American Horror Story Hotel is for MATURE audiences only; the show is rated M for nudity and drug use… and of course, horror. The season states to “Expect the Unexpected” so the fear and shock-value is definitely coming back to this twisted series. Season five of American Horror Story has the title sequence include the Commandments lit up in red between the actor titles. Does this mean The Countess has a code that needs to be abided by?
Let’s take a look at the first episode.
*Some spoilers ahead*
“Hotel Cortez” is based on the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles. AHS co-creator Ryan Murphy revealed that ‘Hotel’ “was inspired by a surveillance video from a Los Angeles-based hotel that surfaced two years ago. The footage showed a girl in an elevator who was never seen again.”
The episode starts off with two Swedish girls checking into the Hotel Cortez but unable to check out. The lobby is like a tomb but moaning can be heard behind one door as the girls is escorted to their room by the disgruntled front desk clerk Iris (Kathy Bates). One of the girls goes to get ice from the machine but on her way meets the maid in the hall cleaning a bloody sheet. She jokes and says Room 51 made a mess. Then there are two white-blonde boys in the hallway who seem to mirror the twins from “the Shining” and at last we get our first glimpse of Lady Gaga’s silver claw.
The girls change rooms after the mattress reeks from something, or someone? Iris gives them Room 64 after telling the girls the hotel was sold out. Iris tells the Swedish girls that she never rents out Room 64.
What is the story behind Room 64? More secrets are to be revealed later, but it seems as though room 64 is where guests never check out.
’30s music and static wakes up one girl at 2:25 a.m. via the alarm clock, possibly tying Evan Peter’s character “Mr. March” into the present timeline. Could it be the room for The Countess? The hotel children seem to have access to the bathroom…
The hotel is a lure for junkie’s with ‘Hypodermic Sally’ (Sarah Paulson) being the front addict. Is she a ghost? Another revelation we find out already is that Sally and Donovan (Matt Bomer) were junkie buddies in 1994 and were in fact, in Room 64 when Iris found him passed out from the drugs. The season seems to be similar to Murder House, season one.
John Lowe’s character (Wes Bentley), is introduced studying a sick murder/mutilation of a cheating couple. They were nailed naked to a bed post and the culprit (who uses the movie-horror voice-over) tells him on a call that he is hiding out in Room 64 of the Hotel Cortez. We also find out that Wes Bently’s stolen boy, Holden, was kidnapped from a Santa Monica merry-go-round back in 2010. When veiwers find him in The Countess’s game room five years later, Holden hasn’t aged.
The Countess and Donavon’s characters are finally revealed as sophisticated and sadistically sexual. A bloody sex orgy ensues after they take home a couple from a park screening of ‘Nosferatu.’ With Lady Gaga’s simple “Call housekeeping” to fix her mess, that could mean Room 51’s bloody sheets spoken about at the beginning of the episode, were most likely damaged by Gaga.
Her blood cravings are an immense part of the season and drinking the blood of her victims seems to be keeping her and her volunteers young. More juicy and cringe-worthy episodes are anticipated to follow in this season of American Horror Story, for many guests may never check out…
