Well, I guess I get to be the first to mention American Gothic, huh?
Major creepy moments right in the pilot episode. First, to whet your appetite, there’s the flashback:
A firelit room in a cottage where a storm rages outside. Mrs. Temple, a young mother, is telling a story to her five-year-old daughter Merlyn. There’s a knock on the door and the little girl says, “Someone’s at the door.” The mom goes to answer it… and it’s Lucas Buck (Gary Cole), a police deputy and oh by the way also Satan manifest on earth. Mrs. Temple realizes he’s a threat and tries to keep him out. He forces his way inside and playfully taunts the mother, “It’s not about you, it’s about family.” He then proceeds to attack and rape the mother in front of her daughter. We see most of this from the daughter’s POV, as she cringes in a corner or behind a chair.
Next creepy moment, ten years later. Merlyn has been traumatized by the abovementioned incident into near catatonia and now can only chant the words, “Someone’s at the door.” Her younger brother Caleb – the child secretly conceived from the rape – takes care of her and protects her from Gage, her drunk and abusive father. Unfortunately, the night of his tenth’s birthday he’s out when Merlyn has one of her ‘fits’, repeating the phrase “someone’s at the door” over and over until Gage freaks out in a rage. He whacks the poor girl several times in the head with a shovel.
No, that’s not the creepy part. That’s coming.
The police are called and Lucas Buck, now Sheriff, walks through the house to find Merlyn, lying on her bed and bleeding profusely but still alive. As she groans “someone’s at the door,” Lucas cradles her in his arms gently, caressing her head. And then with a brutal twist he breaks her neck, killing her instantly.
THAT was creepy. Really the whole series is full of moments like these. Like Lucas murdering a suspicious federal agent (played by Bruce Campbell) in a box full of flesh-eating beetles…
