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American Horror Story is a horror-drama television show created and produced by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. It is an anthology, with each season taking place in a new setting for a self-contained story. However, there are several crossovers establishing connections. The series premiered on October 5, 2011. Originally broadcast on FX Networks, it is now available for streaming on FX on Hulu as well.

Production


The production of American Horror Story is the result of the collaboration between Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck and the desire to create something different from their previous TV shows such as Nip/Tuck and Glee.[1]

American Horror Story has received very varied responses, verging from the enthusiastic to complete rejection from critics. Chuck Barney of the San Jose Mercury News said "Most TV shows, after all, quickly fade from memory. This one will haunt your dreams." [2] Some critics, however, gave mixed reviews, such as Mary McNamara of The Los Angeles Times who criticised the heavy handed metaphors and gratuitous violence. [3]

Nevertheless, American Horror Story has achieved a cult following to such an extent that some fan artworks have been included in the promotion of later seasons. [4] [5] The success is such that American Horror Story spun an American Story franchise that has received widespread critical acclaim, winning several Emmy Awards. On October 7, 2014, it was announced that FX had ordered a 10-episode companion series titled American Crime Story, developed by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski.[6]

While Crime Story is considered an unrelated companion series, on May 11, 2020, Murphy revealed that a spin-off series named American Horror Stories was being developed; unlike American Crime Story, this will take place in the same universe and even share certain settings and characters.[7]

The first season scored a 62 out of 100 from the review site Metacritic from 30 reviews by critics. The pilot episode of its fourth installment, Freak Show, broke FX ratings records when it drew in roughly 12.64 million views.[8]

Casting


One of the highlights of American Horror Story is the presence of a repertory cast who, from season to season, mainly cover new roles although actors such as Sarah Paulson in particular play the same character in crossover story arcs. The cast of AHS is a mix of renowned showbiz names such as Jessica Lange, Angela Bassett, Zachary Quinto, and Frances Conroy and new faces who have achieved fame thanks to the franchise such as Evan Peters or Taissa Farmiga.

Big names such as Joseph Fiennes, James Cromwell, Kathy Bates, Joan Collins and Lady Gaga also joined the cast with Bates thanking Murphy for her career comeback. [9] Many actors are faces already seen in other Murphy and Falchuk productions such as Leslie Grossman, Dylan McDermott, Cheyenne Jackson, Connie Britton, and Angelica Ross and they continue to do so in other series produced and created by Ryan Murphy.

Seasons

American Horror Story presents an anthology of stories for each new season, or installment.

Title Description Year
American.horror.story
American Horror Story: Murder House revolves around the Harmons, a family of three – Ben, Vivien, and Violet – who moved from Boston to Los Angeles as a means to reconcile past anguish.

Starring Connie Britton · Dylan McDermott · Evan Peters · Taissa Farmiga. With Denis O'Hare and Jessica Lange.

2011
Ahs-s2-art-2
Step inside a madhouse of horror and experience the chilling new incarnation of TV's most daringly provocative series. In American Horror Story: Asylum, the sins of the past haunt the present at the notorious Briarcliff Manor, a Church-run haven for the criminally insane, ruled with an iron fist by Sister Jude in 1964. Forbidden desire and terrifying evil lurk around every corner... from alien abduction to demonic possession to a skin-wearing psychopath known as "Bloody Face".

Starring Zachary Quinto · Joseph Fiennes · Sarah Paulson · Evan Peters · Lily Rabe · Lizzie Brocheré. With James Cromwell and Jessica Lange.

2012-13
AHS Coven poster
After 300 years of witches living in secrecy, new attacks have both threatened their survival and forced "gifted" girls to attend a special school for safety in American Horror Story: Coven.

Starring Sarah Paulson · Taissa Farmiga · Frances Conroy · Evan Peters · Lily Rabe · Emma Roberts. With Denis O'Hare and Jessica Lange.

2013-14
Mouth
Step inside American Horror Story: Freak Show, the terrifyingly twisted reincarnation of TV’s most shockingly original series. Jessica Lange leads an extraordinary, award-winning cast. Lange plays Elsa Mars, the proprietor of a troupe of human “curiosities” on a desperate journey of survival in the sleepy hamlet of Jupiter, Florida, in 1952. Her menagerie of performers includes a two-headed, telepathic twins (Paulson), a take-charge bearded lady (Bates), a vulnerable strongman (Chiklis) and his sultry, three-breasted wife (Bassett). But the strange emergence of a dark entity will savagely threaten the lives of townsfolk and freaks alike.

