*This is a spoiler-free review so feel free to read on!**

“People want to see what they’ve never seen before…”

American Horror Stories released its fourth episode, “The Naughty List” on July 29th 2021. The episode is available to watch on FX on Hulu. Episode four stars Kevin McHale, Nico Greetham, Dyllon Burnside, Charles Melton and Danny Trejo. The episode runs for approximately 40 minutes.

What is “The Bro House?” Well, it apparently means “no excuses, no limits,” but it’s really about a few social influencers who all live together in an extravagant mansion. They are basically an obnoxious group of frat boys who never grew up as they strive to hit five million followers by pulling pranks, but things drastically change when they upload a controversial video.

Here is the trailer:

American Horror Stories: The Naughty List attempts to make a bold statement with this entry. Danny Trejo is cast as the bad Santa who will make you scream and shout, but does this overdone premise deliver? Let’s find out…

The Pros:

Creepy Santa legend comes to life.

As a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, I was more than thrilled to hear about the legend behind “The Wild Man,” or the real Santa Claus. There was an episode of Buffy where Anya sat at the Christmas dinner table and told Dawn all about the real Santa Claus and it seemed to fit this description almost perfectly.

Never doubt our girl Anya!

Well, Danny Trejo is the modern version of “The Wild Man,” as he poses as Santa Claus and is determined to punish the naughty in extreme and horrifying ways.

Sounds promising…

Danny Trejo is worth the wait.

You do have to sit through quite a bit of nonsense, but Danny Trejo is absolutely worth the wait. He is the best part of this episode and a villain worth cheering for. I’m still not sure how he pulled it all off, but I was entertained enough to forget about the details.

The Cons:

A plot I’ve seen before…

Horror’s take on social media influencers is popping up quite a lot these days. Hulu’s Into the Dark presented us with “New Year, New You” and I recently watched Shook on Shudder which also took a stab at this. 

In a lot of ways, I think this entry attempted to channel Scream Queens, but with guys. Except the humor and sarcasm didn’t deliver for me and I was left watching a group of obnoxious guys take up too much screen time. While I get that was part of the set-up for what came later, it just hurt my head and not even Riverdale’s Charles Melton could make it better.

So am I in or out?

I’m in about 75 percent…

Danny Trejo was bloody fantastic and once we got into the second half of the episode, it improved a lot. However, there was a lot to endure before that and the plot felt stale and overdone. I think the idea was there, but the execution could have been a lot better with some of the fluff in between. Either way, I was entertained at the end.

I hope you enjoyed the review and feel free to post your own thoughts and theories on American Horror Stories in the comments section below. Thanks so much for reading and happy viewing!

Best,

Amy Koto, TV Fanatic Girl

THIS COMPETITION IS KILLER…

When former friends, Shay and Adriana team up to participate in a Halloween scavenger hunt with a cash prize, they temporarily put their differences aside to outsmart their opponents. However, they soon start to realize that a dangerous threat is playing their own version of the game, stalking them during each hunt.

Winning is now a necessity as their lives are at stake. As old wounds and memories re-surface, Shay and Adriana attempt to unmask the threat before the night is over, but soon learn that Scream Hunt is not done with them just yet…

My new young adult horror thriller comes out October 7th 2021! I hope you enjoy!

Scream Hunt is available here!

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