This article contains spoilers.
American Horror Story returns this September for its seventh season. Creator Ryan Murphy (Glee, Scream Queens) revealed that American Horror Story: Cult will tackle the 2016 presidential election that saw billionaire businessman Donald Trump win the race to the White House. The new season takes place in Michigan and sees the return of series regulars such as Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters and Frances Conroy as well as newbies to the anthology series, Billie Lourd and Alison Phil.
To celebrate, we here at Set the Tape take a look at the previous six seasons of the show, based on Emma Platt’s personal opinion, to see how they rank.
6. Freak Show (Season 4)
Oh, ‘Freak Show’. It tried so hard. It tried too much. The theme seemed perfect fodder, the horror already built in. Set in 1952, it focused on Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange in her last appearance on the show), her freaks and their fight for survival in a rapidly changing world. But it suffered from a lack of a serious threat from an antagonist, even though there were three of them. Twisty the Clown, who featured heavily in the season’s promotion, was killed early on. Alongside Lange, Dennis O’Hara starred as Stanley who uses Michael Chiklis’s character to murder freaks and sell their bodies to an oddity museum. Finally, there was Finn Wittlock as Dandy Mott, who is creepy but ultimately underwhelming in his menace. The only interesting note of this season is that it shares links with ‘Asylum’ with its inclusion of Sister Mary Eunice and Pepper.
5. Hotel (Season 5)
Aka, the one with Lady Gaga. Loosely based on an actual hotel built by complete psycho nut job H.H. Holmes, this season saw Wes Bentley take the lead role, and while capable enough, Jessica Lange’s departure feels like a gaping wound in the show. Gaga is stunning, nonetheless, as The Countess, a role which saw her win a Golden Globe. There’s a definite ‘Asylum’ feel about the fifth season, but for some reason the stories never seem to weave and gel together in the way the second season manages. ‘Hotel’s best scenes include Gaga, the complicated, glamorous and vampiric Countess who owns the hotel. This is the type of the role perfect for this generations Madonna, allowing Gaga to stretch her acting wings while keeping hold of the eccentric weirdness that has been her trademark.
4. Roanoke (Season 6)
Murphy tried something new with ‘Roanoke’ to breathe new life into the show. Twenty-seven teaser trailers were released, all with potential different themes for the sixth season such as alien abduction, the Antichrist and an orphanage. The entire plot was kept under wraps until the first episode premiered. In a change, there was no opening credits as the first half of the series was a reenactment show called ‘My Roanoke Nightmare’, which told the story of a married couple’s paranormal experiences in their isolated home. The season shifted after six episodes, bringing the cast of the show and their real life counterparts together to return to the house. Murphy made a smart choice by not overloading the stories when he was already trying so much.
3. Murder House (Season 1)
When ‘Murder House’ aired, many did not know what to think of the mental show that involved a man in a rubber suit, a disfigured basement baby and Jessica Lange as the twisted next door neighbour. One of ‘Murder House”s strengths was tying all the strands together at the end of the season while giving the backstory of the infamous house and its plethora of tragic inhabitants. ‘Murder House’ is the black beating heart of the anthology and AHS runs into trouble when it strays too far from its dark spiritual home, when it casts its net too far.
2. Coven (Season 3)
A lot of people don’t seem to focus on the third season that focuses on a group of witches in New Orleans, their rivalry with Voodoo Priestess Marie Laveau (Angela Bassett), and the relationship between school headmistress Cordelia Foxx (Sarah Paulson) and her mother, reigning Supreme Fiona Goode (Jessica Lange). Fiona battles to regain her youth and vitality as a cancer destroys her from the inside and a new Supreme threatens to rise. The cast feels smaller than in previous seasons and the story more self contained. This is helped by the final few episodes focusing on ‘The Seven Wonders’, the trials that will reveal the new Supreme. As always, Lange and Paulson shine in their roles, but special mention should be given to Frances Conroy as head of the council of Witchcraft.
1. Asylum (Season 2)
‘Asylum’ should not work. It just shouldn’t. You think it would get weighed down by its own absolute batshit mentalness. The season includes Nazis, Aliens, Mutants, a serial killer, demonic possession, Anne Frank and sadistic doctors. ‘Asylum’ sees Paulson at her series best as reporter Lana Winters, committed to the Asylum for being gay in a time and a place when homosexuality was considered a mental illness. There are twists, turns and shocks. In the midst of all the madness, Lana has her own personal battle with creepy as hell Zachary Quinto and her urge to escape. If the creation of mutants in the basement, miraculous pregnancies and “Bloody Face” wasn’t enough, just watch episode 10, ‘The Name Game’, in which Lange and the other inmates burst into song, and as crazy as that sounds, it doesn’t feel out of place. ‘Asylum’ is AHS at its most mental, twisted, dark best.
What is your favourite season of American Horror Story? What do you think of the new season? Let us know in comments or via social media.