American Horror Story has always outdone itself when it comes to gore, sex, and weird vibes. Yet in its season 5 premiere, American Horror Story: Hotel has already dialed up its intensity to show its viewers that you haven’t seen anything yet. After a disappointing season with Freak Show, Hotel seems to grab on to the foundations of season one, Murder House, with the addition of guts and blood.

American Horror Story: Hotel is about a macabre hotel, named Hotel Cortez, located in Los Angeles. The hotel is ran by the familiar faces of Iris (Kathy Bates), Liz Taylor (Denis O’Hare), Hypodermic Sally (Sara Paulson), and of course Elizabeth (Lady Gaga). Its first guests, two beautiful Swedish girls, are disappointed to find out that the hotel is nowhere near Universal Studios or any of the attractions; and here comes the real underlying horror, the hotel has no Wi-Fi. Being assigned to room 64 the two girls find an unexpected surprise in their room. From there on things get really weird… really fast.

As usual the show introduces a slew of characters all at once. I just hope it’s not like in Freak Show where a bajillion characters were introduced and then one by one they had to be killed off because their stories weren’t going anywhere. Other than the main characters running the hotel, we are also introduced to a police officer, John Lowe, played by Wes Bentley who also played Mordrake in Freak Show. My personal favorite part of the episode is when John, who recently lost his son, is investigating a very grotesque murder case in a hotel. Not sure if anyone else got this vibe but John’s parts reminded me a lot of Quantic Dream’s game, Heavy Rain.

One thing that the audience can always rely on from AHS is great acting. Since the beginning of the show they have always casted recognized actors. I was really worried when I heard Lady Gaga would be playing a main role in this season, but I must say for someone who is merely known for her musical skills, Gaga does a decent job with her acting. After the cemetery scene and the super awkwardly awesome foursome, Elizabeth’s role proves to be a role not fit for just any actress.

Horror fans will be excited to see few resemblances between Hotel Cortez and the very famous Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Last season Ryan Murphy mentioned that all of the seasons of American Horror Story are linked. With both the Murder House and Hotel Cortez being in LA my guess is this season will tie some knots with season one. If the show continues as strongly as its pilot, then we’re in for a good season. The episode ends with a lot of questions, so we’ll have to wait and see how the story unravels. My hopes are that the story stays consistent and the gore continuous.