American Horror Story (2011)
American Horror Story is a 2011 drama series created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. It stars Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson and Denis O'Hare.
Each season is its own nightmare. Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk reset the cast and setting every year, moving from a haunted Los Angeles house to an asylum, a witch coven, a traveling freak show, a cursed hotel, and beyond, all loosely stitched into one shared universe. A repertory company returns in new skins, with Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates, Evan Peters, and Jessica Lange anchoring the early runs. The horror plays lurid and operatic, chasing taboo and camp as hard as dread, its plots half-borrowed from real crimes and American myth. Lush, excessive, and unafraid to go too far.
Quick answers
What is American Horror Story about?
Each season is its own nightmare. Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk reset the cast and setting every year, moving from a haunted Los Angeles house to an asylum, a witch coven, a traveling freak show, a cursed hotel, and beyond, all loosely stitched into one shared universe. A repertory company returns in new skins, with Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates, Evan Peters, and Jessica Lange anchoring the early runs. The horror plays lurid and operatic, chasing taboo and camp as hard as dread, its plots half-borrowed from real crimes and American myth. Lush, excessive, and unafraid to go too far.
When was American Horror Story released?
American Horror Story was released on 5 October 2011.
How many episodes does American Horror Story have?
American Horror Story has 132 episodes across 12 seasons.
Who made American Horror Story?
American Horror Story was created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk.
Where can I watch American Horror Story?
American Horror Story is available on Hulu, Prime Video, Amazon, AppleTV and Fandango at Home.
Where to watch American Horror Story
Stream: Hulu, Prime Video
Buy: Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango at Home
Official site
Cast
- Evan Peters as Jimmy Darling
- Sarah Paulson as Cordelia Goode / Wilhemina Venable / Billie Dean Howard
- Denis O'Hare as Stanley
- Lily Rabe as Misty Day
- Kathy Bates as Delphine LaLaurie
- Frances Conroy as Myrtle Snow
- Emma Roberts as Madison Montgomery
- Jessica Lange as Constance Langdon
- Leslie Grossman as Ursrula Kahn / Calico
- Angela Bassett as Desiree Dupree
- Billie Lourd as Winter Anderson / Linda Kasabian
- Cheyenne Jackson as Will Drake
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A few thoughts on American Horror Story
Tomie delivers the same beautiful-and-grotesque excess Junji Ito built his name on, horror that revels in going too far. On screen, Rosemary's Baby set the template for the coven seasons, while the Silent Hill games turn the show's dread of haunted places into somewhere you walk through yourself.
Anthology horror where every episode resets the nightmare
American Horror Story resets its cast and setting each season, one long anthology instead of a single continuous story. Tales from the Darkside, Creepshow, Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities, The Twilight Zone, and Masters of Horror all work the same way, a new nightmare every installment, while American Horror Stories takes the format down to a single episode per tale.
Gothic dramas where a doomed household slowly turns supernatural
American Horror Story swaps whole worlds every season, a haunted house, an asylum, a coven, but always circles back to a household coming apart. The Haunting of Bly Manor gives an English estate the same slow reveal, Castle Rock threads Stephen King's Maine into one creeping mythology, Carnivàle follows a Depression-era traveling show sliding into the uncanny, and Sanctuary: A Witch's Tale centers a coven finding its footing.
Horror that borrows its plots from real crimes and American myth
American Horror Story mines its plots half from real crimes and half from American folklore. American Psycho does the same with Wall Street excess turned murderous, Flowers in the Attic builds its horror out of a family secret kept too long, The Crucible dramatizes the actual Salem witch trials, and Mr. Mercedes grew out of real mass-casualty attacks King had read about.