American Horror Story - Season 2 (Asylum) [DVD]

This is an excellent series! I found myself on a rainy day of vacation wanting to watch the entire Season 2 in one day!The second season of American Horror Story follows the patients, doctors and nuns who occupy Briarcliff Mental Institution in Massachusetts in 1964, intercut with scenes from the present. Sister Jude (Jessica Lange) and Sister Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe) maintain the institution that was founded by Monsignor Timothy Howard (Joseph Fiennes) to treat and house the mentally and criminally insane. Psychiatrist Dr. Oliver Thredson (Zachary Quinto) and scientist Dr. Arthur Arden (James Cromwell) treat the patients within the facility. The patients, many of whom claim to be unjustly institutionalized, include lesbian journalist Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson), accused serial killer Kit Walker (Evan Peters), and alleged murderer Grace Bertrand (Lizzie Brocheré).As the season unfolds, information is revealed about everyone's past, present, and personal lives. Sister Jude was once a philandering nightclub singer who unintentionally killed a young girl in a drunk-driving hit and run accident in 1949. This led her to become a nun and she was later selected to work at Briarcliff. Sister Mary Eunice is a shy and innocent nun who fears Sister Jude. Later, she becomes possessed by the Devil during an exorcism of another patient and becomes a cruel and willful woman. She anonymously taunts Sister Jude about the drunk-driving accident. Sister Jude is terrorized by the memory and goes to see the family of the dead girl. While there, she learns the girl survived the accident with only a few broken bones. Sister Jude figures that God had a plan for her all along, and decides that it is her job to destroy all the remaining evil at Briarcliff.The evil includes the sadistic scientists Dr. Arden and the secret serial killer Dr. Thredson. Arden is a former Nazi whose experiments have produced "Raspers", mutated former patients, who lurk in the woods surrounding the institution, and who are fed the flesh of dead patients. He and Sister Jude often clash with their differing views of how the facility should be run. Dr. Thredson is a psychiatrist assigned to evaluate accused serial killer Walker, although it is revealed that Thredson actually committed the murders Walker is accused of, and got himself assigned to Walker’s case to make sure he could pin the murders on him. Walker believes his wife Alma (Britne Oldford) was kidnapped by aliens and Thredson makes it his mission to pin her disappearance and possible murder, among others, on him. Walker is duped into taping a confession and is arrested for the murders. He later escapes custody.Thredson also tries to "reform" another patient that has been wrongfully committed. Lana Winters is an ambitious journalist who attempts to expose Briarcliff's mistreatments. She is in a relationship with girlfriend Wendy (Clea Duvall), who is blackmailed by Sister Jude into committing Winters. When Lana asks Thredson for help contacting Wendy, it is revealed he is the killer and has also murdered Wendy. At first, Thredson tells Winters that the killer is still on the loose. Thredson agrees to help Winters escape the asylum, but she learns his dark secret and that he sees her as the mother he never had. He keeps her prisoner and tries to turn her into his mother figure. He rapes her, and is later going to kill her for his “indiscretion”. A struggle ensues and she escapes, only to end up back at Briarcliff. She later learns she is pregnant with Thredson's baby.Meanwhile, believing his wife is dead or missing, Kit Walker has taken up with inmate Grace Bertrand. She is accused of murdering her family and it is revealed that she actually did commit the murders, but her father was sexually abusing her and her stepmother ignored the abuse. She and Walker get caught having sex before his arrest and they are separated with the intent to be sterilized. However, she is abducted by aliens and is later returned, very pregnant and ready to give birth. Walker has allowed himself to be caught and brought back to Briarcliff to help Grace. He negotiates with Monsignor and arranges for Grace, himself and their baby to be released. The three arrive at his old home to find his wife Alma, alive and with her own baby.While all this is going on, the possessed Sister Mary Eunice is able to get Sister Jude deposed and committed. Mary Eunice takes over Briarcliff, with Dr. Arden's help. She nurses the weakened Monsignor Howard back to health and he tries to perform a failed exorcism on her. She rapes him but later tires of all that is going on and Howard kills her by throwing her off the third floor balcony. Dr. Arden, after becoming loyal to Mary Eunice, cremates her while immolating himself.Lana Winters successfully captures a confession from Dr. Thredson, but decides to corner him in his house to say she has turned the tape over to the police. He states, because he is insane, no jury will convict him and she shoots him in the head, stating “Prison is too good for you”. In the present, she has become a famous television investigative reporter and gets Briarcliff closed down for its inhumane treatments. Winters reveals that Monsignor Howard committed suicide. She also reports that Kit Walker took in Sister Jude, after Alma was committed to Briarcliff for killing Grace Bertrand for talking about possibility of the aliens coming back. Alma later dies in Briarcliff. Jude's dementia worsens and she is taken into the woods by the children, where it is assumed they help her mental state. Her mind gets healed for a while but she later grows frail and dies. Kit Walker is later abducted after he contracts pancreatic cancer.Winters' grown son (Dylan McDermott) has vowed vengeance against her, the mother who never loved him, especially when she claims he had died at birth. He shows up at her home and threatens to kill her, finishing his father's work and making him proud. She ultimately convinces him that he is not like his murderous father, and in this moment of his near-regret, she is able to take the gun off him and shoot him in the head.

