American Horror Story: 1984 fans convinced summer camp is actually a horror film set in major plot twist
AMERICAN Horror Story: 1984 has taken viewers on a nostalgia trip of gruesome proportions.
The Ryan Murphy anthology series returned to screens last week, paying homage to the slasher flicks of the eighties.
While we’re accustomed to red herrings aplenty from the show, a leading fan theory may have solved a major twist just two episodes in.
Conspiracy theorists took to social media to suggest that everything we’ve seem up until now is simply footage from a horror movie set, and that the real carnage will kick off in the latter half of the season.
“I actually believe the first five episodes is the movie and the rest of the season is the characters filming the movie and being famous actors and a serial killer is after them,” one user wrote.
“Because the actors in real life are filming in LA.”
Another fan drew attention to the casting, referencing the amped up Hollywood polish compared to previous series.
“My only issue with the premiere is how perfect Richard Ramirez’s teeth were,” they explained.
“He’s too perfect, too good looking. Why wouldn’t AHS cast a better fit? Or at least give the actor prosthetics,” they went on.
“If this was a Hollywood movie, it would make sense for a studio to cast someone traditionally good looking in a role."
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The theory certainly seems to stand up for several reasons stylistically.
Firstly, the series has amped up its campy, tongue-in-cheek tone, even down to its portrayal of gore, with the usually hyper-realistic effects replaced with heightened, cheesier ones.
"I think that may have been intentional, since a lot of people are speculating that Camp Redwood is just a 'show within a show,' sort of like Roanoke," one Reddit user asserted.
Roanoke, a former instalment of the show, was split in a similar way, with the first half set up in documentary style, while the second saw the cast and crew mutilated.
There was even a reference to Roanoke, with Blake using the phrase “gay for pay” in the back of a car, in a scene echoing Cricket’s words in Roanoke.
Then there’s the fact that the opening credits are set around a vintage TV set dripping in blood, which could be self-referential.
Finally, it’s possible that Madison Montgomery, the actress played by Emma Roberts in the Coven and Apocalypse series, is playing the role of Brook, as per her big screen ambitions.
The speculation comes amid an alternate theory that Margaret is in fact the serial killer and the shady Mr Jingles was set up.