Line #99 Series/AmericanHorrorStoryDoubleFeature


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15	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ahs_double_feature.jpeg]]
16	%% [[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]
17
18	''Double Feature'' is the tenth season of Creator/RyanMurphy's {{horror}} {{anthology}} series ''Series/AmericanHorrorStory'', airing on Creator/{{FX\|Networks}} in 2021.
19
20	In a first for the franchise, ''Double Feature'' is actually [[MovieMultipack two seasons in one]]: ''Red Tide'' and ''Death Valley''. Each will also have their own distinct stories and casts of actors, with an emphasis on fan-favorite returning cast members [[MilestoneCelebration to commemorate the series' tenth anniversary]].
21
22	Part one, ''Red Tide'', follows the Gardner family, who have recently moved to the peaceful Provincetown, MA so that patriarch Harry (Creator/FinnWittrock) can focus on his writing by the suggestion of his wife, Doris (Creator/LilyRabe). After Harry encounters a mysterious group of locals who promise him success and a cure for his WritersBlock, the town is rocked by a series of grisly murders, which his new friends may or may not have a hand in doing. Also appearing in ''Red Tide'' are Creator/SarahPaulson, Creator/EvanPeters, Creator/FrancesConroy, Creator/LeslieGrossman, Creator/BillieLourd, Creator/AngelicaRoss, Ryan Kierra Armstrong, Creator/DenisOHare, Creator/AdinaPorter and Creator/MacaulayCulkin.
23
24	Part two, ''Death Valley'', involves aliens —previously alluded to in ''[[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryAsylum Asylum]]''— and follows characters in two eras: UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower (Creator/NealMcDonough) discovering the existence of extraterrestrial life in UsefulNotes/TheFifties, and four college students (Creator/KaiaGerber, Creator/NicoGreetham, Creator/RachelHilson, Creator/IsaacColePowell) who experience an alien encounter [[MeanwhileInTheFuture in the present day]]. The aforementioned Paulson, Rabe, Ross, and Grossman also appear, as well as Creator/CodyFern and Creator/RebeccaDayan.
25
26	[[https://youtu.be/VkKP-dlRAbM "Red Tide" trailer]], [[https://youtu.be/wt8aEo9i7_E Parts 1 & 2 teaser]].
27
28	----
29	!! ''American Horror Story: Double Feature''
30	[[foldercontrol]]
31
32	[[folder:General tropes]]
33	* DoubleFeature: The title of the season is meant to evoke a double feature picture show, which often featured horror and science fiction as their offerings.
34	* MovieMultipack: Both parts of the season were shot simultaneously and aired as one.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Part One: ''Red Tide'']]
38	* AmbitionIsEvil: Anyone who is willing to keep taking the Muse for the success that comes with it, regardless of the cost. Also Ursula, who is determined to become a distributor for the pills in order to get rich by proxy via her clients.
39	* ArmiesAreEvil: [[spoiler: The Chemist's work on human creativity was originally funded by the U.S. Army. Not to enhance creativity, as she ends up doing, but to repress it and make troops more complient.]]
40	* AssholeVictim:
41	** Austin and Belle try to justify the murders they enact to fulfill their thirst for blood by targeting junkies and thieves.
42	** In "Thirst", Harry's latest victim turns out to be a snuff-film actress who was planning on letting her boyfriend rape Harry to death.
43	** As shown in "Blood Buffet", Belle's first victim was her emotionally abusive husband, whose last action was to happily tell her that he was leaving her for another woman he literally just met the night before.
44	** In "Gaslight", [[spoiler: Karen's first and only kill while on the Muse is Mickey, who not only enabled the initial spread of the pills but forced her into a SadisticChoice to take one or be killed by Pale Ones]].
45	** In "Winter Kills", [[spoiler: Belle and Austin, who reveled in their killings, are themselves killed by the Pale Ones]]. Later in the same episode, the Chemist [[spoiler: gives the Muse to several racist cops in order to deliberately turn them into Pale Ones]].
