American Horror Story returns subsequent week with its tenth season, Double Feature—excellent news for followers who’ve been eager for its return, particularly because it seems to be a very juicy season (all hail Sarah Paulson!). But you don’t must already be a fan or greater than passingly acquainted with the sequence to take pleasure in American Horror Stories, the spin-off anthology sequence from AHS co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk that wraps up its first seven-episode installment tonight.

I’m not going to lie—I’d been pushing aside watching American Horror Stories, even supposing I’m a fan of American Horror Story. There’s simply… a lot TV to stream today that I type of forgot about it, and I think I’m not the one one that feels that means typically. But it’s properly value carving out a while for this enjoyable, violent, and infrequently salacious sequence, which provides you all of the risqué enjoyable of American Horror Story—however parceled out into smaller chunks that perhaps couldn’t maintain a whole season of TV, however are excellent for a narrative that wants simply round 45 minutes to get its level throughout.

The massive exception to that is the primary pair of episodes—since they’re a two-parter, “Rubber(wo)Man Part One” and “Rubber(wom)Man Part Two.” They’re additionally those most carefully tied to American Horror Story, since they’re set in season one’s iconic Murder House and have, because the title may counsel, the unique present’s notorious Rubber Man. But even with these hyperlinks, the script is cautious to provide sufficient backstory about the home’s terrifying previous that even informal viewers will perceive the tremendously dangerous vibes emanating from it.

Of course, that doesn’t deter married couple Michael (Matt Bomer, one among a number of American Horror Story regulars to pop up within the American Horror Stories solid) and Troy (Gavin Creel) from shopping for the place with intentions of fixing it up and opening a “haunted B&B” that’ll money in on its dicey status, a lot to the eye-rolling impatience of their teenage daughter, Scarlett (The Vast of Night’s Sierra McCormick), who calls the place “Amityville Horror on crystal meth.” The household quickly learns that the Murder House won’t be so simply tamed, and Scarlett—who already had a burgeoning curiosity in S&M—swiftly finds herself intimately entangled with its legend.

These episodes characteristic intriguing second-generation stunt casting (Paris Jackson, Michael’s daughter, performs one among Scarlett’s mean-girl classmates; Kaia Gerber, who’s a lifeless ringer for her mom, Cindy Crawford, additionally has a key function), an impressively uncooked tackle teenage bullying, some startling loss of life scenes, and in addition—in true AHS trend—up-to-the-minute cultural and popular culture references, to not point out loads of surreal humor. The arcs of Scarlett and firm required two episodes to fill (and doubtless extra; based on Murphy, tonight’s finale will return to the Murder House). But the remainder of American Horror Stories have all been (apparently) self-contained, and none have made overt references to the overarching American Horror Story lore.

All 4 begin with pretty fundamental plots that horror followers normally will acknowledge—a cursed film (“Drive In”), a girl who fears darkish forces are after her child (“BA’AL”), the lethal facet of social media (“The Naughty List”), and the perils of the deep woods (“Feral”)—however find yourself layering that familiarity into worlds that really feel like our personal, however are as a substitute stuffed with gut-wrenchingly freaky twists. They’re additionally very well-cast, particularly Billie Lourd as a brand new mother on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and Danny Trejo as horror’s newest incarnation of evil Santa Claus.

Some of those entries are more practical than others—“Drive In” owes a lot to John Carpenter’s Masters of Horror episode “Cigarette Burns” that it could actually’t be a coincidence that frequent Carpenter main girl Adrienne Barbeau has a job in it. But they’re all energetic and entertaining, telling separate tales that nonetheless cohere with American Horror Story’s in-your-face strategy to intercourse and gore. And it’s value noting this isn’t The Twilight Zone and even Shudder’s wonderful Creepshow (talking of Barbeau), which have a tendency to construct their tales round characters who have to be taught a lesson or handed down some type of comeuppance. “The Naughty List” does take a very ruthless strategy to punishing the odious social-media stars who populate its story, and American Horror Stories completely likes to drop surprises within the last moments of its episodes. But this present isn’t piloted by a standard-issue ethical compass; very similar to American Horror Story, American Horror Stories is generally simply decided to shock you. Gleefully. And more often than not, it succeeds.

“Game Over,” the season finale of American Horror Stories, streams at present on FX on Hulu. (Last week, Murphy tweeted it’s been renewed for a second season.) American Horror Story: Double Feature premieres August 25 on FX, with episodes hitting Hulu the following day.

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