Episode 4 of American Horror Stories takes a look at the dark side of social media influencers with Episode 4, titled The Naughty List.
Welcome to the Bro House! I hate them already. These four guys are influencers that are as buff as they are annoying. Basically, all you need to know is that it is a house filled with male toxicity.
Of course, there is a whole subset of teenage girls that love that s**t, which is why they’re so popular.
A Christmas miracle?
Enter a guy in a business suit that is climbing a bridge and looking ready to jump. Three of the Bro-dudes are all for taunting the guy to jump and the camera guy, Barry (Kevin McHale), who is also not so happy about being behind the camera all the time, is the only semblance of not being a bro-douche.
Then, when the guy actually dies by suicide, Barry doesn’t want Zinn (Nico Greetham), James (Dyllon Burnside), and Wyatt (Charles Melton) to post it. I mean, who actually wants to see that sort of tragedy?
Apparently, according to the three bro-douches, everyone does, plus the one million new followers they think they’ll get.
Christmas party doubts
Barry is still trying to convince Zinn not to upload the video but to no avail because Zinn is convinced that even if they get any negative crap from people, they will still get more subscribers to make up for it.
Then, the countdown to upload occurs and the video goes live. The bro-douches are all excited but, to all the party-goers that are attending the party just up and leave.
The next day, it’s even worse. They are losing followers exponentially and the family of the guy who jumped is about to go public to denounce the group.
Their solution? Go gay.
Yeah, someone needs to step in and shut these dudes down.
In the midst of discussions on “how gay” they should go, their sponsors turn up to reclaim their merchandise.
So, “full gay,” it is.
Enter Santa
After being pseudo-gay doesn’t work, Barry suggests going back to their roots, back to when they weren’t giant a**holes. The other bros are desperate to try anything — even being nice for a change.
So, they crash a Santa winter wonderland in a shopping mall. Instantly, they p*ss off the elf working alongside Santa (Danny Trejo). To get back at being told to leave, Zinn then tells all of the kids there that Santa isn’t real.
Christmas Eve — it’s time to get real
The bro-douches upload the video of their Santa shenanigans and immediately start blaming Barry for a lack of clicks.
When they start losing more followers, Wyatt wants to know why people are so mean, and doesn’t even understand the irony of his words. Instead, he heads to the garage for more beer.
By himself.
We all know where this is going, don’t we?
But, before we get to that, the cops ring the bro-house because they just found the real shopping mall Santa dead. Apparently, the one they p*ssed off is a murderer.
They need to head down to the police station in the morning — along with the recording — to make a statement.
Without further ado, let’s check in on Wyatt.
He’s just discovered a video camera duct-taped inside the refrigerator and it is only a moment after that that he gets attacked and his head twisted off — and all of it is captured on video.
No one notices in the main house, though, as they are all too busy sorting out the fact that they filmed a potential murderer. While they are rewatching the footage of evil Santa, a new video is uploaded — it’s Wyatt’s death.
As Zinn goes to check on Wyatt, the video is getting loads of likes. Barry deletes it but it immediately gets reuploaded.
The Wild Man
While Zinn is all alone in the garage, a new link has been added to the bro-dudes channel and we now learn about the history of the “real” Santa — also known as the “Wild Man.”
It’s are murderous as you suspect.
Now, back to Zinn.
And, even though he spoke to the police and knows that the Santa they annoyed at the mall is probably a killer, he still taunts the crap out of him when he meets up with him again.
Santa responds by severely beating Zinn.
Inside, Barry and James think it’s just Zinn trying new videos in order to get more followers and ignore the screams.
Outside, Zinn is wrapped in Christmas lights and thrown into the pool where he is electrocuted.
When the power goes out, Barry and James finally realize things might be getting serious and call the cops.
They try to leave the house after that but fans of the horror genre know how this goes already.
It takes only moments for James to be killed via a crossbow bolt through the head.
Barry is shot in the leg but manages to make it back into the house. He tries to call the police again but the bolt went through his phone as well as his leg.
He sends a message via the Bro House channel instead and finally gets the 5 million subscribers they had been hoping for all along. Even though Barry has been the voice of reason all along, he still takes too long enjoying the achievement, which means Santa sets him on fire.
Barry makes a run for it and douses himself in the pool but it doesn’t look good for him and he is added to the human Christmas tree decorations as well.
Episode 4 of American Horror Stories ends with the killer Santa honing in on another Santa and you just know the scenario is going to be repeated.
American Horror Stories airs every Thursday night on FX on Hulu.