American Horror Story: 1984 will be the biggest departure showrunner Ryan Murphy has taken yet for the ninth installment of his FX horror anthology series. Because after literally saving the world in Apocalypse, where does one even go? The answer to that question is evidently summer camp, as we’ve since learned, because the upcoming season will take on campy slasher films from the 1980s — as you can see in the first official trailer that dropped on Monday.
In the clip, aerobics pals Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, and series newcomer Gus Kenworthy, led by returning cast member Cody Fern’s character, all get jobs at a nearby summer camp. But it appears that things quickly and predictably go awry when the subject of the camp’s local legend, a psychopath named “Mr. Jingles,” escapes from a nearby mental hospital. It’s presumed that Jingles intends to return and wreak havoc on the camp, where he allegedly committed “the worst summer massacre of all time.”
“You’re all gonna die,” says the requisite creepy local at the end of the trailer, and it would seem if things are headed that way. Why they all don’t pack up and leave is unclear, although there’s got to be some conceit to keep the camp staffers around long enough to get picked off one by one.
American Horror Story: 1984 also stars returning cast Leslie Grossman and John Carroll Lynch, as well as Angelica Ross (Pose), Matthew Morrison (Glee); and premieres September on FX.
