The One Part Of American Horror Stories' The Naughty List That Has Fans Scratching Their Heads
While Halloween is the holiday that "American Horror Story" does best, its spin-off anthology series is tackling a new one: Christmas. During July. In Los Angeles. At an influencer house. It's so 2021, it almost hurts.
"The Naughty List" introduces The Bro House, an influencer collective that uses extreme challenges, obnoxious pranks, and exploitative content to attract an increasingly unstable audience. Their descent into infamy starts with a man jumping from a bridge in the background of one vlog as they chant "Bro House!" and then race over to film his corpse.
Attempting to get back to their roots, the four friends head to the mall to check out the festivities and wind up angering the Santa Claus actor (Danny Trejo). "You'll get what you deserve," the bearded man says menacingly. And they do — this jolly imposter killed the real fake Santa and left him stuffed in a gift box.
He kills off the bros one-by-one, uploading their violent deaths to their YouTube channel. However, fans on the "American Horror Stories" subreddit were confused by something during the final brutal kill.
So, what part of "The Naughty List" didn't make sense to fans?
A continuity error, or an adrenaline rush?
Barry (Kevin McHale), the final living Bro House member, is injured by a crossbow bolt. With the arrow stuck in his leg, he painstakingly drags his body into the house, leaving behind a trail of blood. He manages to pull out the arrow and then gets distracted when he sees their channel hit 5 million subscribers.
However, when he realizes the sadistic Santa is pouring gasoline down the chimney, he doesn't try to escape. Then, he's on fire and sprinting out the door toward the pool, where he falls in and dies. Fans were confused by Barry's sudden ability to run, going back and forth whether it was "adrenaline" fueling him or a simple "continuity error."
While some fans said it was unrealistic for him to be running with a leg injury, u/GravityFallaGuy said, "I think you need to be introduced to the concept of an extreme adrenaline rush when being burned to death lmao."
However, others still weren't convinced. "I understand how powerful adrenaline can be but if that's the case then you'd think he would have had enough adrenaline after being shot and watching his friends get brutally murdered for him to at least limp through the pain," said u/omozzy.
If there's one thing fans agreed on about "The Naughty List," though, it's that the self-absorbed influencers had it coming.