American Horror Story has reliably been one of the most buzzed-about fall shows every year since the anthology series first debuted in 2011 with Murder House. Created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck, each season is a new storyline, but often with the same actors playing new characters. Part of the fun of AHS is seeing when some of the storylines and characters from different seasons intersect, as they do in Apocalypse’s Halloween episode. Not every season has a distinct Halloween episode, but the ones that do are highlighted below.
Season 1 has arguably one of the best Halloween-themed episodes in a strong two-parter that explores what happens on the one night of the year the dead are free to walk amongst the living. All of the past inhabitants of the Harmons' home are roaming around, including original owners Charles and Nora Montgomery and their deformed baby.
A seemingly innocent date between Tate and Violet takes a disturbing turn when his dead classmates -- the victims of his school shooting -- show up. The episodes explore themes of regret exceptionally well, with the pain and suffering of those both alive and dead on full display.
While most other seasons have a conspicuous Halloween episode, Asylum's is much more subdued. As only the second episode of the season, “Tricks and Treats” does more to set up the rest of the story than spotlight the holiday.
It’s the first time audiences see Sister Mary Eunice possessed, establishing one of the chief villains for the majority of the rest of the season. We also get to see the sadistic Sister Jude’s backstory, played by the beloved Jessica Lange. Another longtime AHS favorite, Sarah Paulson, plays Lana, whose future becomes alarmingly uncertain when her plan to expose Briarcliff Manor backfires and her partner Wendy is killed by Bloody Face the night before Halloween.
In arguably one of AHS' best seasons, Coven gave audiences a little bit of everything in its two-part Halloween episode. Fiona is becoming more and more obsessive about who will replace her as Supreme Witch and kills Madison. She also ignites a war with Marie by killing her minotaur and mailing her its head after it attacks Queenie and Delphine. Marie raises an army of zombies to attack Fiona and her crew in retaliation, leading Zoe to defend the ranks with a chainsaw.
Spalding lies to The Council on Witchcraft to protect Fiona when they arrive to investigate Madison’s death, whose corpse he has been secretly playing with like a doll. He implicates Myrtle in Madison’s death, and she is consequently burned at the stake. “Fearful Pranks Ensue” and “Burn, Witch. Burn!” pack a tremendous amount in two episodes, and that's not even all of it.
With another solid two-parter, Freak Show reveals several characters’ backstories when the ghostly Edward Mordrake appears to question them. Carnie legend has it that Mordrake was driven insane by the evil face he was born with on the back of his head and ended up murdering everyone at a freak show before hanging himself.
If any carnie performs on Halloween, Mordrake will appear to steal their soul. AHS killed off one of its most sinister villains when Twisty the Clown was chosen by Mordrake after appearing at Elsa’s troupe. While Twisty arguably left too soon, his departure paved the way for Dandy's descent into violence, taking up the clown mask himself.
In the first AHS installment without Jessica Lange at the helm, Lady Gaga takes the lead in Hotel as The Countess in a Golden Globe-winning performance, though she’s not the main focus in the season’s Halloween episode. “Devil’s Night” is reminiscent of the Halloween episodes from Murder House, in which the dead are free to mingle with the living on one night only.
In Hotel, “Devil’s Night” is the night before Halloween and John is invited to a celebratory dinner hosted by the hotel’s founder, James Patrick March. March has been dead for decades, but John quickly learns this is no ordinary dinner, as guests include none other than real-life serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer, Aileen Wuornos, John Wayne Gacy, Richard Ramirez and even the Zodiac Killer. The episode feels somewhat out of place from the rest of the season, but it goes far in foreshadowing John’s true identity.
Apocalypse was the series’ first big crossover, showing the connection between past seasons in the shocking twist episode “Forbidden Fruit.” Almost the entire cast is killed off during a poisoned apple bobbing contest in a Halloween masquerade gone wrong, plotted by Sarah Paulson’s Venable and Kathy Bates’ Mead. The antichrist, Michael, and Mead are the sole survivors after Michael directs Mead, who is actually a robot, to kill Venable. The end of the episode sees Myrtle, Cordelia and Madison from Season 3’s Coven return to save a few of their own, including Mallory and Coco.
AHS' sixth season, Roanoke, was the first to incorporate found footage, and was also its shortest season at the time, with only 10 episodes. The season opens playing like a documentary-style show similar to Unsolved Mysteries but titled My Roanoke Nightmare. The show depicts the paranormal events of “real” life couple Shelby and Matt living in North Carolina on a property with connections to the infamous Roanoke colony that mysteriously disappeared in the late 1500s.
“Chapter 6” was the turning point of the season when My Roanoke Nightmare ended and the show’s crazy success led to a spin-off “reality” show, Return to Roanoke: Three Days in Hell, in which the “real” life people and the actors who portrayed them stay in the original house during the notoriously violent Blood Moon.
American Horror Story continues to deliver scares in its 10th season, Double Feature, currently airing on FX and Hulu.
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