Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

American Horror Story: Roanoke Blu-ray Movie Review

History comes alive.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 4, 2017

It may be a toss up for some viewers as to which is the more unexpected development in this sixth season of the anthology series American Horror Story, the use of “dramatic reenactment” text cards or the appearance of noted historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. American Horror Story has literally been all over the place in its previous seasons, but this season, subtitled Roanoke, shares certain elements with previous seasons, including the expected return of what has amounted to a large repertory cast which assumes different roles as the settings change. The most salient similarity to other years of American Horror Story is the fact that this year deals once again with a haunted property, much in the same vein as American Horror Story: The Complete First Season (which retroactively was given the sobriquet Murder House, an appellation which may be even more applicable to Roanoke’s setting). One of the odder elements in this season, and one which isn’t really given any context within the confines of the actual presentation, is that Roanoke exploits a “reality television” approach, supposedly offering snippets of a show called My Roanoke Nightmare, which offers those aforementioned “dramatic reenactments” of a series of supernatural events afflicting an interracial couple who move to North Carolina after having had an unfortunate incident affect them in Los Angeles. That gives this season a whole “meta” angle which is only upped as the season progresses, with the “real life” characters offering interstitial interviews as the reality television show documents the scary happenings, which then gives way to a whole new layer of occurrences involving the actors portraying the real life characters. Got that? It’s a little clunky at times, and I’m frankly not sure if the first person confessionals do much more than interrupt the story flow, and as such American Horror Story: Roanoke may not have quite the visceral intensity of some previous seasons of the series.

Since this is an anthology series, there’s obviously not a throughline linking various seasons, but for those who want to see where this often interesting show has been in its previous years, our reviews of the prior seasons can be accessed by clicking on the following links:

American Horror Story: The Complete First Season Blu-ray review

American Horror Story: Asylum Blu-ray review

American Horror Story: Coven Blu-ray review

American Horror Story: Freak Show Blu- ray review

American Horror Story: Hotel Blu-ray review

While those who regularly read my reviews will probably (wisely) want to ascribe this to my personal stupidity, I’m going to insist that my desire not to read much about this season prior to reviewing it accounted entirely (okay, mostly) for my initial confusion as to American Horror Story: Roanoke's arguably ungainly structure. First of all, the supposed reality series My Roanoke Nightmare has exactly the same “tree logo” as the series itself, and there really isn’t anything identifiable initially, other than more than one actor appearing as the same character, that makes it clear we are watching a reality television enterprise. Therefore, the “real life” character of Shelby Miller is played by Lily Rabe, while the version of her in the My Roanoke Nightmare show within a show is essayed by Sarah Paulson. Similarly, Shelby’s husband Matt Miller is played by André Holland in “real life”, while the showbiz version is taken over by Cuba Gooding, Jr. The third main character in this particular level of the “meta” proceedings is Matt’s sister Lee Harris, played by Adina Porter in the “real life” sections, and by Angela Bassett in the My Roanoke Nightmare sequences.

Even this brief summary, which barely touches on some of the interconnections between what initially is the Miller story but later becomes as much about the actors and crew involved in recreating the Miller story, perhaps indicates that there’s a certain “distance” in this season. In fact, I’d argue that the whole interstitial interview conceit that takes up the first part of the season is almost unavoidably distance producing, since it automatically removes the viewer from the dramatized story and almost by default suggests that whatever the seeming dangers, the focal characters (who are, after all, being interviewed) survive their traumas. That’s a decidedly different feeling than in several previous seasons of American Horror Story, again perhaps most saliently with regard to Murder House, which of course played on the audience’s connection to several characters, only to off them one by one.

There is still certainly a lot to enjoy in this season, and the large and colorful cast includes both returning favorites (a certain Gaga-esque type shows up again) as well as some new faces (Cuba Gooding, Jr.). There may not be much angst in the first half of the season, but things do tend to get creepier once all the elements are in place and the show begins exploiting the thin veil between reality television and reality. This season was promoted as something at least a little new for American Horror Story, and structurally speaking at least that’s probably the case. Perhaps the biggest problem with this season, though, is that it’s once again revisiting haunted house territory without having much innovative material to offer other than those very structural artifices.

American Horror Story: Roanoke Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

American Horror Story: Roanoke is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. As with virtually all the previous seasons of this often quite visually arresting series, this season utilizes a number of different techniques to tweak the image, but generally speaking, while there's a certain heterogeneity in appearance that is almost this series' hallmark by this point, this is another sharp and well defined offering despite the various imagistic bells and whistles. There's a certain drabness to a lot of the interstitial interview sequences, moments where the only pops of color tend to be in the clothing the participants are wearing, but the reenactments in the first half of the season offer some rather evocative imagery, including a lot of ghostly shots of the old farm that the Millers buy. Fine detail in these "reenactments" tends to be quite good, at least when lighting regimens allow, but as the ghosts of the past become more prevalent, there's a tendency toward yellow grading that slightly diminishes fine detail levels, especially since lighting in many of these scenes is minimal at best. The second half of the series, which is when the whole "meta" aspect takes on an almost gonzo level of interconnectedness, has a somewhat more naturalistic palette, something that perhaps only ups the ante in some of the carnage that occurs.

American Horror Story: Roanoke Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

American Horror Story: Roanoke features another extremely effective DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. As has been the series' audio hallmark, well placed discrete channelization allows for some extremely spooky moments in the farmhouse, when things like the "pitter patter" of little (?) feet pan creepily through the soundstage even when nothing can be clearly seen. In an early sequence when Matt confronts some sort of (again unseen) assailant outside, there's some fantastic panning action as huge objects come hurtling out of the darkness toward him. Some of the larger scenes involving apparitions from the past also include excellent surround activity courtesy of the large number of people in the frame. As should be expected, some of the interstitial interview segments are fairly static sounding, anchored front and center, as frankly a lot of the dialogue even in the "dramatic reenactments" tends to be.

American Horror Story: Roanoke Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Paley Center for Media: Q & A with Cast and Creative Team from Paley Fest 2017 (1080i; 30:03) features Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates, Adina Porter, Cheyenne Jackson, Denis O'Hare, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Exec Prod Tim Minier and Co-Creator Brad Falchuk.


• American Horror Story: Roanoke Promos (1080p; 3:29)

Note: These two supplements are found on Disc Three of this three disc set.

American Horror Story: Roanoke Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I almost think American Horror Story: Roanoke would have been more effective had it started at about the halfway point and then backtracked to pick up some of the data points that are doled out in the first half of the season. The whole reality television artifice that informs this season is more artfully handled once the show actually gets away from My Roanoke Nightmare. In fact, a certain amount of patience is needed, since the whole opening gambit is merely getting things in place for what amounts to the real story, once the Millers' tale has supposedly already been told. As is typical of this series, production elements are first rate, and the large cast is as uniformly excellent as they have tended to be in years past. This particular season wasn't quite as involving for me as some of the previous ones were, but technical merits continue to be strong, and with caveats noted, American Horror Story: Roanoke comes Recommended.