American Horror Stories, the spin-off of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's American Horror Story series, alters the long-standing format of the horror franchise. Instead of an entire season to explore its narrative, the spin-off series has only one episode, roughly 40 minutes. The second season of the horror spin-off series is a considerable improvement from its first. "Lake," the eighth episode of its second season, explores the mystical dangers that water can pose. In doing so, it has quite a bit in common with one Disney movie.
Despite the cheerful connotations of most Disney movies, many of them derive from fairly grim tales. Holes may not be adapted from as grisly as a tale as some of the studio's animated films, but the Louis Sachar novel does deal with some fairly dark themes, including child labor, racism, and abuse. While Holes and American Horror Stories may not utilize the themes in the same way, the similarities between the two projects are impossible to ignore.
The similarities between Holes and American Horror Stories' "Lake" are striking. On a simplistic level, both tell the story of a child whose been swept up in a family's uncanny history. In Holes, Stanley Yelnats IV (Shia LaBeouf) and Zero (Khleo Thomas) are both plagued by the unfortunate histories of their families. Their peculiar and unfair occurrences are a large factor in what led them to attend Camp Green Lake to dig holes. For both Stanley and Zero, their circumstances do eventually have a meaningful, optimistic conclusion. In the end, both characters are able to free their families of the suffering they have endured for countless years.
In "Lake," a similar strategy is employed. Finn (Olivia Rouyre) unknowingly uncovers her family's dark history following her brother Jake's death. Near the end of the American Horror Stories episode, Finn learns that her brother drowned in a lake whose dam is being protected by her father's law firm. To make matters worse, Finn and her mother discovered that Reed Prescott, the man who built the dam, chained those who opposed the dam's construction to a cement block, and drowned them. The shock factor of "Lake" appears once Finn's father Jeffrey (Teddy Sears) reveals that he is a descendant of the Prescott family, and makes excuses for the horrid actions Reed took many years ago to make the project possible. Ultimately, Finn and her mother deduce that the tragedy that befell their family happened because of their sordid connection with the Prescotts, and the lake's inhabitants wanted revenge.
The narrative construction of both "Lake" and Holes are also similar. Both use flashbacks to historical tales relevant to driving the story forward. "Lake" only uses one flashback sequence of Reed Prescott chaining the men to the cement block and drowning them. This scene provides "Lake" with an explanation for the bodies located at the bottom of the lake as well as the true villain of the episode. Without the connection that forms between the Prescott's dark history and the lake, there is no reason for Finn, Jake, and their parents to be targeted by the lake and its inhabitants.
Holes relies on historical flashbacks more significantly, but it is also for a necessary purpose. There are two major flashback sequences in Holes that are needed to drive the story forward. The first is meant to give context to Zero's character. He is a descendant of Madame Zeroni, a fortune-teller who was betrayed by a man she struck an agreement with. The man's inability to keep his promise with Zeroni is what launches the Yelnats family curse, which is credited with landing Stanley in hot water. It also forges an ancestral bond between Zero and Stanley that serves as the backbone of Holes.
The second historical flashback develops the character of Kissin' Kate Barlow (Patricia Arquette). It is Barlow's story that provides context to the significance of Green Lake and its current authoritarian leader in Louise Walker (Sigourney Weaver). Kate's thrilling but tragic journey from a loving schoolteacher to a cold-hearted outlaw is threaded with metaphors for Holes' central themes. Much like the twist that "Lake" provides regarding the true identity of Finn's family, Barlow's storyline explains what the children of Camp Green Lake are digging for and why. Barlow's story weaves in and out of Stanley's familial past, allowing for the final redeeming connection to be made in the end.
The obvious focus of both Holes and "Lake" on the water is also significant. "Lake" deals with the horrors within the water while Holes uses water as a form of imprisonment and freedom. Green Lake has trapped the Walker family there for generations searching for the treasure abandoned by Barlow, hoping for wealth to return to them. It also imprisons Stanley and his family as the subject of great misfortune throughout their lives. However, water also serves as the liberator of the misfortune that both Stanley and Zero have been subjected to.
From the journeys their characters embark on to the basic plot elements that unite them, there are countless threads that tie American Horror Stories'' "Lake" to Disney's Holes. While the motives of the two projects could not be more different, the core of each remains the same. It's unlikely that Murphy, Falchuk, or Manny Coto who wrote "Lake" drew inspiration from Holes to craft the American Horror Stories episode, but the qualities the two share are uncanny.
American Horror Stories is now streaming on Hulu. Holes is now streaming on Disney Plus.