American Horror Story



American Horror Story is a 2011 Horror series created by Ryan Murphy (creator of Nip Tuck, another FX series) and Brad Falchuk (Two of the Glee co-creators). It follows the story of a couple from Boston, Ben and Vivien, and their daughter, Violet, who decide a change in location to sunny Los Angeles will help heal the wounds left by Vivien’s miscarriage and by Ben’s affair with a former student. Their nightmares are far from over, however, as their new dream house turns out to be full of dark secrets.

The series is known as a "movie buff's delight", as its plot, soundtrack and visual style thrive on numerous classic movies and horror stories (including, but not limited to, The Shining, Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Sixth Sense, Twisted Nerve, Taxi Driver) as well as pay homage to American urban legends and folklore.

Four more seasons were made, focusing of different setting and circumstances:
 * Asylum, set in 1960s Massachusetts.
 * Coven, set in contemporary New Orleans.
 * Freak Show, set in 1950s Florida.
 * Hotel, set in contemporary Los Angeles.


 * Abusive Parents:
 * A Date with Rosie Palms: Ben walks in on a young!Moira doing this and quickly exits to his bedroom to do a little of his own...
 * Vivien enjoys herself while she has a Dream Sequence about Luke, Ben and the Rubber Man.
 * A Day in the Limelight: "Rubber Man". Explains the origins of the rubber suit
 * Adults Are Useless: Violet walks around public areas of the school smoking and is never confronted by any authority figures about it, she is also repeatedly attacked in those same public places and no authority figure ever steps in. Given one of the writer's other show, the high school's Darwinian approach to discipline isn't too surprising.
 * Affably Evil: Larry Harvey plays this to disturbing effect. Every once in a while during his friendly chats with Ben, he says something to remind us how insane he is.
 * And then he goes completely off the deep end.
 * Alpha Bitch: Leah, a girl at Violet's school who tries to make her eat a cigarette for smoking on campus.
 * American Title
 * And I Must Scream: Unlike most examples,  has the opportunity to actually scream.
 * Anti Christ: According to Billie, this is the result of a spirit, conceiving a child with a living person.
 * Anyone Can Die
 * Artistic Title: The opening credits manage to be both creepy and fascinating.
 * Ass Shove:
 * Ate His Gun: How  committed suicide
 * The Atoner:
 * Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Oh yes it is. From
 * The Bechdel Test: Pass.
 * Birds of a Feather: Tate and Violet, who bond over the cuts they've given themselves.
 * Bitch Victim: Hayden, Ben's former student/mistress and a budding Manipulative Bitch.
 * Bittersweet Ending:
 * Esoteric Happy Ending
 * Black and Gray Morality
 * Blatant Lies: Larry Harvey claims that the horrible burns he received when he  were from saving children from a burning school bus.
 * Larry's just full of these!
 * Tate pulls one of these in the pilot.
 * Blondes Are Evil: Constance and Nora, although both of them seem to be driven this way by sheer desperation.
 * Blonde Guys Are Evil: Tate
 * Breather Episode: It's an odd show where an episode featuring multiple characters being shot and another attempting suicide is the breather episode, but "Piggy Piggy" was much less chaotic and downplayed following the big grand Halloween episodes, and had more answers than questions.
 * Bury Your Gays: The last couple to die (that we know of) before the Harmons move in was a gay couple, in an apparent murder/suicide.
 * In the flashback in "Home Invasion," the nurse who is referred to as a "lezzie" is drowned in the bathtub later that same scene.
 * Bury Your Disabled:
 * Calling the Old Man Out: Violet does this to her parents, though it remains to be seen if they got the message. Tate also did this to his mom.
 * The Calls Are Coming From Inside the House: Well,
 * Came Back Wrong:
 * Camp Gay: Chad
 * Cassandra Truth: Adelaide directly told the twins that they would die in the house. They didn't listen.
 * Chekhov's Gun: The rubber suit Vivien discovers in the attic.
 * Chekhovs Cupcakes: the cupcakes Constance brought over for Violet.
 * Chekhovs Crime: A subtle one, but the cop at the end of the second episode said that  He said that it looked like her friends tried to do a Black Dahlia on her.
 * The realtor had an actual gun  In fact, quite a lot of the onscreen deaths are caused by guns.
 * Chekhov's Gunman: The young woman Ben is counseling in the second episode.
 * Chick Magnet: Ben, bordering on Even the Guys Want Him. Ghosts in particular seem turned on by him.
 * Christianity Is Catholic: The Anti Christ subplot is played out in definitely Catholic terms.
 * Creepy Child/Womanchild: Adelaide.
