Since 2011, the anthology series American Horror Story has thrilled audiences with each season telling a relatively self-contained scary story. However, while each season of American Horror Story is unique in its own way, not all seasons are created equal. Here are all the American Horror Story seasons ranked.
All American Horror Story Seasons, Ranked Worst to Best
12. Delicate
Rather than involving a largely original scary story, American Horror Story: Delicate adapted Danielle Vega’s 2023 novel Delicate Condition, albeit with some significant changes. Similarly, while series creator Ryan Murphy remained involved, it is the first season in the main series not to have him as the showrunner, with Halley Feiffer taking on the creative role. The season has an aspiring Hollywood actor determined to make it big in the movie business while also becoming a mother.
Originally released in two parts due to the writers and actors’ strikes in 2023, Delicate had an uneven rollout and a weak premise that never quite connected with the audience. The first half of the season is a bit of a mess, only sticking the landing somewhat in its set of final four episodes to close out the story. Though more subdued than most seasons of American Horror Story, Delicate just doesn’t quite have the same magic that made its preceding seasons so effective.
11. Hotel
After spending two seasons in different locations, the fifth season of American Horror Story brought the scares back to Los Angeles. True to its title, Hotel is inspired by the hotels in the City of Angels with their own dark backstories, telling the tale of the fictional Hotel Cortez in Downtown Los Angeles. More than just featuring ghosts, Hotel throws in vampires, serial killers, and other horrific elements in its sprawling story.
The problem with Hotel is that it tries too much at once, including bringing in elements of Murder House and Coven, throwing off the pacing of the season completely. Beyond this, Hotel feels like the most contrived story in the series to date, even by American Horror Story standards. Where Hotel makes up for this is its production design, with the Hotel Cortez set among the series’ most grandiose and atmospheric.
10. NYC
For its eleventh season, American Horror Story focused on a different kind of scary story with NYC, a period piece tale set in 1980s New York. As a leather-masked killer stalks gay men in the city, a strange virus surfaces and begins to spread in the queer community with devastating impact. With the police unable or unwilling to help, several members of the community take matters into their own hands to protect their own from further killings.
NYC feels like a salute to a bygone era, examining the horrors facing the queer community in the big city during the Reagan Administration through the terrifying lens that only American Horror Story can offer. From indifferent and incompetent law enforcement unable to stop a masked killer to its analogy to the AIDS virus, NYC has a lot going on. However, for as erotically charged and pointed a commentary as the season provides, it just doesn’t quite feel as vital as most seasons.
9. Cult
In the wake of the 2016 presidential election, which saw Donald Trump elected as President of the United States, American Horror Story examined the thematic fallout of this recent historical event with its seventh season, Cult. Rather than centering on an explicitly supernatural type of horror, the season features a murderous cult forming in the aftermath of the election. Though incorporating societal anxieties and prejudices, much of the scares perpetuated early in the season involve a gang of killer clowns.
Despite its inciting premise and broader themes, Cult struggles to craft a timely or effective social commentary, with its political parallels feeling more opportunistic than insightful. Where it succeeds is its underlying theme of its characters confronted directly by their fears made lethally real in the wake of the election, operating better when the story works more abstractly than pointedly. American Horror Story at its most political, Cult is a mixed bag and fascinating look at a specific moment in American history.
8. Roanoke
The sixth season of American Horror Story takes a found footage approach, at least initially, for its story, subtitled Roanoke. The story begins as a true crime documentary, following a young couple relocating to rural North Carolina only to find their new community haunted by 16th-century ghosts from a tragedy involving English colonists. This is followed by a group of people inspired by the popularity of the documentary to visit the haunted site for themselves, learning firsthand just how real the horror behind it truly is.
Roanoke is a sly commentary on the growing interest in true crime documentaries and the enthusiasts that devour them, which is especially rich knowing American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy’s recent work. With it, the season also takes its own spin on found footage movies like The Blair Witch Project to create its own twisted tale of folklore-based murder and mayhem. Beginning intriguing enough, Roanoke flounders as it explores its own central mystery but still delivers plenty of chills to keep audiences engaged.
7. Freak Show
For its fourth season, Freak Show, American Horror Story went entirely period piece in the 1950s and the waning days of the carnival freak show exhibitions in North America. Picking up plot threads and characters from Asylum, Freak Show features grisly murders around a carnival exhibition in Florida linked to the terrifying Twisty the Clown. As an investigation is launched into the carnival, its twisted history comes to light.
By its very premise, Freak Show is one of the most bizarre seasons of American Horror Story to date, but beyond this, the show’s common themes of exploitation and violently changing eras remain evident. In Twisty the Clown, played memorably by John Carroll Lynch, the show gets one of its scariest villains ever and the callbacks to Asylum lay the groundwork for future crossovers. An odd, uneven season, Freak Show embraces the weirdness inherent to the series to solid effect.
