mental institution for the alternatively minded, just in time for an attempted inmate escape. The storm descends on the asylum with uncommon ferocity, pitting the emotionally disturbed patients against their even more disturbed minders.
The cast is high- class, from Joseph Fiennes as the monsignor- in- charge to Jessica Lange as the sadistic sister-in-charge, to Lily Rabe as the naive, newly hired Sister Mary Eunice.
The humour is what elevates the material above exploitation, though. American Horror Story: Asylum is frightening and uncommonly explicit in its violence but there’s plenty of wit to go along with the gothic house of horrors. ( FX Canada — 7 & 10 p. m.)