46	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Invoked by a violist Alma faces, who tells her that if she becomes first chair at her age, all it does is put too much of a spotlight, trapping her into nothing but concerts and when she inevitably grows up, that will fade. "You're the bearded lady."
47	* BeachEpisode: The season is set in the seaside Provincetown, MA, albeit during the winter.
48	* ContinuityNod: The plot of the season is a troubled family moving to a new setting, akin to that of ''[[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryMurderHouse Murder House]]''.
49	* DeathOfAChild: Played straight, with the babies TB Karen delivers to Belle to feed her cravings. [[spoiler:Ultimately subverted with Eli, who is one of the few characters to survive the season.]]
50	* DeceasedFallGuyGambit: [[spoiler: After Harry is killed by Alma, Ursula and the Chemist pin the blame for all the Muse-related deaths on him with the excuse of him having snapped from pressure and drugs.]]
51	* DisproportionateRetribution: Belle wants Ursula dead, not because she's learned about the Muse, but because she insulted Belle's singing.
52	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: After the birth of Eli, Doris is constantly patronized by her family, her fears and needs are not taken seriously and she rightfully feels hopeless and unable to bond with her son. This hit very close to home for viewers who've had experience with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postpartum_depression postpartum depression]].
53	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Alma kills Harry so that he won't make her stop taking the Muse, then moves to Los Angeles with Ursula and the Chemist, who spread the pills across the city and cause it to fall into chaos as countless people turn into Pale Ones.]]
54	* EatsBabies: Belle does this for fresh blood, paying Karen in drugs to kidnap them for her.
55	* EnfantTerrible: Alma becomes this after taking the Muse, eagerly accepting the HorrorHunger that comes with it in exchange for success, and doing whatever it takes to keep this up, even [[spoiler: killing the police chief to stop her from arresting Harry, turning her own mother into a Pale One to keep her quiet, and finally killing her father so that he won't make her stop taking the pills]].
56	* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The creator of the Muse is only ever referred to as the Chemist.
57	* FantasticDrug: The Muse, a black pill that enhances creativity to astonishing levels, at the cost of creating a thirst for blood. And in people who lack natural talent, this causes them to devolve into pale, bald, feral creatures.
58	* {{Gaslighting}}: Fittingly happens in the episode "Gaslight", where Harry, Alma and Ursula use drugs and lies to keep an increasingly suspicious Doris oblivious to what's really happening.
59	* {{Gayborhood}}: A twist on the typical LovecraftCountry town. As it turns out, the remote and small-minded Provincetown used to be a major gay hub of the North-East coast, hence the heavy presence of gay characters in the setting. However, to fit with the DyingTown aesthetic, its population and economy suffered greatly from the AIDS epidemic. Now all that keeps the town going is the coming of gay tourists and renters in the summer, and the arrival of the renowned [[OurVampiresAreDifferent artists]] in the winter. If either stopped, it would be the end of Provincetown.
60	* GoMadFromTheRevelation: As the Chemist explains, her drug gives the consumer complete clarity about their artistic abilities. As a result, her talented test subjects turn into sociopaths who see other people as mere disposable bloodbags, whereas mediocre artists fall into an UnstoppableRage over the reality that they'll never become great.
61	* HarbingerOfImpendingDoom: Tuberculosis Karen, an unstable homeless addict who tries to warn Harry about Provincetown's secrets in the most abrasive way possible, leading him to ignore her.
62	* HorrorHunger: The main side-effect of the Muse is a craving for human blood. One of the original Pale Ones subjects was a vegan pacifist before the side-effects got to him, but that didn't stop him from succumbing to the cravings.
63	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:The Chemist, who caused this whole mess by creating the Muse, and Ursula, who was willing to profit from all the killings by proxy, both get away with zero consequences (assuming that Ursula didn't die in the Pale One riots she unleashed at the end; only the Chemist and Eli are seen driving to safety).]]
