American Horror Story: Coven is a perfect marriage of terror and camp

But beware: It will unsettle and frighten you

American Horror Story: Coven
(Image credit: (Michele K. Short/FX))

American Horror Story co-creator Ryan Murphy's love of camp is easily his greatest calling card. It can also be his Achilles heel. It's what sent Nip/Tuck spiraling into nonsensical chaos by the final seasons. But that same winking embrace of pop culture and soapy drama is also what made Glee so refreshing when it splashed on the scene in 2009.

And now Murphy has American Horror Story. It's a show that has captivated audiences, particularly given its unique structure wherein each season is a self-contained part in an ongoing anthology, with certain actors returning as new characters. In its third season, the show is focused on a coven of witches in New Orleans. And it very clearly bears Murphy's trademarks in the most delightful and genuinely terrifying ways.

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Jessica Jardine is from Northern California and has written for The Onion's A.V. Club, FILTER, BUST, Backstage, and Metromix.com. She is also a performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles and owns a Calico Persian cat named Beyoncé.