If there’s one thing Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk tend to get right each year, it’s the promotional campaign for American Horror Story. I’m a fan of the series, but I personally checked out last year as Freak Show got too kitschy for even my tastes. It got so bad — for them, not me — that I swore off watching any new episodes of FX’s horror anthology series. Yet, just like clockwork, the network premiered some new creepy teasers and I’ve been sucked right. back. in.
The above clip for American Horror Story: Hotel — aptly titled, “Spikes” — isn’t very lengthy or detailed but it alludes to a possible storyline that horror fans may find very intriguing. What we see here is a set of railroad spikes being driven into a mattress that looks to be holding one unfortunate guest hostage. It’s unknown, as of yet, what this visual is referencing, but this is not the first time an image of a foreboding, evil mattress has been featured as a genre plot device on-screen.
Sure, the first thing that pops to mind for most might be Death Bed: The Bed That Eats. We can all thank Patton Oswalt for bringing that piece of work out of obscurity some years back. I’m pretty sure the bed in the above clip didn’t in fact eat that dude, but I wouldn’t shy away from such a twist. I mean, there IS a killer demon with a drill-bit dildo running loose in the hotel! A Nightmare On Elm Street and Hellraiser are two examples which quickly come to mind that successfully use the imagery of a frightening mattress — a very bloody one, for that matter — that may cause some to truly Never Sleep Again (R.I.P. Wes Craven.).
It’s very possible I am searching too deeply for meaning in this clip as it really is only five seconds long. But I actually dig what Ryan Murphy might be doing here. Hell, the recently released cast trailer for the series does achieve a certain level of creepiness but — and I’m sure I am alone in this assertion — the damn thing reminds me too much of that one commercial for Las Vegas’ Cosmopolitan Hotel. Then again, I’ve stayed on some really questionable mattresses in that city!
All speculation aside, it feels like American Horror Story: Hotel may just right the wrongs committed in the previous season. The new iteration of the Emmy nominated series will return to FX on Wednesday, October 7. As for all the twisted hellbent mattresses lurking in the darkness, well, you win. That fluffy couch in the den is really comfortable anyway!
(Via FX Networks)