 * Creepy Twins: Creepy dead twins.
 * Creepy Basement: Where the twins meet their fate. Also where Violet and Tate teach Leah a lesson.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Pretty much everyone, but points go to the Harmon family, whose problems could count as Deus Angst Machina.
 * Dead All Along:
 * This trope could possibly apply to almost anyone in the cast, there's a lot of ambiguity about who's alive and who's dead.
 * Death by Sex:  hooks up with   twice.
 * Defeat Means Friendship: After her encounter in the Harmons' basement, this seems to have happened with Leah and Violet.
 * Demoted to Extra: After being a large part of Violet's subplot for the first episode, Leah only makes sporadic appearances for several episodes afterward..
 * Distracted by the Sexy: Seems to be a chronic problem for Ben.
 * Does Not Like Men: Older Moira is pretty convinced that all men are out to hurt women. She isn't ever impolite to men in general, but when alone with a sympathetic female, she tends to rant a bit.
 * Dreaming of Things to Come: The girl in the second episode who kept dreaming that she got cut in half?
 * Dream Sequence: Vivien's prone to these.
 * She wasn't asleep.
 * Dressed All in Rubber: The man in the rubber suit.
 * Driven to Madness: Violet shows signs of this . It's further compounded when
 * What is being done to
 * Constance is starting to show signs, especially after . It resurfaces in her monologue near the end of "Afterbirth".
 * Driven to Suicide:
 * On subsequent tours of the house, Marcy says this is what happened to.
 * Dysfunction Junction: Sweet Jesus, the Harmons.
 * Easy Amnesia: Ben, during the third episode. Coupled with spacing out.
 * The Eighties: The beginning of the third episode takes place during this time period.
 * Enfant Terrible:
 * Mr. Fanservice: All things considered, Tate has a rather large fanbase.
 * Evil-Detecting Dog: Hallie, Vivien's dog, which leads Violet to the basement the first time they visit the house and bites Adelaide.
 * Evil Redhead: The twins, though they were more Jerkass than outright evil.
 * Moira, who appears as a young woman to Ben and seems to be trying to seduce him. Somewhat subverted in that all she really wants
 * Hayden, a victim of Love Makes You Crazy and Love Makes You Evil.
 * Expy: Tate is a (literally) Axe Crazy, lying, young man who has obsession with a younger girl and a, and is first introduced with the Kill Bill whistle tune playing and who is clearly not the lead character in the 1969 movie Twisted Nerve.
 * Fan Disservice: Hey, remember that scene of young!Moira playing with herself? Hot, right? At least until you remember that she's actually an old lady who appears young to Ben.
 * Though considering she's a, it's ambiguous which appearance is real and which is false.
 * Consider what she says in the third episode; men see what they want, whereas women see into a person's soul. Thus why Ben sees her as a young woman and Vivien as a remarkably older one. Both are the real appearance; Ben sees her as she looked before she  whereas Vivien sees her as how she looks after the fact.
 * Fan Service: This seems to be young!Moira's main purpose in the show. We also get a few shots of Ben's naked ass.
 * Fetus Terrible: What is most likely the situation with.
 * The jars in the basement invoke this trope.
 * Foreshadowing: The basement incident gives subtle hints that.
 * French Maid Outfit: Moira wears a highly-eroticized version of this as her younger self, complete with garter belt.
 * Genre Savvy: Marcy invokes this when she pulls a gun on Larry during the open house. Too bad she's Wrong Genre Savvy.
 * Girl-On-Girl Is Hot: Elizabeth and young!Moira attempt to invoke this on Ben. It doesn't work.
 * Ghost Shipping:
 * Glasgow Smile: Given to both Elizabeth Short and  corpses by
 * Going in Circles: Violet flees the house but keeps ending back inside no matter how many times she tries.
 * Groin Attack:
 * Haunted House: According to the show's website, murders and suicides have been taking place in the house since at least the 1920's.
 * Has Two Daddies: In a way.
 * Haunted House Historian: Tate.
 * Here We Go Again:  another family buys the house.   As the show has been confirmed for a second season, this will possibly happen again.
 * Somewhat averted in that Murphy has stated that the next season will feature a different location and a different story, with some of the actors staying but even then only to play brand new characters.
 * Historical Domain Character: Elizabeth Short, aka The Black Dahlia, in "Spooky Little Girl".
 * Her appearance is also Foreshadowing, as.
 * Hope Spot: For Moira, after . Dashed when  !
 * Infant Immortality: Averted. Both the twins, who don't look older than twelve years old, are brutally murdered, and Vivien had a miscarried son. Killing children and infants in horrible ways is a common theme.
 * Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Averted hard with Adelaide. She is not nice or innocent; she is every bit as messed up and creepy as the other characters on the show.
 * In the Blood:
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Tate to Violet. However, he has several major misconceptions about how to go about it.
 * Just a Flesh Wound: When  didn't go to the hospital because it was just a through and through.
 * Justified, as being shot in the thigh is one of the places you can take a bullet, without sustaining a terrible injury.
 * Killed Off for Real:
 * Kiss Kiss Slap
 * Large Ham: Dylan McDermott, natch.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: The dozens of people who have died in the house are all still there.
 * Look Both Ways:
 * The brutal irony is that the accident was caused by
 * Locked Into Strangeness: The incident in the basement causes Leah's hair to start turning white.
 * Mad Doctor: Charles Montgomery,.
 * Malevolent Masked People: The home invaders in the second episode, who are intent on reenacting one of the murders that had occurred in the house.
 * Madwoman in the Attic: Or rather, "Mad Man"
 * Major Injury Underreaction: Travis handles  rather well, only being bummed that he won't be famous now.
 * He even asks if he was in the news, then requests newspaper clippings. He plans on starting a scrapbook.
 * Mama Bear: Despite her obvious contempt for her daughter, Constance threatens to break Vivien's arm if she touches her again.
 * Constance's reaction to  is heartbreaking.
 * She is this way with  and , as well.
 * Constance will kill to keep her family together.
 * Manly Gay: Patrick. If it wasn't for his massively promiscuous nature, you would never know.
 * Meaningful Echo: "You're gonna regret it", said by Adelaide to the twins, is heard again a few minutes later in the episode as Vivien confronts Ben. Considering this was the main catalyst that caused them to move to the house and everything that happened afterward, it's quite safe to say they're regretting it.
 * The music that played as the twins wrecked the place is heard again, midway through "Afterbirth".
 * Tate's whistled theme? Heard again as
 * Mercy Kill:
 * Moe Greene Special:
 * Ms. Fanservice: Young Moira
 * Murder-Suicide: According to the realtor, the gay couple who lived in the house before the series started died this way.
 * Revealed in the first part of the Halloween two-parter to have been at least partially caused by.
 * Never Trust a Trailer: That scene in the trailer for episode 6 where
 * The trailer for episode 10 implies that Tate is going to kill Violet.
 * Nice Guy: Travis.
 * Nightmare Fetishist:
 * Violet only wants to move in the house after the real estate ladies tells the family about the murders.
 * Tate, who has many macabre fantasies and interests.
 * The reenactment group in the second episode.
 * The Nineties: Episode 6 starts here in a very shocking way.
 * Nonhuman Lover Reveal: Revealed to  but not to.
 * Parental Abandonment: While her parents spend all their time and energy on their shattered relationship, Violet seems to be left to fend for herself.
 * Pet the Dog: Constance doesn't have many redeeming qualities, but you feel damn sorry for her when
 * Room Of Mirrors: The "Bad Girl Room".
 * Police Are Useless: The dozens of murders and disappearances over the years certainly don't seem to have inspired the police to do anything like thorough investigations.
 * The Rabbit Died: Invoked in the episode "The Coat Hanger" when Sister Mary Eunice says "The bad news is, the rabbit died" to Lana.
 * Racist Grandma: YMMV on whether or not the realtor is old enough to be considered a grandma, but she is apologetically racist and a bit homophobic. As of "Birth"  also counts.
 * Resigned to the Call: Billie Dean. She certainly didn't sound happy about having to accept it, from what she told Violet.
 * The Reveal: The opening for "Rubber Man".
 * Rich Bitch: Billie Dean, the medium who Constance contacts after.
 * Self-Inflicted Hell: Some of the ghosts complain about not being able to leave (due to their bones interred on the grounds) but they seem more interested in staying to torment each other (and the new living residents) for their perceived "crimes".
 * Why don't they make the effort to tell someone where the bodies are for proper burying so they could go to rest?
 * This seems to only be the case with Moira, we don't know why everyone else is stuck there and it's not possible that all of their bodies are buried on the grounds since there are records of their deaths, meaning that someone would have had to have found their bodies following said deaths (or else the records would have just said that they disappeared.) The only condition for someone becoming a ghost in the house is that they die on the grounds, not that their bodies remain there.
 * It's explained that the only reason Moira wants her body found is so that Constance will finally be caught and face retribution for what she did. It won't get her out of the house, but it would probably make it easier on her mind frame if she didn't have her murderer mocking her at every turn.
 * The Seventies: The beginning of the pilot takes place in this time period.
 * Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Ben's patient Derek from "Piggy Piggy" definitely falls under this.
 * Shout-Out: The man who has half of his face burnt has the surname of Harvey... as in Harvey Dent.
 * Larry Harvey says that when he murdered his family under the influence of voices, he felt like an obedient child. The character played by Laurence Harvey in |The Manchurian Candidate murdered people under the influence of
 * Larry Harvey is also the name of one of the founders of Burning Man. And what happened to the show's Larry Harvey?
 * The second episode uses the score from Psycho and is reminiscent of The Strangers.
 * In episode five, Tate and Violet are confronted on the beach by five teenagers: A jock, a cheerleader, a nerd, a goth girl, and a guy dressed in a leather jacket. Come on, that can't be a coincidence!
 * Violet even calls them "The Dead Breakfast Club".
 * Tate axes a serial killer groupie named Bianca. Anyone familiar with the Manson case will recognize those names.
 * Hayden in "Halloween, Part 2" subverts a Fatal Attraction shout-out.
 * Tate gives a Shout-Out to Taxi Driver
 * The show uses the score from Bram Stoker's Dracula, particularly in the scene where Nora opens the door to see her "baby" in his room.
 * The show also gives a couple of subtle shout-outs to The Shining. Tate's practically an homage to Twisted Nerve, whistling the theme tune and everything. Then there are all of the Rosemary's Baby references...
 * One of those The Shining shout-outs happens with Beau's ball. He rolls it to an unsuspecting person while hidden in the shadows, like how a tennis ball is rolled unsuspectingly to Danny.
 * "Twisted Nerve" plays over Tate's shoot out, the theme to the eponymous film about a psychotic boy who does crazy things for a girl he loves.
 * Shovel Strike: How
 * The Sixties: The beginning of the second episode takes place in this time period.
 * Sleepwalking: Starts happening to Ben after they move in, coupled with a disturbing fascination with fire.
 * It's also mentioned in the Rubber Man episode that  started sleepwalking after he moved in, suggesting the house tends to have this effect on its residents.
 * In "Afterbirth" we learn why,
 * Sole Survivor:
 * Stalker with a Crush: Tate, towards Violet. Likes to stare at her while she sleeps.
 * Larry is a platonic version of this to Ben. He keeps appearing out of nowhere and talking to him. Though Ben is repulsed by him, he apparently just wants to be buds. In episode three, he even helps Ben out by
 * Took a turn for the worst in episode 4.
 * Star-Crossed Lovers: Tate and Violet,.
 * Sticky Fingers: Constance has no qualms about stealing from Vivien, and does so twice during the pilot.
 * As of the third episode, make that just about every time she enters their house.
 * And other people's houses as well.
 * Stock Unsolved Mysteries: Elizabeth Short, AKA The Black Dahlia,
 * Invisible to Gaydar: Patrick
 * Straw Misogynist: The Armenian man who plans on buying the house displays this behavior, especially towards Constance and Moira.
 * Suicide by Cop:
 * Supernatural-Proof Father: When Hayden shows up in episodes 4 and 5 after, Ben jumps to the conclusion that they are working together to get money out of him,
 * When Vivien starts seeing the ghosts, he thinks she's gone crazy.
 * He only believes Vivien's story about the Rubber Man after speaking to Luke.
 * Doesn't even notice that Violet, believing that she's only depressed.
 * It's only after  that he believes.
 * Surreal Horror: Bondage monster. That is all.
 * Swiss Cheese Security: Even discounting the ghosts, it seems there is always at least one person in the house who shouldn't be there. The only thing missing is the creepy phone calls, which show up in the Halloween episode.
 * Tangled Family Tree:.
 * Teacher-Student Romance: One of the reasons for the tension between Ben and Vivien.
 * Teens Are Monsters: Up to Eleven. Her first day at school, Violet is confronted by a group of girls who give her an insane rant for smoking on campus. Leah tries to make her eat her cigarette and promptly screams "YOU ARE SO DEAD!" in a high-pitched wail once Violet manages to get away.
 * Minor subversion in the fact that even Leah's friends thought she was going too far in trying to make Violet eat the cigarette.
 * Tate, who
 * Violet, as well. She can be exceptionally cruel to her parents, and was willing to go along with Tate's basement plan without asking too many questions.
 * Though to be fair, she was horrified when she found out what he was doing and never thought he'd go that far.
 * She also lied to her father and the police about what she and her mother saw, allowing them to conclude that her mother is insane.
 * There Are No Therapists: Averted, as Ben is one. It doesn't help a whole lot.
 * Title Drop: "Spooky Little Girl". The song of the same name plays in the background during a flashback sequence.
