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Matt Miller is an adventurous but scared husband. He is a character in Roanoke primarily portrayed by André Holland. In most of his My Roanoke Nightmare experiences, he is portrayed by actor Dominic Banks (who is portrayed by Cuba Gooding, Jr.).

Background[]

Matthew Miller grew up in North Carolina with his sister, Lee, and their mother. He began a career as a traveling pharmaceutical salesman and at one point he won a free yoga class, where he met his future wife, Shelby, who was the class instructor. Matt pulled a muscle and never participated in a second class, but later married Shelby.

Personality and Appearance[]

Matt Miller is an affable man forced to confront events that clash with his skeptical and rational personality.

Story[]

Matt and Shelby Miller move to Los Angeles to start their life together. Matt received a promotion at work as West Coast Sales Manager, and the couple soon discovered that they were expecting their first child. However, the pair were attacked without provocation on one of the couple's evening walks. Shelby was shoved to the side as Matt was punched and knocked out. The attack severely injured Matt and he was taken into intensive care. He lapsed into a temporary coma during hospital treatment and the doctors feared for his life. The ordeal also caused Shelby to miscarry.

After this experience, Matt and Shelby no longer felt safe in Los Angeles and decided to take a trip to North Carolina, where Matt grew up. They spent a day in a forest where they stumbled upon a beautiful farm house. They soon later impulsively bought the heritage-listed house and property at auction, outbidding a trio of local residents known as the Polk family.

Not long after they moved into their new home, Matt and Shelby began to experience various strange events. The first of which occurred on their first night in the house. During intercourse, they heard strange noises and Matt went to investigate. Thinking it was a raccoon or a bear, Matt was shocked when he found trash spread throughout the garden.

He persuades his judgmental former-cop sister Lee Harris to move in to keep Shelby company. He also sets up surveillance cameras around the property.

Disturbing incidents continue and eventually, Matt receives an automated alert from the security system. He sees the perimeter has been breached by torch-bearing, knife-wielding intruders. He futilely tries to reach his wife and sister by phone but is unheard as the women engage in a shouting match. Eventually, Matt returns and they show the police the video, which thinks is a fake to intimidate the couple and scare them away. Shelby wants to leave, Lee suggests they stand their ground, but Matt pleads that they have nowhere to go, as they've invested everything.[2]

Matt and Shelby awaken to hear a pig squealing outside, and they travel into the woods. They get separated, and both get lost. Shelby happens upon the sacrificial fire, and the couple finally united to find roasting meat and a wooden effigy, which Matt destroys. Matt directs the police to the site, and they post a bulletin for the Polks and set up a protective detail for the Millers.

A late night phone call awakens Matt and leads him downstairs. The voice on the other end says "Please, they're hurting me." Matt immediately experiences a vision of two nurses executing an old woman for refusing to take the offered poisoned medicine. The nurses laugh and decorate the already blood-spattered walls with a spray-painted "M". Matt is terrified by his vision. He screams at the officer posted outside about an intruder, but all evidence of Matt's kitchen vision is gone. Matt questions whether he had neurological damage from his previous attack.

Matt and Shelby investigate the cellar and find a VHS camera with an intact tape. The man on the tape, Elias Cunningham, describes the same malevolent forces pursuing him that the couple has been experiencing.[3]

Lee, Matt, and Shelby search with the police and volunteers to find Lee's missing daughter Flora.

Matt receives a late night call from the police, who have found a charred corpse strapped to a raised wooden hoop. Forensics removed a piece of jewelry, which leads to Lee identifying the corpse as her ex-husband Mason. Matt's security camera recorded the exterior footage to his computer, and they speculate as to whether Lee was responsible for Mason's death. When Lee is understandably upset, a man named Cricket Marlowe enters the house claiming to have been called by a spirit from New Orleans to help them find Flora. Cricket says that Flora was abducted by the dead. The family is skeptical, but allow Cricket to perform a seance to find her. However, Cricket says that he can find Flora, but that he will require a $25 000 fee from the family. Matt immediately calls it an extortion and a fraud, and a desperate Lee counters by holding Cricket at gunpoint. Matt defuses her, and Matt tells Cricket to leave.

Later on, the Millers agree to go with Cricket into the woods at night, to search for Priscilla. Cricket attempts to negotiate with The Butcher for Flora's life in exchange for leaving the land and burning the house. During this time, Matt disappears further into the woods for confirmation and is discovered by Shelby having sex with the horned woman. Thereafter, Matt has no memory of the incident when he returns to the house to a furious Shelby. When Lee later finds her way back to the house, she is arrested by the police, turned in by a steamed Shelby.[4]

Matt and Shelby argue about his encounter with the horned woman, and his secret deal to leave and destroy the house. They are then attacked by the Piggy Man, who materializes in different places around the house and chases Matt and Shelby, slashing at them, until struck from behind by Elias Cunningham. Matt wants Elias to leave, but Elias says that the Piggy Man will return soon. He shows the Millers his records of the historic owners of the house. The history goes on, showing a pattern of the same lunar cycle in October: the dying grass moon. Hauntings can occur at any time, but the deaths and disappearances are in the same 6 day period.

