This writer wasn’t a huge fan of the first season of the Ryan Murphy-created “American Horror Story,” but if going solely by marketing materials alone, the spooky posters that debuted Tuesday to promote season 2 alone where enough to garner some interest in checking out the new season as it heads to a Briarcliff, Massachusetts mental institution for “American Horror Story: Asylum.”
With Jessica Lange, Zachary Quinto and Sarah Paulson returning for the new season along with new actors in Adam Levine, James Cromwell, Jenna Dewan and Chloë Sevigny – EW now brings us some images that may be even more convincing in terms of turning naysayers over to creator Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s dark side. We get a peek at a meticulous-looking Quinto, along with a rather creepy, bald Cromwell, and an image of Sevigny (as mental patient Shelley The Nymphomaniac) that gives us some “Shutter Island” vibes. Season 2 is supposed to be a more grounded take on the series (relatively speaking, we imagine), looking into the state of mental health care in the '60s.
Its first season, which just racked up a whopping seventeen Primetime Emmy nominations, was certainly divisive and spooky as all hell, so we’ll have to hope we can have a little more of that in the vintage era presented in season 2. “American Horror Story: Asylum” hits FX on October 17th, just in time for Halloween.