'American Horror Story' (AHS) is a TV series widely renowned for being plagued with violence, horror and various unpleasant images - without a trace of censorship. Having said that, however, the recent event in Las Vegas, whereby a shooter opened fire and killed 59 people, was severe enough for the show creator, Ryan Murphy to call for an upcoming episode of AHS to be re-edited. Murphy made the decision because the episode in question opened with gunfire.
The show has aired worse scenes in the past, for example, in season 5 (Hotel), Lady Gaga and Matt Bomer participate in an orgy with another couple, who they then murder before revelling in their blood. In the third season (Coven), two witches go to the morgue and attempt to put together the dismembered pieces of Evan Peters' body, combining them for fun. However, as a result of the increasing number of gun crime incidents in the US, Ryan Murphy has decided to shorten the scene in question, out of respect for the real life incident.
Episode 7x06, titled 'Mid-Western Assassin' aired on 10th October on FX in the US. The unedited version of the episode would have shown Ivy (Alison Pill) amidst gunfire after a political event. When one individual tries to help Ivy, he is shot down and dies on screen, along with several other people who are shot as the gunfire continues. In the edited episode however, there is significantly less gunfire, and the scene in which Ivy walks among wounded victims has been cut short. There are also less on-screen deaths.
Both versions of the episode will be available to view sometime in the future, although the version that aired on Tuesday was the edited one. It is worth taking into account that gun crime has been a problem for North American society for some time now and given the high number of casualties in this latest incident it was somewhat inevitable that AHS had to edit the episode.
Lena Dunham will debut in the next episode
The next episode, which will air on Tuesday 17th October, will be called 'Valerie Solanas Died for Your Sins: Scumbag' and will tell the story of Valerie Solanas. The feminist wrote the SCUM manifesto and tried to assassinate Andy Warhol at the end of the 60s. In the promo for the episode, Lena Dunham (producer and actress from 'Girls'), in her role as Valerie Solanas is seen with a pistol, alongside AHS veteran, Frances Conroy.
