American Horror Stories: Dollhouse

Returning to the franchise is one of the unsung actors who has been with the two series since the first season’s Murderhouse…Denis O’Hare. Other stars set to return this season7 include: Teddy Sears, Gabourey Sidibe, Max Greenfield, Seth Gabel, Cameron Cowperthwaite, Spencer Neville, Matt Lasky, Rebecca Dayan and Austin Woods, who appeared in previous seasons of American Horror Story, will also appear in the second season along with newcomers Bella Thorne, Judith Light, Anthony De La Torre, Britt Lower, Quvenzhané Wallis, Dominique Jackson, Kyla Drew Simmons, Kyanna Simone, Derrick Aguis, Simone Recasner, Maryssa Menendez, Raven Scott, Sarah Silva, Houston Jax Towe, Emily Morales-Cabrera, Abby Corrigan, Jessika Van, Caitlin Dulany, Madison Iseman, Kristine Froseth, and Alicia Silverstone.

Denis O’Hare plays a crazy dollmaker named Van Wirt who, with his small son,  lives in a huge Victorian home designed to be a people sized dollhouse. Van Wirt is kidnapping young women to make living dolls of them and puts them through arduous tests to find the one who will replace his late wife who he threw down a well outside the house. The women who do not pass his test are sent to join the late Mrs Van Wirt down the well.

Does “Dollhouse” connect to the greater American Horror Story mythos? Yup, it sure does! But I will not reveal the twisted ending and spoil it for you. I will just add that this particular part of the story of “Dollhouse” is all fine and dandy IF you are a fan of the series and have seen previous seasons. For the casual viewer, though, it will probably elicit a lot of “Huh?”-s the way it was done. It isn’t too big of an issue but as I watched it through my Average-Television-Viewing-Audience-Member’s glasses I thought wow, this might confuse some people.

The performances are all very good and it is always great to see O’Hare on the series. He brings his own brand of quirkiness to his characters even when he is playing a mute character with no lines! I met him once at a comic book convention and he was really fun and delightful to speak with. While there are no specific characters in the episode who are LGBT+, both Denis O’Hare and Ryan Murphy give us some representation.
American Horror Stories continues to make great use of the creepy AHS theme with the titles changing to match each entry in the series and going as far to individualize the graphics in the opening titles for each episode of Stories.
Some critics felt that the first season of the spin-off didn’t make enough connections to the broader AHS universe. With the first episode of season 2, “Dollhouse”, that criticism is most definitely addressed. But it remains to be seen where subsequent entries will go.

The title of the next episode of American Horror Stories Season 2 is called “Necro” and will air on July 28, 2022.