I'm Catholic and I don't like when Hollywood makes fun of my religion. That said, I was worried that I'd be turned off American Horror Story in its second season because Jessica Lange portrays a nun and the season is set in a Catholic asylum for the insane. I was concerned that Ryan Murphy would just make this a 13-episode attack on the Catholic Church.I love being wrong in a situation like this...and being surprised by a series. I am a big horror fan but feel that the best and most scary movies in the genre were made in the 70s and 80s...and that ever since the advent of CGI horror stories have been mostly ridiculous...or they'd go the Scream route and be sarcastic and self-referential.I love what Ryan Murphy is doing with AHS and I'm someone who does not enjoy Glee or New Normal (Murphy's other two shows).While I think he does try to make political points, he's a great craftsman of horror. The season one "Murder House" story was inventive and original...and has become one of my favorite haunted house stories of all time. Season two's "Asylum" storyline (set in the early 1960s) is scary the way the Exorcist or The Omen were scary. And the cast of actors assembled for this show is incredible. I just love that many of them return from season to season, playing different parts. I hope this continues for many years to come.I keep coming back to the word imaginative with this show because I honestly never know what's going to come at us on the screen next. This Asylum season has a serial killer, aliens, demonic possession, Nazis, torture porn, and about a half dozen other things. There's also a mystery set in the present as we find out what happened to the asylum to render it into ruins in our time. I find myself sitting back and wondering what's going to happen next week once an episode ends. And throughout the week, while waiting for the next installment, I think about what's going to come next too.I can't think of another show where I do this.A few years back, there was an anthology show called "Masters of Horror" on cable that I hoped would be a weekly, scary horror story...but it ended up being very hit or miss. For me, American Horror Story delivers that sort of weekly, imaginative scare that I thought "Masters of Horror" would bring. Each episode has some new twist in it...while continuing a cohesive story each season. And then next season we get a new story.I really love this format and concept. The show is very much worth your time...but it is not too gory and it is definitely not trying to force too much of Ryan Murphy's personal politics on you as I at first feared. It's just a really great show that's way better than any horror movie I can think of made after the mid-1980s.

The other 3 seasons of American Horror Story were good, but Asylum blows them away. I would recommend watching the other 3 seasons first if you can, because you'll just be disappointed with them after watching Asylum. Its so good because its so bad. While Coven, Freak Show and Murder House were all good and different, they just pale in comparison. Asylum has about every bad thing you can imagine in a mid 60's Asylum where there was little oversight and few rules on how they operated. You have the sadist medical doctor, the secretive psychiatrist, the mean, stern warden and the possessed nun and thats not even including the inmates!Jessica Lange is great in all 4 seasons, but Sarah Paulson is the real star of seasons 2-4, her role in season 1 was limited.

I have to admit, after the October 31st episode aired, I was afraid they were throwing yet another horror story cliche at me (zombies) to go with demonic possession, aliens, psychotic killer, creepy mad scientist/doctor, creepy nun, etc. and I threw my hands up and decided zombies were the last straw (I have no interest in the zombie genre). But friends told me to come back into the fold, that the poor creatures in the woods surrounding the asylum were not, in fact, zombies, but something... different. So, I got on Amazon last week and watched all the episodes I had missed since October 31st. What can I say... I am enjoying the craziness, the eeriness, the edge-of-my-seat, sitting-and-watching-through-my-fingers nervousness, and I am sympathizing with characters and cringing at others, and hoping some get their comeuppance - I'm in for the long haul. I am enjoying it as much as I did the first season. Bring it on, AHS, I'll be watching. Scared and squirmy, but watching.

I was pleasantly surprised at the improvent. Much better than the first season and certainly good enough to make me see the others.Season two covers an eclectic mix of supernatural topics ranging from demonic posession to alien abduction. All set against a backdrop of human cruelty and depravity in a lunatic asylum with a serial killer mystery arc running through the whole thing.At first it seems far too crowded and broad in terms of story but I quickly got swept along with it and was hooked. The alien storyline was fascinating but annoyingly unresolved. It loses 1 star for not bothering to wrap up lose ends properly.Some characters you hate but grow to like, others you like but grow to hate. All go on journeys of some kind and this ultimately is what gripped me as a viewer.At times the episodes are a little brutal and torturous but there are also touches of great sensitivity and emotion especially toward the end.For me the finale disappointed but nonetheless I enjoyed the series thoroughly.

If somebody told me before I start to watch the show that the themes of it will be asylum,serial killer,God vs Devil,aliens,nazis and twisted experiments with mentally ill patients,I probably would've said "That sounds wack". But I actually watch the show and man...I was sooo so so wrong.Definately the best season of the show by far.Everyting was mixed so good and with cast like this one...the result is nothing but Great ! Especially the " Name Game" scene - one of the greatest things I saw on TV. A mandatory for every AHS fan!

FANTASTIC!!Found the first couple of episodes quite scary and I wasn't sure if I would be able to cope with watching this and then sleeping at night but once again the underlying story takes over and you invest in the characters and want to see what happens.Great performances from all the big names - Jessica Lange is fantastic as is Zachary Quinto, Evan Peters, Lily Rabe and Sarah Paulson.Quite dark in places - not for the faint hearted.We are now on to season 3 - love it.

I gave up as the grotesque violence and perverted sexuality were just too much for me. A very extreme and nasty series....

My husband and I love american horror story but have only recently picked it up.The creepiest were definitely asylum and hotel (no.5) 3 and 4 weren't particularly scary and I only found series 1 scary because I didn't know what to expect. I love the dark humour, I just wish the series were longer! 12/13 episodes is not enough to satisfy!