Six Degrees Of Mutilation: ‘American Horror Story’s Sinister Connections

BE WARNED: This feature contains spoilers – and seriously spooky speculation!

American Horror Story, the hit anthology horror drama series created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, exists in its own weird and unsettling self-contained universe, featuring a host of recurring characters and returning actors, and multiple cross-season links that turn the show into a ghoulish puzzle to be solved. Here are six curious and creepy connections that you might not have spotted.

1. Don’t You Just Hate Estate Agents?

Marcy (played by Christine Estabrook) is the lady responsible for selling the Murder House in Season 1, and all the carnage that leads to. She pops up again to sell the Hotel Cortez in Season 5, leading to more death and depravity. These people will do anything for their commission!

2. Serial Killer Hall of Fame

AHS has featured or referenced numerous real-life serial killers in its seven seasons. Most recently, notorious Californian guru Charles Manson and his band of murderers appeared in Season 7, Cult; Freak Show’s Twisty the Clown and Asylum’s Dr Thredson were inspired by mass killer John Wayne Gacy and necrophile Ed Gein respectively; and Hotel’s fiendish proprietor was based on Chicago killer H.H Holmes.

3. Doctor Who?

Season 2’s Dr Arden and Season 4’s Dr Gruper, both played by James Cromwell, are one and the same person. In Asylum the doctor experimented on helpless patients; and in Freak Show we see him in his former incarnation – a Nazi who performed similarly horrific acts, including sawing off Elsa’s legs.

4. The Nine Circles of Hell

Creator Ryan Murphy recently appeared to confirm a fan theory that the whole of AHS is linked in a devilishly simple way. Namely, each one represents one of the nine circles of hell from Dante’s Inferno – Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treachery. Season 4, Freak Show, for example, with the fame-hungry and avaricious Elsa, is ‘Greed’; while Season 6, Hotel, featuring blood guzzlers and drug addicts, is ‘Gluttony’. It seems to make perfect, grisly sense.

5. The Legend of Piggy Man

The hog headed killer first appeared in Season 1, Murder House, summoned with the words ‘here piggy piggy piggy’. In Roanake (Season 6) we get to hear of the killer’s origins, traced back to his relative in 1890s Chicago, a pig slaughterer turned lunatic killer.

6. Let’s Twist Again!

The iconic Twisty the Clown first appeared in Freak Show, terrorising a canoodling couple. In the most recent season, Cult, his legend is complete – he is now the star of his very own comic book, read by a character who then has nightmares about Twisty. Well you would, wouldn’t you?

Meanwhile, the eagerly-awaited Season 8, Apocalypse, which premieres on FOX on 27th September, is said to be a cross-over of Series 1 Murder House and Series 3 Coven, with some seriously witchy themes going on. The game of join the dots, or match the blood-splatters, continues…

AMERICAN HORROR STORY SEASON 7: CULT is available now on Blu-ray and DVD. AMERICAN HORROR STORY: APOCALYPSE premieres on FOX on 27th September at 10pm. AMERICAN HORROR STORY: THE COMPLETE SEASONS 1-6 is available now on DVD.