64	* KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade: [[spoiler:The Chemist orders Austin and Belle to kill Ursula, Mickey, and Harry's family in order to keep any of them from exposing the existence of the Muse. Later, though, she instead works with Ursula to kill Harry, Belle, and Austin and pin all the deaths on them to cover her tracks.]]
65	* LovecraftCountry: Provincetown and its surrounding area were obviously designed to fit this trope. A remote New England seaside town that is on its way to decay. A community that keeps secret strange experiments and bloody murders. A place where decadent and murderous rich artist go for the winter, and whose lower class includes depraved criminals and insane perverts. Sand dunes and dark woods home to inhuman blood-sucking creatures, and a weather that seems to be perpetually cloudy and grey...
66	* MonsterLord: The Pale Ones seem to instinctively obey the whims of the talented Muse-takers. [[spoiler: Until the Chemist and Ursula give them a modified pill that drives them to attack the talented instead.]]
67	* MostWritersAreWriters: Harry is a writer by trade and experiencing a major bout of WritersBlock while working on a television pilot.
68	* MurderSuicide: In "Gaslight", [[spoiler: Karen kills Mickey by ripping his throat out, then slits her own wrists and walks into the ocean]].
69	* NeverTrustATrailer: The advertising made it appear that the monstrous creatures plaguing Provincetown are merfolk of some kind. Instead, they're more akin to vampires.
70	* OneSteveLimit: Averted by Alma Gardner; ''[[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryAsylum Asylum]]'' previously featured a separate character also named Alma, who was Kit Walker's wife.
71	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Creator/AngelicaRoss's character is referred to as "the Chemist".
72	* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Those who take the Muse develop a strong craving for blood and flesh, preferably human, as well as an apparent inability to consume anything else. They do have a full set of sharp teeth, which are an artificial modification done by Lark, one of their own. Which type of vampire archetype one falls into depends on whether they have artistic talent or not. Whereas accomplished writers like Austin or Belle present themselves as [[WickedCultured sophisticated eccentrics]], anyone else turns into a Pale One, a feral creature [[LooksLikeOrlok with the classic look of a silent movie vampire]].
73	* SadisticChoice: In "Gaslight", Mickey leaves Karen surrounded by Pale Ones who will kill her when he walks away unless she takes the Muse, which she is vehemently against. [[spoiler: She takes the pill out of desperation to survive.]]
74	* ScaryTeeth: The Pale Ones have these.
75	* SelfMadeOrphan: [[spoiler: Alma turns her mother into a Pale One to get rid of her, and later kills her father so that she can keep taking the Muse.]]
76	* ShouldersOfDoom: Almost all of the Pale Ones wear long coats with big shoulder pads, which add to their already inhuman appearance and body language.
77	* SlashedThroat: How people on the Muse tend to kill their victims, to most efficiently put them down and get to their blood.
78	* StartOfDarkness: "Blood Buffet" shows how the Chemist first came to Provincetown and started distributing the Muse, turning Belle and Austin from meek nobodies to the murderous successes they are in the present, and inadvertently creating the Pale Ones as a side effect.
79	* TimeSkip: The last half of "Winter Kills" jumps ahead three months.
80	* TownWithADarkSecret: It's implied that everyone who lives in Provincetown is aware of what people on the Muse get up to, and look the other way as long as no one native to town is targeted. "Winter Kills" confirms that the town council, at least, is completely informed of the situation and not just allow it to happen but cover the extent of things up so that the town can profit from the reputation of being an artists' retreat.
81	* WholePlotReference: To Creator/StephenKing and Creator/HPLovecraft works.
82	** This half of the season has a similar setup to that of iconic horror story ''Literature/TheShining'', with a work-obsessed writer husband being convinced to move to a more peaceful setting by his wife, and being corrupted by supernatural elements.
83	** The fact that the plot focuses on a small New England town that happens to be secretly inhabited by quasi-vampires is clearly taking a nod from Literature/SalemsLot.