6. Murder House
The inaugural season of American Horror Story, retroactively titled Murder House as the anthology series continued with its subsequent line of subtitles, follows the Harmon family after they relocate to an old home in Los Angeles. Audiences learn that the house has an extensive dark history, with numerous murders occurring on the grounds over the years and the spirits of the deceased continuing to haunt the premises. The Harmons find themselves drawn into a bloody web of deadly personalities that conspire to add to the ghosts trapped in the murder house.
What Murder House does well is just deliver on its premise as over-the-top as possible, with virtually every episode in the season having at least one grisly kill. American Horror Story, for better or worse, has always embraced the excesses of the horror genre, and this is clear right from its first season. While still finding its voice amid the wider television landscape, American Horror Story launched with a solid and entertaining first season that continues to hold up.
Related: 10 Most Frightening Jump Scares in Horror Movie History
5. Apocalypse
While each season of American Horror Story tells a relatively standalone story, with a fresh cast of characters and premise, the show’s eighth season, Apocalypse, featured its biggest crossover story yet. Kicking off with nuclear armageddon, the witches from Coven resurface before the tale rewinds back before the fiery fallout. In order to prevent the end of the world, the witches must venture to the infamous Murder House and learn its ghostly secrets.
Eight seasons deep, it’s great to see American Horror Story acknowledge and revisit its own history, not only incorporating narrative elements from Murder House but also Hotel. After its fiery setup, Apocalypse takes a hard tonal pivot to begin the crossover in earnest, but given how wacky American Horror Story has been in the past, this doesn’t come as a huge misdirect. A celebration of the show’s ongoing legacy, hopefully, the show will take pointers from Apocalypse for subsequent crossovers.
4. Double Feature
For its tenth season, aptly titled Double Feature, American Horror Story went in a different direction by dividing its season into two separate and distinct stories exploring different possibilities within the horror genre. The first half, titled Red Tide, is more within the typical American Horror Story wheelhouse, following a family relocating to a coastal New England town where they discover its horrifying true nature. The second half, titled Death Valley, is a period piece story involving the federal government trying to cover up the existence of extraterrestrials.
There is a confidence in Red Tide as the season delves into classic horror tropes with its own signature twist. However, the really fun part is Death Valley. Not only mixing up the usual creative formula, Death Valley embraces the alternative history and campiness possible with its premise. Building from the second wind provided by its preceding season, Double Feature is a great reimagining of what American Horror Story can be.
3. Asylum
The second season of American Horror Story is where the series really found its creative voice and ensemble cast that would define it for years to follow. Alternating between periods in present-day and 1964, Asylum is set around a disused New England Sanitarium with a killer, known as Bloody Face, terrorizing both timelines. As this murder mystery unfolds, other bitter rivalries at the asylum and dark secrets come to light as the incident escalates far beyond a simple serial killer at work.
While Murder House set the foundation, Asylum is really where the true narrative template and tone for American Horror Story visibly began to gel together. This is elevated by the show’s cast, with Sarah Paulson and Jessica Lange especially standing out for their magnetic work throughout the season. A rollercoaster ride of a story, filled with all the sex and violence that fans have come to love, Asylum set a standard for the series.
2. Coven
The third season of American Horror Story was one of the most ambitious, with Coven telling a story that spanned three centuries starting with the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. The coven of witches that survives this incident travels throughout the United States, facing persecution and nefarious serial killers in the intervening generations. This culminates in a showdown with the famous LaLaurie family and the process of selecting a new Supreme to lead the coven forward.
Coven strikes a perfect balance between the over-the-top morays, ridiculous scares, and deliciously wicked characters that the show has always been known for. As always, the story always feels like it’s about to completely careen off the rails, but somehow manages to stay the course. Plus, any season that features Stevie Nicks playing a fictionalized version of herself certainly warrants a high place on this ranking.
1. 1984
Throughout its many seasons, American Horror Story has worn its pop culture influences on its sleeve but never more so than in its ninth season, titled 1984. Serving as an obvious homage to ‘80s slasher movies like Friday the 13th, Sleepaway Camp, and The Burning, 1984 revolves around the reopening of a rural summer camp with a dark history. However, as the camp reopens, its counselors are hunted by an escaped serial killer as other paranormal activity surfaces.
1984 really is the quintessential season of American Horror Story, from its visible influences, over-the-top storytelling style, and a fair bit of controversy, this time with its portrayal of the real-life serial killer, the Night Stalker. A rollicking romp with some genuine plot twists to keep audiences on their toes just when they think they have the story figured out, 1984 is a wild, entertaining ride. Of all the stories and premises in the series, 1984 and its love letter to the slasher genre is something that fits the American Horror Story ethos like a glove.
And that’s all the American Horror Story seasons, ranked from worst to best.
American Horror Story is streaming now on Hulu.
Published: Oct 15, 2024 01:07 pm