Elias insists that they leave, but the Millers must find Flora first. Elias takes them on the periphery of the land to find her, but instead encounter the horned woman, and Shelby chases her. Elias tries to plead with Priscilla to release Flora, but he is shot by arrows from the Butcher's party. The Millers flee back to the house, where Cricket says he detects that Flora is still alive, but does not appreciate that they reneged on the deal with The Butcher. Cricket leaves and is shaken after a further parlay, this time with the horned woman, whose name is Scáthach. He recognizes her growing power, but he also offers Matt's sexual favors to her as a negotiating tactic. Cricket also relays the history to the Millers, and takes an Uber back to his hotel room to prepare, but is taken by the Butcher.

Hours later, the Millers await Cricket's return. Matt leaves behind a sleeping Shelby to follow a siren's song of whispers to the cellar. Scáthach awaits him there, and he is unable to resist her charms.

The Butcher has Flora and is to sacrifice her in front of the Millers, but with Priscilla's help is able to escape to Matt and Shelby. The Butcher guts Cricket while the Millers watch in horror. Ambrose assists his mother in disemboweling the medium.[5]

Matt calls for the police to address the mob outside, but Ambrose White calls one last time for the family to surrender. Shelby plans a hasty escape with Flora, but a skittering creature steals the child first. They are able to recover her, but the past victims corral them. However, Edward Philippe Mott materializes and leads them to safety through the tunnels. They emerge outside, and are captured and blindfolded by the Polk family. The Polks, still upset about the police taking custody of the feral boys, plan to hand the Millers back to The Butcher. Matt takes an opportunity for them to escape from the Polk's truck, killing one of the brothers in the process. Mama Polk wounds Shelby in retaliation by severing her foot, in retaliation. The surviving Polks deliver the Millers to the mob at the house where the colonists are to kill Flora just when Ambrose attacks his mother, pulling them both into a pyre. Lee's timely arrival and Edward's hasty intervention allow the family to escape in a car. Later on, they clean up and rest in a cheap motel after Shelby gets medical attention.[6]

Matt, Shelby, and Lee decide to give testimonials about their paranormal experiences for a television program created by Sidney Aaron James called "My Roanoke Nightmare". Actor Dominic Banks reenacts Matt on the show.[2] After My Roanoke Nightmare aires on television, it becomes a colossal success and Matt and Shelby become household names, however, they later separate.

The next year, Matt returns to the reality show Return to Roanoke. After tension rise between Shelby and Audrey Tindall, Matt and Lee arrive at the house. They are all distributed camera-only phones, which promptly capture a blow-up between the Millers and Lee. Later, Audrey, along with Monet Tumusiime and Rory Monahan question the Miller's story, as during the 8 weeks of filming in the summer they saw nothing suspicious. Matt tells them that things will be different, as the blood moon is now apparent. The participants then part ways as the night winds on and Shelby tries to reconcile with a wary Matt after her fling with Dominic. However, the very same Dominic arrives and Matt immediately attacks him until the others break it up.[7]

Tensions in the house continue to rise as Matt, Shelby and Dominic argue about Shelby's infidelity, but the fighting is interrupted when Agnes Mary Winstead appears and attacks Shelby, forcing Lee, Audrey, and Monet to go into the woods to find help. Later that night, inside the house, Dominic and Shelby come across Matt having sex with Scáthach. Matt admits he came back to the house to be with Scáthach, who he claims to be in love with and that she was the sole reason for him returning. In a fit of rage, Shelby later bludgeons him to death with a crowbar. [8]

Notes[]

  • Matt Miller is the first character in American Horror Story portrayed by André Holland.
  • The reenacted Matt is the first character portrayed by Cuba Gooding, Jr. For a complete list of his characters, see Cast.
  • In the fictional documentary "My Roanoke Nightmare" (i.e. most of Roanoke), Matt is dramatically re-enacted in-universe by actor Dominic Banks, who is in turn played by real-life Cuba Gooding, Jr.. During scenes where he is describing his experiences, the "true" victim is portrayed by André Holland.
  • Matt, Shelby, Mason, Sidney and Audrey are the only characters involved in the Roanoke incident that weren't killed by the paranormal entities of Roanoke.
  • Matt shares his name with Saints Row character Matt Miller.
  • Possibly due to the history of Roanoke, Matt along with Shelby and the others who died, are now trapped forever on the land as a ghost.

Quotes[]

  • Matt: "We should not have come back. You know what this place is, you know what happens here."
  • About Scáthach: "I'm in love with her, Shelby. She's the reason I came back."
  • Matt: "It will happen again. I don't know if we'll survive this time."
  • Matt: "The blood moon is coming."

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. In Chapter 8, he appears as a corpse
  2. 2.0 2.1 Episode: Chapter 1
  3. Episode: Chapter 2
  4. Episode: Chapter 3
  5. Episode: Chapter 4
  6. Episode: Chapter 5
  7. Episode: Chapter 6
  8. Episode: Chapter 7
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