American Horror Story Asylum S02 EP1 DuPleXX

Stars :©Jessica Lange, James Cromwell, Zachary

Quinto, Lily Rabe, Chloe Sevigny, Joseph Fiennes, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters,

Adam Levine, Jenna Dewan, Franka Potente, Clea DuVall, Lizzie Brochere, Chris

Zylka

Just when you thought American Horror Story co-creators

Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk couldn't get any crazier, they go and announce

exactly what the second season, subtitled Asylum, is all about: In a

nutshell, the walls of the show's new setting, the Briarcliff mental

institution in the 1960s, house not only loons but also a (possible)

mad Nazi doctor, a serial killer named Bloody Face who wears victims'

flesh as a mask, mutated ghouls, and, for the hell of it, aliens. That's

certainly a far cry from a perverted ghost clad in all-black latex.

As it's been widely reported, Murphy's master plan

for American Horror Story has been to treat each season as its own

self-contained narrative, with key actors (here, Jessica Lange, Zachary Quinto,

Evan Peters, Lily Rabe, and Sarah Paulson) returning each year to play all-new

characters. Asylum is the first attempt to make such an unprecedented

format work, and the decision to mine campy scares from religious imagery,

including exorcisms and evil nuns, is definitely a step in the right direction.

Like any good horror sequel, Asylum promises to

make last year's inaugural season look reasonably restrained by

comparison. Watching every episode's bloody, sexually depraved insanity should

make us all feel like inmates