It’s been five months since Ryan Murphy first revealed that this season of American Horror Story was going to be a real freak show of an experience. Since then, the cast has been assembled and characters have been identified, but all this deliciously disgusting series’ fans want to know is: when the hell is it going to start playing? Thankfully, FX has announced American Horror Story: Freak Show will make its debut on Wednesday, October 8, at its usual time of 10 p.m. ET.
To mark the occasion, FX unhanded the teaser seen above, and we can expect another dozen or so of these creepy little clips to come out before a proper trailer gets released. The series is currently in production, so it’s no surprise that there isn’t any actual footage in the teaser. Instead, it’s a…hand…holding a ticket to the series. What kind of a hand? Maybe a chicken’s? Let me check IMDb to see if Gonzo’s ladyfriend Camilla has been cast lately.
Along with the premiere date comes the first official synopsis, though it’s almost as barebones as the simple logline that we knew already. In the year 1952, a “troupe of curiosities” arrives in the quiet town of Jupiter, Florida at the same time as the “strange emergence of a dark entity that savagely threatens the lives of townsfolk and freaks alike.” This next line makes this season sound like a novel attempt to capture a moment in American history, rather than a ridiculously extreme tale of esoteric exploitation, which is what I’m still presuming/hoping it will be.
This is the story of the performers and their desperate journey of survival amidst the dying world of the American carny experience.”
This roving gang of oddities will be led by Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange), a German expatriate. Joining her is Michael Chiklis as Strongman Dell Toledo, ex-husband of Kathy Bates’ performer Ethel Darling and father of Evan Peters’ Jimmy Darling, also a performer. Toledo is now married to Angela Bassett’s performer Desiree Dupree. Sarah Paulson will be playing conjoined twins Bette and Dot Tattler, and Gabourey Sidibe is a successful recent college grad who has to come back to town when her mother, played by Patti LaBelle, gets mixed up with an evil clown (John Carroll Lynch) bent on destroying Jupiter. Other antagonists include a vengeful Wes Bentley and a freak collector played by Denis O’Hare.
Will this be anything like HBO’s Carnivale, or will it be more like Dumbo’s Circus? Join us in finding out when American Horror Story: Freak Show debuts on FX on Wednesday, October 8. Wear a clown nose so we know it’s you.