84	** The pill itself works very similarly to the items from the titular store in Literature/NeedfulThings. Like in that story, the pill is essentially a deal with the devil, giving you something you really want but turning you against your neighbors and loved ones in the process.
85	** The blood craze that affects those who take the pill is very reminiscent of the hunger curse from ''Literature/{{Thinner}}''.
86	** The seaside TownWithADarkSecret where the locals make a DealWithTheDevil for profit that turns some of them into monsters also brings to mind ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth''.
87	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler: The Chemist and Ursula arrange the deaths of their respective clients so that they can cover their tracks and move to LA to set up a wider pill distribution network.]]
88	[[/folder]]
89
90	[[folder:Part Two: ''Death Valley'']]
91	* AgainstMyReligion: Troy is Orthodox Jewish, and thus doesn't use electronics on Shabbat.
92	* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: The aliens forced Eisenhower to accept their deal by possessing and threatening to kill his wife.
93	* Area51: "Blue Moon" shows Eisenhower ordering the establishment of this facility to house the aliens' test subjects, as an alternative to using the secret tunnels underneath the White House.
94	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Men can in fact test positive on pregnancy tests without being pregnant. It means they have cancer.
95	* BabyFactory: The abducted humans are used to breed half-alien hybrids. Some abductees, like Calico, have given birth to 2-3 hybrids per year for decades.
96	* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler: By the end of the season, the aliens finally succeed in creating their hybrids, averting their extinction. Unfortunately, it turns out they long ago decided that Earth will be their new home. A home where there are no more humans.]]
97	* BedroomAdulteryScene: Eisenhower walks in on his wife sleeping with Valiant in their marital bed, causing him to faint.
98	* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: [[spoiler: Henry Kissinger]] was a member of the ReptilianConspiracy.
99	* DeathOfAChild: As of the present day, the majority of half-alien babies bred in the secret facility are deemed imperfect and get killed right after birth.
100	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:All the sympathetic human characters are killed by the aliens, who stop all attempts to avert their plan to commit genocide thwarted with little effort. Worse, there's really nothing any of the human characters could have done to make things turn out differently from the start, making the whole of ''Death Valley'' a ShootTheShaggyDogStory]].
101	* DyingRace: The reason the aliens invoke for trying desperately to create an alien-human hybrid, in order to save their planet and repopulate their world.
102	* ETGaveUsWiFi: All major technological advances since 1954 are the result of technology gifted by the aliens to sweeten their deal.
103	* EverybodyHasLotsOfSex: In the present day, anyway. Everybody talks nonstop about being sexually active.
104	* FaceFullOfAlienWingWong: The aliens in this setting have only one goal coming to Earth: creating the perfect human-alien hybrid. To do so they need to regularly abduct humans to make them fall pregnant (and the biological sex of the host [[MisterSeahorse does not matter]]). The pregnancy is very much like a human one (morning sicknesses, strange food cravings, painful chest), however it is [[ExpressDelivery abnormally fast]] (the protagonists of the modern days section looking several months pregnant after a few days or weeks). While the female hosts can deliver the baby through the natural process of birth, male hosts need to have the baby [[GuttedLikeAFish surgically removed]]. And not only is the birthing delivery quite painful, it is also very dangerous for the life of the host. Let's say there's a reason why the aliens need at least five hundred test subjects PER YEAR.
105	* FinalSolution: [[spoiler: The aliens plan to wipe out humanity once they've perfected the hybridization process, out of a belief that they can't coexist with us openly.]]
106	* FishOutOfTemporalWater: When Amelia Earhart is recovered from the alien ship in 1954, she thinks it's still 1937, which only feeds her shock over the situation.
107	* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Valiant Thor says the reason the aliens never appear to humanity in their actual forms is that humans would be less inclined to cooperate with them.
108	* GovernmentConspiracy:
109	** In 1954, the US government was forced to accept a treaty with the aliens that allows the latter to abduct 5000 people a year for experimentation in exchange for technological advances.