Starring Sarah Paulson · Evan Peters · Michael Chiklis · Frances Conroy · Denis O'Hare · Emma Roberts · Finn Wittrock · Angela Bassett. With Kathy Bates and Jessica Lange.

2014-15
American-Horror-Story-Hotel-Poster-5
Check in to the fifth season of the deliciously diabolical series from creators Ryan Murphy & Brad Falchuk, starring a killer cast. A string of grisly murders is traced back to the sinister, sensuous Countess, an infamous resident of the stylish Hotel Cortez in Downtown Los Angeles. American Horror Story: Hotel is a visually stunning, visceral feast. Explore the hidden corridors of this fiendishly entertaining show, and go gaga over Lady Gaga.

Starring Kathy Bates · Sarah Paulson · Evan Peters · Wes Bentley · Matt Bomer · Chloë Sevigny · Denis O'Hare · Cheyenne Jackson. With Angela Bassett and Lady Gaga.

2015-16
AHS SixFingers 1080x1350
Life imitates grisly reality TV in one of television's edgiest and most acclaimed shows ever! Told in gripping true crime documentary style, 'My Roanoke Nightmare'―this season's show within a show―chronicles showing paranormal events. Hoping to begin a peaceful new life in a rustic North Carolina farmhouse, Shelby and Matt Miller (Emmy winner Sarah Paulson and Oscar winner Cuba Gooding, Jr.) flee Los Angeles, only to find murder, mayhem and madness! From a girl ghost to a swine monster to murderous nurse sisters to a sadistic cult leader known as The Butcher (Oscar winner Kathy Bates), the couple's home is filled with nonstop terrors.

Starring Kathy Bates · Sarah Paulson · Cuba Gooding, Jr. · Lily Rabe · André Holland · Denis O'Hare · Wes Bentley · Evan Peters. With Cheyenne Jackson and Angela Bassett.

2016
Cult-poster2
Set just after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, American Horror Story: Cult follows a community torn apart by a dangerous cult leader who uses fear as a weapon.

Starring Sarah Paulson · Evan Peters · Cheyenne Jackson · Billie Lourd · Alison Pill.

2017
AHS S8 Apocalypse Poster 01
American Horror Story: Apocalypse takes place in the near future where survivors of a nuclear blast are in a bunker called Outpost 3. After a nuclear attack, a select few must survive in a bunker dubbed Outpost Three ruled by a tyrannical matriarch.

Starring Sarah Paulson · Evan Peters · Adina Porter · Billie Lourd · Leslie Grossman · Cody Fern · Emma Roberts. With Cheyenne Jackson and Kathy Bates.

2018
AHS S9 1984 Poster 01
In American Horror Story: 1984, five friends escape Los Angeles to work as camp counselors, but the past comes to haunt them.

Starring Emma Roberts · Billie Lourd · Leslie Grossman · Cody Fern · Matthew Morrison · Gus Kenworthy · John Carroll Lynch. With Angelica Ross and Zach Villa.

2019
Double Feature Poster Teeth
American Horror Story: Double Feature is divided into two halves. Double the feature, double the horror. In Red Tide, a struggling writer, his pregnant wife, and their daughter move to an isolated beach town for the winter. Once they're settled in, the town's true residents begin to make themselves known. In Death Valley, a group of college students on a camping trip are swept up in a horrifying and deadly conspiracy decades in the making.

Starring Sarah Paulson · Evan Peters · Lily Rabe · Leslie Grossman · Finn Wittrock · Angelica Ross · Frances Conroy · Neal McDonough · Billie Lourd · Kaia Gerber · Nico Greetham · Adina Porter · Isaac Powell · Rachel Hilson · Macaulay Culkin · Rebecca Dayan · Ryan Kiera Armstrong.

2021
AHS NYC Poster Succumb
In American Horror Story: NYC, mysterious deaths and disappearances ramp up in the city. Meanwhile, a doctor makes a frightening discovery, and a local reporter becomes tomorrow’s headline. AHS:NYC is the 11th installment of the award-winning anthology series created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk.

Starring Russell Tovey · Joe Mantello · Billie Lourd · Denis O'Hare · Charlie Carver · Leslie Grossman · Sandra Bernhard · Isaac Powell. With Zachary Quinto and Patti LuPone.

2022
AHS Delicate Poster Sweet Dreams
In American Horror Story: Delicate, after multiple failed attempts of IVF, actress Anna Victoria Alcott wants nothing more than to start a family. As the buzz around her recent film grows, she fears that something may be targeting her - and her pursuit of motherhood.

Starring Emma Roberts, Matt Czuchry, Kim Kardashian, Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Denis O'Hare, Cara Delevingne, Julie White, Maaz Ali.

2023

Gallery

References

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