HARRY POTTER IT AIN'T! 'AMERICAN HORROR STORY: COVEN' CASTS ITS SPELL

Just hanging about. Fiona (Jessica Lange) casts her spell in AMERICAN HORROR STORY: COVEN. Images: FX.

Having previously enjoyed playing the twisted, scary, dangerous and marvellously OTT Nun, Sister Jude, film icon Jessica Lange gets to expand her dominion over sophisticated horror genre television with the soon arrival of the third season of the ground-breaking AMERICAN HORROR STORY, now out of the twisted, mutant, serial killing alien infested Asylum of the 1960's and into the wicked world of witchcraft and other forms of black-hearted magic, playing Fiona Goode, a woman skilled in the dark arts with past-exiled vengeance on her mind, in COVEN, coming next month to the UK's FOX HD channel.

The cauldron assembles: Angela Bassett and Kathy Bates make their mark on the series.

And if you've got such a talented actress as your series lead, then you want her past and future nemeses to have equal stature and charismatic power in order to get the fireworks in motion, and the series casting wing have worked overtime in securing two of the best: award winning actresses Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett, respectively playing Madames Delphine LaLurie (described by Miss Bates as being even worse than the deranged character she played in the superb film adaptation of Stephen King's Misery) and Marie Laveau, an esteemed mistress of voodoo and other sympathetic magics, soon exchanging more than harsh words and bitchy cat-calls with their ex-friend, the returned Fiona, amidst the background of an academy for exceptional and gifted young ladies- in actuality, a front for the preservation and cultivation of a unique bloodline of witchery, where a newcomer's destiny (Zoe, played by series one lead Taissa Farmiga), alongside the emergence of her latent powers that will likely be the catalyst for even more terrifying and genre-busting events. Cue in the expectant and disturbing atmospheric menace, warped supporting characters, and a splattering of blood and gore with classy black comedy, all in the most outrageous confectionery of macabre supremacy, and we're sure to have another winning season, one hopefully a bit better sustained in its story and character arc duration compared to the previous year, from writers/creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk.

▶ American Horror Story Coven Full Trailer - MEET THE WITCHES! - YouTube
▶ American Horror Story Season 3: Coven Teaser #1 Detention (HD) - YouTube
▶ American Horror Story Season 3: Coven Teaser #2 Pins & Needles (HD) - YouTube

Other big-league names new to the series, filming in the big heat and atmospheric of New Orleans will include Danny Huston, Patti Lupone and Emma Roberts, while popular past AHS series veterans, playing distinctive fresh parts, include old favourites from across the previous two series, including Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, Francis Conroy, and, away from her man-tempting, stockings and suspenders wearing maid incarnation from season one, and likely to raise the blood pressure all over again, the welcome return of Alexandra Breckenridge.

Let the spiritual invocations begin!

THINGS THAT GO BUMP...'AMERICAN HORROR STORY' SEASON ONE RETURNS!

No place like home? Dark days ahead for the Harmon family in AMERICAN HORROR STORY. Image: FX.

That wise old saying, "When somethings too good to be true, then it is probably is!", is foolishly ignored- happily for us TV viewers- by the emotionally scarred Harmon family-psychiatrist husband Ben, bitter wife Constance and vulnerable but resilient daughter, Violet-when, to get away from all their prior emotional problems and start life afresh, they move into the a restored mansion house- amazingly going cheap, and within a desirable and very trendy part of Hollywood, Los Angeles. Unfortunately, in no time at all, that home is where the heart is feeling is soon shot through with all the subtlety of a metal fatigued, razor-sharp crossbow, as the trio become unwittingly embroiled, later trapped so as to become part of the misery, in all the history and tragedy of the houses legion of past owners, caught in a true AMERICAN HORROR STORY that crosses all types of horror genre into a satisfying and thoroughly addictive, as well as often completely bonkers, main dish of sex, violence and visceral film and TV referencing. Giving viewers what they want, the show is packed with expanding and often scary supernatural phenomenon, kinky going-ons (oh boy, Alexandra Breckenridge...guaranteed to get male heartbeats racing!), time crossing and a variety of weird and very wonderful characters unveiled over its thirteen episode run (special mention must go to the award-winning Jessica Lange for her Deep South drawled and vindictive portrayal of the Harmon's neighbour, Constance Langdon), followed by lots of violence and ingenious murder, that quickly turned the show, created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, into a compulsive MUST-SEE-TV phenomenon, as well as finally giving lead actor Dylan McDermott, as Ben, a well-deserved top quality series to shine in. AMERICAN HORROR STORY is truly one of the first actually unsettling and occasionally disturbing US shows to be made in quite a while.

Trailer: American Horror Story Promo (HD) - YouTube
American Horror Story Series Premiere - Offical Trailer - YouTube
Official site for the series: Watch American Horror Story Videos Online - American Horror Story - Shows - FXUK.com

Season One will be repeated in all its creepy and visceral madness on the UK's FX and FX HD channels from next Wednesday April 4th, and, if you haven't already seen it, it's well worth a look and sticking with: the opening three episodes mixing horror and black comedy are especially good, and the premiere year ends on a strong note with its penultimate episode-the actual finale proves to be more of a book note to prior events, and a subtle (well, subtle for this show!) lead in to the eventual Season Two, coming later in 2012. More of those future happenings on KOOL TV as and when...