A frightening seasonal anthology series, each season is a self-contained miniseries – following a different set of characters and settings.

In the second instalment of the award winning psychosexual horror series, explore sanity and real-life horrors in the macabre Briarcliff insane asylum. Set in 1964, American Horror Story – Asylum takes viewers into a Church-run haven for the criminally insane, ruled with an iron fist by Sister Jude (Jessica Lange), a nun with a troubled past.

This grisly tale begins in present day when Leo and Teresa, the unsuspecting newlyweds, choose to spend their honeymoon within the safe haven of a now abandoned asylum. Or is it… once inside, the pair is thrust into a gruesome fi ght for their lives as the story fl ashes back to 1964. Originally a tuberculosis ward, Briarcliff Manor, western Massachusetts, was brought by the Catholic Church and transformed into a chilling insane asylum. Monsignor Timothy O’Hara (Joseph Fiennes) and the formidable Sister Jude (Jessica Lange) are in charge with the help of Sister Eunice (Lily Rabe).

Includes all 13 episodes from series 2.

Awards for series

• AFI Awards USA 2013 – Won TV Program of the Year
• Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films USA 2013 – Nominated for Saturn Award Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series
• Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films USA 2012 – Nominated for Saturn Award Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series
• American Society of Cinematographers 2013 – Nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Television Movie/Mini-Series
• American Society of Cinematographers 2013 – Won Excellence in Production Design Award Television Movie or Mini-Series
• BMI Film & TV Awards 2013 – Won BMI Cable Award
• Directors Guild of America USA 2013 – Nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Mini-Series
• GLAAD Media Awards 2013 – Won Outstanding TV Movie or Mini-Series
• Golden Globes, USA 2013 – Nominated Best Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television Jessica Lange
• Golden Globes, USA 2012 – Won Best Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television Jessica Lange
• Golden Globes, USA 2012 – Nominated for Best Television Series – Drama
• Primetime Emmy Awards 2013 – Nominated for Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries or Movie, Nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Jessica Lange, Nominated for many other awards
• Primetime Emmy Awards 2012 – Won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie Jessica Lange, Nominated for Outstanding Miniseries or Movie
• Satellite Awards 2012 – Nominated for Best Television Series, Genre
• Satellite Awards 2011 – Won Best Television Series, Genre, Won Special Achievement Award Outstanding Performance In A TV Series Jessica Lange
• Screen Actors Guild Awards 2012 – Won Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series Jessica Lange
• Television Critics Association Awards 2013 – Nominated Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials

Review for American Horror Story: Season 2

"…Creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk continue the excess of messy kills and melodramatic monologues [from Season 1], but it's decidedly more sinister. Leaving the haunted corridors of the Harmon family home behind, American Horror Story: Asylum shifts to Briarcliff Manor, a mental institution in 1964 that's filled with crazies, aliens, mad scientists, demon-possessed teenagers, and masked men wielding bloody ice picks. It's Ryan Murphy's Law: Any and all terrors that can be squeezed into 45 minutes will be.

Asylum begins at the present-day Briarcliff Manor, now a sagging and dilapidated building, where sightseeing honeymooners (Adam Levine and Jenna Dewan-Tatum) are being hunted down by a killer. It's exaggeratedly gory, manically edited, and both frightening and funny—a mix of pitch-black camp and horror that sets the tone for the rest of the season, which takes place during Briarcliff's he­yday, focusing on the battle for dominance waged between the overseers of the institution and patients who insist they aren't insane. Familiar faces from season one return as patients: Evan Peters as Kit, an accused serial killer who claims aliens skinned his wife and several other women alive, and Sarah Paulson as Lana Winters, an investigative reporter committed to the asylum against her will for being a lesbian, trapped in the very institution she was trying to expose.

Overseeing of the madness is the stern and sadistic Sister Jude, played by scene-stealer Jessica Lange in deliciously theatrical manner. Lange was the highlight of the first season, playing meddling neighbor Constance Langdon, and she swallows this even meatier role whole. Sister Jude is a woman with a sordid past, suspicious of science, and firm in her belief that mental illness is a sin that must be beaten out of the human spirit. She's also inclined to view everyone as her sworn enemy, nobody more so than Dr. Arthur (James Cromwell), hired by the church to make Briarcliff a leader in the medical treatment of the insane. Their rivalry is the story's engine, affecting the movements and the motives of everyone around them. It's a classic struggle: religion versus science, matriarchy versus patriarchy, crazy versus crazier. But there's no clear winner, as each side is presented to be just as sinister as the other, which suggests that ultimately the struggle may be a pointless one. Sister Jude might be cruel, but Dr. Arthur is downright evil, getting his kicks by mutilating prostitutes and performing radical experiments on his mental patients, turning them into grotesque creatures with a taste for raw meat.

These creatures are heard but unseen in the early episodes of the season—a constant, creeping menace that makes Asylum more frightening than last season. Yes, the series is relatively campy, but there are equally moving moments. Paulson's screams as her character undergoes shock therapy treatment for “lesbianism” are chilling, not because it's the stuff of nightmares, but because it's inspired by our frighteningly real history; the voyeuristic scene simultaneously titillates and implicates the viewer in her torture. Just as season one dealt with underlying themes of everyday human horrors (crumbling marriages, miscarriages, and depression) juxtaposed with supernatural ones, just beneath the surface, Asylum examines our societal horrors: sexism, racism, homophobia, religious guilt. This is a story of the downtrodden, the “freaks,” and those who don't belong must figure out how to survive.

Murphy, who's made a career out of capturing the stories of social outsiders on shows like Nip/Tuck, The New Normal, and Glee, does so here with a surprising degree of subtlety. The dark halls of Briarcliff Manor could be described as a grotesque version of Glee's Prospect High School. Except here the “gleeks” are the psychopaths, and the campy musical numbers paying homage to songs of yesteryear are now campy sequences that pay homage to classic horror. But what sets Asylum apart from Glee is that its commentary on being “different” isn't as broad, a feat for a series that's excessive in every other respect. Still, the most interesting thing here is the show's willingness to take risks: killing off major characters, running about 18 different plot lines at once, incorporating racy psycho-sexual and religious undertones (one vivid dream sequence features Sister Jude seducing a priest), asking more questions than it intends to answer. This lack of focus can sometimes result in sensory overload, as well as a sense that the series is never quite sure where it's going, but it's these risks that make it impossible not to get caught up in the show's insanity." Slant Magazine