American Horror Story: Murder House

American Horror Story: Murder House is the first season of the FX television series American Horror Story aired between October 5, 2011 and December 21, 2011. The season was produced by 20th Century Fox Television, and the executive producers were Dante Di Loreto and series creators Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy.

The season centers its focus on the Harmon family: Ben, Vivien and their daughter Violet, who move from Boston to Los Angeles after Vivien has a agonizing miscarriage and Ben has an affair with one of this students. They move into a restored mansion, unaware that the home is haunted by its former inhabitants, most of which were murdered in the house.




The first season of American Horror Story was well received and praised by television critics and fans. The cast was generally praised, particularly Jessica Lange and Frances Conroy. The series drew consistently high ratings for the FX network, ending its first season as the biggest new cable series of the year. The first season was nominated for various industry awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series- Drama. In addition, Lange won many Golden Globes for Best Supporting Actress, The Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series, and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.  Conroy was also nominated for the Supporting Actress Emmy. The main cast includes Taissa Farmiga, Connie Britton, Dylan McDermott, Evan Peters, Denis O'Hare and Jessica Lange.

*Spoiler Alert* 

The entire series is one thick plot unraveling itself and the Harmon family discovers the horrors and secrets of the house.  They try to get out and move from the house, but they are doomed from the start.  Ben sees patients in an office in the house, most of the patients he treats are spirits of the house trying to cope with their psychological problems.  Vivian is raped, and then carries for most of the season twins, one of which is her husbands, and one of which is her rapists son.  Violet, their daughter, who is the first of the family to die in the house, suffers from depression, and is in love with Tate, a spirit in the house, and little does she know, is her mother's rapist.  The sickening story unfolds with scary scenes and complex character development.

I highly recommend watching all seasons of this show.  I think that it is well made and executed terrifically.  

Angels, and Demons, and Ghosts! Oh my!

Supernatural focuses on Sam and Dean Winchester (played by Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles), two brothers who work through their familial struggles in order to save people and hunt things, namely ghosts, demons and other monsters that go bump in the night.  Though violent and very graphic in its later episodes, Supernatural also manages to tug at the heart strings.

With each season I watch, I become more impressed with the way religion is used in the show.  This show incorporates many different religions, ranging from Hinduism to ancient Pagan religions.  Episodes that utilize these religions are based on the folklore of these religions, so the audience is being exposed to many different religions they might not be aware of had they not watched the show.
    Though the majority of the series involves conflict in the Judeo-Christian religions, God is not actually present in the series.  God is mentioned in a few of the seasons, but He is always missing or absent.  No religion is portrayed as better or worse than any other.   Despite the show’s involvement with religion, writer, Eric Kripke, ensures that the show does not get preachy.  The audience is not being persuaded to convert to any religion.  Religion is simply being used as a tool to make the audience question their morals and the themes presented in the series.

One major theme presented in this film is whether one should act in order to save the greater good or to save a few of your loved ones.  With a fierce war happening in Heaven, Castiel (played by Misha Collins) is forced to choose between saving Sam and Dean or fighting for his cause to save the people of Earth.  Another interesting topic addressed in this series is the concept of fate vs. free will.  In Season 4, Zachariah, an angel on a serious power trip, attempts to make Sam and Dean follow the path that has been planned for them in order to stop the Apocalypse from coming.  Sam and Dean, however, fight against this plan in an attempt to follow their own path and save each other.  
     

Though the supernatural entities used in this show are unique to different cultures and religions, the themes portrayed in the show are universal.  Supernatural provokes questions of  what happens after we die and the importance of family, morality, and free will.

The Sixth Sense is just so good!

I stumbled across  "The Sixth Sense" the other night, and with that being about the fifth time seeing it, it still managed to blow my mind. In case you haven't seen this thriller, (which I HIGHLY recommend you should) here is the plot in a nutshell...    A children's psychologist played by Bruce Willis, becomes heavily attached to one child's problem when the boy, (Haley Joel Osment) begins to claim that he sees "dead people" walking around his presence. During his case, the doctor's marriage begins to crumble, as he focuses too heavily on the child's issue.      

To begin the review, all I have to say is "woah," what an incredible ending. Every time the ending concludes, I just say to myself that it may very well be the best conclusion of any thriller to this day. It is simply moving and powerful, but words do not do it enough justice. I am obviously not going to spoil anything from the film, but the end of this film allows the viewer to see the plot from a completely different point of view, which is simply an incredible achievement by writer/director M. Night Shyamalan After the fifth viewing of this film, and also taking a lot of film classes I began to notice more aspects of plot development that really interest me. Something else that stood out to me was the fact that unlike its trailer, (that I watched after the movie) it portrays the film as a chilling thriller. BUT this movie is sort of a supernatural drama with a ton of emotional and heart-stopping scenes to support it. But I still refer to it as a great "thriller".       

I noticed that the film is also purposely very slow paced, which allows for plenty of time for the characters to mold and shape the subtle but important material at hand. Haley Joel Osment does a phenomenal job as the troubled child who is going through mysterious mishaps that no child should ever have to go through. Tough-guy, Bruce Willis even pulls off a fantastically solid performance, with an emotional side that we, the viewers, rarely see. But, the "twist ending" of the film raised it to a new level. My friends and I could not help but discuss the various intricacies of the plot which were The alterations of the plot through the captivating ending could not help but further my absolute appreciation for the film. With incredible acting, incredible film style, and an incredible score, The Sixth Sense is most-definitely one of my favorite thrillers of all time. Even though it may not be an all-out thriller, please believe me, you will definitely be startled in a lot of scenes, and sincerely moved in others. It is without a doubt, an impressive movie.      

Go watch it now, before someone ruins the ending!

GISHWHES!

What is GISHWHES, you ask? Well, it is the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen! Actually though.
Here is a link to a promotional video for GISHWHES 2012!
GISHWHES is an international scavenger hunt that was created by actor Misha Collins from the popular CW show Supernatural. Misha is not only known for being a great actor, he is actually known for just being an awesome person.
With this scavenger hunt, Misha encourages participants to step outside of their comfort zone. For 7 days, participants go on an adventure to try to capture certain 'items' with their camera. Some of the tasks this year include capturing picture or video of a storm trooper in full costume cleaning a pool, using a Zamboni to draw a giant frowny face on an ice-skating rink, knitting a scarf over 12 feet long, giving a puppet show at a children's hospital, going shopping for diamonds in a wig made of popcorn, making a kilt entirely out of cucumbers, creating a mock news show, and 145 more!
I am one of the lucky ones to be participating in this year's hunt and our team, I think, is actually doing really well! We might actually have a chance at the grand prize, which is staying in a private haunted castle in Scotland with none other than Misha Collins himself! Our team of 15 has people from all over the United States. My group consists of girls from Pennsylvania, Nevada, New York, Michigan, and Minnesota. Our team name is Hawkeye and the Awkettes loves crossstateepicness, but we're also known as crossstateavengers for short. Together we have been working hard since late Monday night to complete as many tasks as possible. I would post some of our work, but we're not allowed to yet until the scavenger hunt is over. Tonight we completed the mock news program, as mentioned above, in Studio B of Park and then next, us Ithaca girls, are going to create an 'erotically charged' scene with dialogue that only talks about grammar and font. This should be very fun to shoot!
A participant from last year's hunt, Savannah Comilla, said, "GISHWHES isn't just a scavenger hunt, it's like 10 days of pure thought, inspiration & creation."Although this year it's only 7 days, after 3 days alone, I have had some great experiences that have required me to think very creatively, artistically, and outside of the box. I hope this scavenger hunt becomes a definite annual thing because I am having so much fun!