110	** As an offshoot of the above, the moon landing was faked, because thanks to the technology provided by the aliens, the government knew that actually going to the moon was a waste of time. So they staged it, as both a national morale boost and an excuse to "develop" the new technology and then move it into the public sphere.
111	* TheGreys: The aliens first seem to fit the picture to a T, being grey, thin and bald beings with no nose, long fingers and big black eyes... However in the first episode, an alien autopsy reveals their body is entirely empty, as if it was a shell, and inside is a tentacled blob-like FaceHugger. Given that tentacles are seen during the modern-day protagonists' abduction, and that alien-human hybrid babies often have tentacles and FaceHugger tendencies, it seems their true shape is OctopoidAliens.
112	* HeKnowsTooMuch:
113	** JFK and Marilyn Monroe were killed because they learned about the treaty with the aliens and threatened to expose it.
114	** Calico was abducted because she'd discovered that the moon landing was being faked.
115	* HistoricalDomainCharacter:
116	** Creator/NealMcDonough portrays UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower.
117	** Creator/LilyRabe plays UsefulNotes/AmeliaEarhart.
118	** Creator/SarahPaulson plays Mamie Eisenhower.
119	** Alisha Soper plays Creator/MarilynMonroe.
120	** Craig Sheffer plays UsefulNotes/RichardNixon.
121	** Mike Vogel plays UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy.
122	* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: [[spoiler: The aliens feel this way, and intend to wipe out humanity once they've perfected the hybridization process.]]
123	* IvyLeagueForEveryone: Kendall went to Harvard, despite showing no signs of being particularly intelligent.
124	* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler: Mamie [[TheQuisling happily played along]] with the conspiracy in order to advance her own ambitions, but is ultimately killed by the aliens after learning the true scope of their plans.]]
125	* LadyMacBeth: Mamie Eisenhower, who pushes her husband to work with the aliens in order to advance her own ambitions.
126	* LookADistraction: The Vietnam War -- and, it's implied, every other conflict since -- was engineered by the aliens to distract people from all the abductions.
127	* TheMenInBlack: Naturally show up as enforcers of the GovernmentConspiracy.
128	* MrSeahorse: At the end of the first episode, Troy and Cal discover that they are both just as inexplicably pregnant as their female friends Jamie and Kendall. As it turns out, the aliens do not care for the biological sex of the ones they abduct when it comes to creating hybrid babies. Male abductees share most of the symptoms of a female pregnancy (painful chest, morning sickness, strange cravings...), but when it comes to birthing the baby, while the female abductees do so by natural means, the doctors are forced to [[spoiler:cut the men's bellies open]] to remove the babies. It is implied that if they do not do so... [[ChestBurster "Life finds its way..."]].
129	* NakedOnArrival: Amelia is introduced naked, after being recovered from the alien ship.
130	* ReptilianConspiracy: The finale reveals that a reptilian species is also seeking to colonize Earth in rivalry with the other aliens. [[spoiler:Except not -- the two species are planning to co-habitate the planet after eliminating humanity.]]
131	* RidiculouslyHumanRobot: Valiant Thor, the aliens' liaison, is an android so realistic that he's able to have sex with Mamie Eisenhower and satisfy her enough that she calls it the best she's had.
132	* SecretlyGayActivity: Troy hires his boyfriend Cal to be his Orthodox Jewish family's "Shabbat Goy" so that he can bring him home to his parents without them realizing that he and Cal are a couple.
133	* WhoShotJFK: It's all but outright said that Eisenhower and Nixon had Kennedy killed after they informed him of the deal with the aliens and he threatened to go public about it.
134	* WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide: [[spoiler:After the perfect hybrid is born, the aliens don't even hide the fact that they intend to kill every living human, but dress it up in a lot of coldly delivered, holier-than-thou declarations of humanity's worthlessness and evilness.]]
135	* YourHeadASplode: The aliens are capable of making people's heads explode.
136	[[/folder]]

Context Series / AmericanHorrorStoryDoubleFeature