A new feature on this here Horrorbuzz thing, I’ll be doing a weekly recap and review of American Horror Story: Hotel. Let’s dive in!

Episode 1, “Checking In”:

Boo!

Spoilers, kids.

Tall, imposing, and not exactly in the best neighborhood, the Hotel Cortez looks like it has been standing for years and years, and could stand for many more.

The first episode of such an ambitious series as AHS is always slightly problematic: multiple characters must be introduced, their relationships explained or hinted at, mysteries presented, and yet it all must be served up in an intriguing package that keeps people coming back for more.

Hotel does all that and more, with scenes that are by turns alluring, disgusting, sexy, bloody, graphic, coy, and just plain weird. Sometimes they manage to get all in at once.

Your ride is here

Iris (Kathy Bates) is the manager of the titular hotel, dealing with two Swedish tourists who find more than they bargained for in their room. Detective John Lowe (Wes Bentley) is investigating a grisly, almost biblical murder and, after a quick Skyped bedtime read with his young daughter, receives a tip (maybe from the murderer?) telling him to head to the Cortez.

Room for two more

Room 64 to be exact. The same room in which the Swedish girls got an unwelcome visitor, and the same room that a junkie was just…er…”attacked” by a membrane-covered-metal-drill-shaped-strap-on-wearing creature.

Remember that “just plain weird” comment? Apply liberally.

Lowe finds nothing interesting at the hotel and leaves for home, as The Countess (Lady Gaga) snorts up a bit (a lot) of white powder (we assume it’s cocaine, or maybe heroin, or, hell, maybe ground up baby bones at this point) and goes out with her companion, Donovan (Matt Bomer) to paint the town red. Heh.

A night on the town

In a very distinct nod to the movie The Hunger (using She Wants Revenge’s song “Tear You Apart” effectively), they bring a couple back to the hotel for a steamy R-rated four-way (and kudos to Gaga for tackling this material and this character head on) that ends with some major spurting of the arterial variety.

This first episode is full of little homages like that. The carpet at the Cortez is similar (very similar) to the carpet at another famously haunted hotel. The Countess’s little blond creepy adopted/abducted kids who keep popping up remind me of the ones from Village Of The Damned (and, yes, The Shining).

Uh…what?

The next time we see the Swedish Girls, they are locked in these kind of neon-and-metal Iron Maidens by Iris, being force-fed a mixture of organ meat to cleanse them (to prepare them for the Countess? Someone else?).  One of the girls escapes with the “help” of Sally (Sarah Paulson) and is startled by the Countess, who dispatches her quickly, telling Iris “This can never happen again.”

At dinner with his daughter, Lowe receives a text from his wife, a cry for help, that indicates an address. He races to the location, and then gets a call from her on his phone. But it’s the voice of the killer that taunts him over the phone as he discovers two eviscerated bodies hanging in a bedroom.

In a flashback, we discover that Lowe and his wife used to have 2 children, but their son, Holden, disappears while Lowe is distracted and texting on his phone. This has obviously caused much tension in their family, as evidenced by the uncomfortable way they have interacted in the episode so far. Back in present-day, Lowe decides that, because the killer is targeting him, he needs to be far away from his wife and daughter for their safety. Where will he go?

The new owner of the hotel, Will Drake (Cheyenne Jackson) and his son unexpectedly arrive to take stock of their recent purchase and, while taking a tour of the penthouse, meet a naked Donovan and the Countess, who seems to know all about the new owner and appears to have a kind of influence over him. While Drake finishes the tour, Countess takes his son to a special hidden room to meet the other children. One of them is named Holden.

In another flashback we discover that Donovan was an addict who would come to the Cortez to shoot up with Sally, and is followed there by his mother, Iris. Donovan ODs, and Iris begs Sally to call 911, but Sally walks clumsily out of the room and down the hallway. In her drugged state, she starts playing with the curtains of an open window, and turns in time to see Iris shove her out the window.

To her death? Well…temporarily, I guess.

Iris walks back to her comatose son to see the Countess cradling him in her lap. She drags her sharp blade-tipped finger across his neck as she remarks, “He has a jawline for days.”

Nighttime fun

Meanwhile, in the present, Lowe walks slowly through the Cortez Hotel’s doorway, across the lobby, and then up to the reception desk, where Iris glumly slides a key to his waiting hand.

This was a great way to start the season, full of all the things fans have come to expect from this ambitious show. AHS has always been a beautifully-shot and -directed piece of work, and this episode was no exception. Oddly skewed shots, wide-angled fisheye lenses, and long tracking scenes add to the disoriented off-kilter feel. I think I am going to really like this stay.