Although I didn’t really care for the format of this season on American Horror Story, or the style of the final few episodes, there is some tense atmosphere and the performances at least weren’t bad, with Sarah Paulson being the highlight.
American Horror Story: Roanoke
(2016)
Genre(s): Horror, Supernatural
Fox | NR – 399 min. – $49.99 | October 3, 2017
Date Published: 10/09/2017 | Author: The Movieman
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THE SEASON — 3.0/5 |
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Season Synopsis: The season is told in true-crime documentary style, titled “My Roanoke Nightmare”, and is a show within a show, that chronicles paranormal events as told by the “real” victims and via re-enactments. Hoping to begin a peaceful new life in a rural North Carolina farmhouse, Shelby and Matt Miller (SARAH PAULSON, CUBA GOODIN JR.) flee Los Angeles, only to find murder, mayhem and madness. From a girl ghost to a swine monster to murderous nurse sisters to a sadistic cult leader known as “The Butcher” (KATHY BATES), the couple’s home is filled with nonstop terrors.
Quick Hit Review: To be up front, I haven’t kept up with the American Horror Story past seasons, the last I believe being Asylum (Season 2) but these, more or less, being anthologies with new stories, oft times re-using the same actors, it seems easy enough to jump right back in. I remember enjoying the first two seasons of the show but this sixth season and the style of the show within a show format really took me out of feeling the flow from episode to episode. For one thing, you have the “real” people cutting in telling the story so you don’t feel the danger for any one of them so there’s no real tension. On the plus side, “The Roanoke Nightmare” cast all give top-notch performances, including Sarah Paulson, Cuba Gooding Jr. (the two co-starred together on American Crime Story) Angela Bassett and, especially, Kathy Bates who gives one of the very few creepy vibes to her episodes.
American Horror Story: Roanoke is hardly a “bad” season or anything, I just wasn’t a fan of the style even if it is unique and helps it stand out from not only the previous seasons but any other horror shows on nowadays. Perhaps this has something to do with my contempt for those supernatural-horror documentary series that airs on A&E, Lifetime or wherever, so it could be I couldn’t really get sunk into the stories or the characters, despite the strong acting. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.0/5 |
| The 3-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray case and has a semi-glossy slip cover. The features are unfortunately light including The Paley Center of Media: Q&A with the Cast and Creative Team (30:03; HD) from PaleyFest 2017; and some American Horror Story: Roanoke Promos (3:29; HD). |
VIDEO – 4.0/5 |
| Fox releases the sixth season of American Horror Story onto Blu-ray presented with a 1080p high-definition transfer (MPEG-4 AVC codec) and shown in 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio as it originally aired on FX. The picture isn’t the prettiest given the dark nature as even daylight scenes aren’t especially bright, but dark levels are pretty good and detail relatively sharp. I did notice some banding but otherwise it’s a fairly clean transfer. |
AUDIO – 4.0/5 |
| Each episode comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which sounds above average providing clean and clear dialogue levels coming through the center channel but it does comes to life thanks to the more supernatural elements with the LFE getting some minor usage and giving the track some okay depth. |
OVERALL – 3.0/5 |
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Overall, although I didn’t really care for the format of this season on American Horror Story, or the style of the final few episodes, there is some tense atmosphere and the performances at least weren’t bad, with Sarah Paulson being the highlight. The Blu-ray release has good video/audio transfers but the special features were subpar. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.