The Shards Review: Ryan Murphy Meets American Psycho in Glamorous Queer 80s Serial Killer Series
Kaia Gerber, Igby Rigney, and Homer Gere star in the American Horror Story creator’s morbid adaptation of the autofictional Bret Easton Ellis novel
by Alex Kaan 5 August 2026
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With his prolific television output traversing the worlds of button-pushing horror and generously embellished true crime, Ryan Murphy is a magnet for criticism. His baroque style and tendency to dive head-first into cultural hot topics make him an easy target, with his groundbreaking representation and skill for tapping into the zeitgeist often overlooked in favour of his exploitative tendencies. With The Shards, an adaptation of the acclaimed 2023 novel by fellow provocateur Bret Easton Ellis, the text has given Murphy permission to indulge his fondness for aestheticised histories and salacious storytelling fully. And for those willing to get on his wavelength, it’s a gripping watch.
A retro cocktail of sex, 80s music, and serial killings, The Shards is a gruesome, stylish horror series that works as both a lurid tale of an elite prep school’s lost innocence and a sensitive exploration of repressed queer desire. The setting is 1981 Los Angeles, and the protagonist is a fictionalised version of Ellis himself (played by Midnight Mass star Igby Rigney), who narrates the series from a distant future as he reflects on the traumatic senior year that defined his youth. Between taking late-night drives and going to the movies, Bret’s last year of high school sees him ready to move to the East Coast and start afresh, a desire motivated by the fact that, while he still tries to be attracted to girls, he is a closeted gay teenager who yearns to be himself openly.
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Still, that doesn’t mean that Bret doesn’t appreciate his circle of friends, which include his wannabe-moviestar girlfriend, Debbie Schaffer (Hayes Warner), and the high school power couple of quarterback Tom (Graham Campbell) and chic class president Susan Reynolds (Kaia Gerber), both of whom Bret admits he has a crush on. But their idyllic, adult supeversion-free experience of sex, drugs, and pool parties is disrupted by two significant events which Bret is convinced are somehow connected: the arrival of a charismatic new student named Robert Mallory (Homer Gere) and a ruthless teen-targeting serial killer known as the Trawler.
The Shards’ key ingredient is the confluence of its queer horror specialist co-creators Ryan Murphy and Bret Easton Ellis. Adapting Ellis’ 2023 novel, the American Horror Story showrunner and American Psycho author gel perfectly through their love of fetishised pasts and the darkness lurking beneath shiny surfaces. As Bret methodically lists the movies he sees, the songs he listens to, and the roads he drives, there’s a familiar coldness that a casual viewer will recall in Christian Bale’s lead performance in American Psycho, and the protagonist’s aloof facade becomes especially intriguing as the cracks start to show. Meanwhile, bringing that heightened vision of the 80s to life is the detailed production and costume design by Cat Smith and Lou Eyrich and Joshua J. March, respectively, along with the hypnotic Tangerine Dream-esque score by Troye Sivan and Leland.
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Grounding the heightened tone with real emotional stakes is a strong ensemble cast. Homer Gere impresses with a Risky Business-era Tom Cruise charm infused with a mean streak, while Kaia Gerber delivers her most nuanced performance yet. But it is the lead turn from a superb Igby Rigney — who delicately explores Bret’s cool, detached demeanour and the pain of his code-switching adolescence — that steals the show. The Schaffer parents are likewise a highlight, with Evan Rachel Wood as a housewife crumbling under the weight of unfulfilled ambition and a loveless marriage, and AHS alum Wes Bentley as an Oscar-winning movie producer who takes an interest in Bret’s career and grows questionably close to his daughter’s boyfriend.
An addictive thriller fuelled by grisly horror and alluring nostalgia, The Shards finds Ryan Murphy at his best with a worthy adaptation of Ellis’ novel.