 * Together in Death:
 * Chad and Patrick. However, this is not a happy ending for them.
 * Tomato in the Mirror: Happens to  in Smoldering Children, although subtle hints are dropped in past episodes that she is a ghost trapped in the house.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Probably literally. It's not like Violet can't guess that continuing to stay in that house will likely lead to the deaths of her and her family, but she really doesn't seem to want to leave.
 * That's only after turning down several opportunities to leave and even threatening to run away if she can't live in Murder House.
 * Unusual Euphemism: "The procedure", for abortion. Justified in that, during the timeframe Charles and Nora Montgomery lived in, one did not discuss such things openly.
 * Urban Legends: One of Ben's patients, Derek, recounts one of these, about a man with a pig's head.
 * Viral Marketing: Several videos, referred to as clues to the show's content, have been released on the show's YouTube channel.  There was also a chance to sign up for a "house call" to come face-to-face with one of the show's characters.
 * Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Episode 3, Ben after
 * Episode 6, when Tate
 * Wham! Episode: "Rubber Man".
 * Less of an example, but still wham-worthy, is "Smoldering Children".
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Violet calls both of her parents out on their neglectful behavior towards her.
 * Weirdness Magnet: Violet, eventually.
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: Nora was apparently this for Charles. Too bad Charles was a drug-addicted mad scientist who  Nora did say he was a genius before
 * White Dwarf Starlet: A subversion. Constance never quite made it as a movie star, but the way she acts puts you in mind of a vintage film star.
 * X Meets Y - American Beauty meets The Shining.
 * Yandere: Hayden shows some shades of this in the second episode, but the third episode is where she really shines.
 * Tate is gradually gaining shades of this.
 * Yaoi Fangirl: Violet thinks gay porn is hot. Tate agrees, though he didn't seem sincere.
 * Violet, as well. She can be exceptionally cruel to her parents, and was willing to go along with Tate's basement plan without asking too many questions.
 * Though to be fair, she was horrified when she found out what he was doing and never thought he'd go that far.
 * She also lied to her father and the police about what she and her mother saw, allowing them to conclude that her mother is insane.
 * There Are No Therapists: Averted, as Ben is one. It doesn't help a whole lot.
 * Title Drop: "Spooky Little Girl". The song of the same name plays in the background during a flashback sequence.
 * Together in Death:
 * Chad and Patrick. However, this is not a happy ending for them.
 * Tomato in the Mirror: Happens to  in Smoldering Children, although subtle hints are dropped in past episodes that she is a ghost trapped in the house.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Probably literally. It's not like Violet can't guess that continuing to stay in that house will likely lead to the deaths of her and her family, but she really doesn't seem to want to leave.
 * That's only after turning down several opportunities to leave and even threatening to run away if she can't live in Murder House.
 * Unusual Euphemism: "The procedure", for abortion. Justified in that, during the timeframe Charles and Nora Montgomery lived in, one did not discuss such things openly.
 * Urban Legends: One of Ben's patients, Derek, recounts one of these, about a man with a pig's head.
 * Viral Marketing: Several videos, referred to as clues to the show's content, have been released on the show's YouTube channel.  There was also a chance to sign up for a "house call" to come face-to-face with one of the show's characters.
 * Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Episode 3, Ben after
 * Episode 6, when Tate
 * Wham! Episode: "Rubber Man".
 * Less of an example, but still wham-worthy, is "Smoldering Children".
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Violet calls both of her parents out on their neglectful behavior towards her.
 * Weirdness Magnet: Violet, eventually.
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: Nora was apparently this for Charles. Too bad Charles was a drug-addicted mad scientist who  Nora did say he was a genius before
 * White Dwarf Starlet: A subversion. Constance never quite made it as a movie star, but the way she acts puts you in mind of a vintage film star.
 * X Meets Y - American Beauty meets The Shining.
 * Yandere: Hayden shows some shades of this in the second episode, but the third episode is where she really shines.
 * Tate is gradually gaining shades of this.
 * Yaoi Fangirl: Violet thinks gay porn is hot. Tate agrees, though he didn't seem sincere.
 * Yandere: Hayden shows some shades of this in the second episode, but the third episode is where she really shines.
 * Tate is gradually gaining shades of this.
 * Yaoi Fangirl: Violet thinks gay porn is hot. Tate agrees, though he didn't seem sincere.
 * Yaoi Fangirl: Violet thinks gay porn is hot. Tate agrees, though he didn't seem sincere.
 * Yaoi Fangirl: Violet thinks gay porn is hot. Tate agrees, though he didn't seem sincere.