American Horror Story: Hotel

Leave it to Ryan Murphy to gather all of America’a most infamous serial killers in one room, days before Halloween. In Wednesday’s American Horror Story: Hotel, the first of the series’ traditional two-part Halloween episode, “Devil’s Night,” (spoiler alert) we saw Jeffrey Dahmer (Seth Gabel), John Wayne Gacy (John Carroll Lynch), Richard Ramirez (Anthony Ruivivar) and the H.H. Holmes-inspired Mr. March (Evan Peters) sit down to dinner with Detective John Lowe (Wes Bentley). But the real guest of honor, and most terrifying part of the episode, was Lily Rabe‘s Aileen Wuornos.

We know all the seasons of American Horror Story are connected and that Hotel will definitely connect with Murder House. Christine Estabrook’s realtor Marcy, from the first season, has already showed up, and there’s a strong theory that Hotel will bring back Elisabeth Short, aka the Black Dahlia, before she was brutally murdered in Season 1. But those aren’t the only connections to Murder House. Based on new evidence and clues, the biggest connection of all may come from Lady Gaga’s Countess, who also may explain one of the series’ scariest monsters.

Now situated at the cavernously bonkers Hotel Cortez, American Horror Story may one day run out of spooky locations with which to set its assured future. Series star Evan Peters however, following his “Chutes and Ladders” debut last night, puts in another vote to take Ryan Murphy’s horror vision to the terrors of outer space, and we’re inclined to agree.

There is not nearly enough story in this season of American Horror Story, which feels like an incredibly insane assessment given the usual proliferation of characters, with the titular Hotel providing them all enough space to co-exist under one (mostly) contained roof. But it’s telling when actors like Finn Wittrock, Wes Bentley and Chloe Sevigny are the most restrained, left with very little scenery to chew on when there’s more than enough to go around.

If you thought Wednesday’s shocking premiere of American Horror Story: Hotel was scary, undoubtedly the series’ most gruesome episode yet, be warned – the rest of the season is bound to get even more terrifying. We know this not only because co-creator Brad Falchuk confirmed Hotel will be the darkest season yet (and that means dark, considering Asylum), but because AHS is always based on real incidents and people. If we look no further than the real-life location Season 5's Hotel Cortez was inspired by we’ll discover just how many horrors are likely on the way.

American Horror Story has subjected its fans to some of the most grotesque forms of violence. From high school shootings in Murder House, shock therapy torture in Asylum, bleach enemas and acid attacks in Coven and leg amputations in Freak Show, Ryan Murphy has shown it all, at least before Hotel premiered.

FX and Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story may reinvent itself each year, but did you know that each season shares at least some major connection? Or that major alum from The Walking Dead and Nine Inch Nails have worked behind the scenes? Lock your doors, and hide under the bed, the 26th episode of ‘You Think You Know TV?’ visits the Murder House for some frightful facts of FX’s American Horror Story!

American Horror Story: Hotel, which premieres on Wednesday, turns the fear and shock factors up to maximum velocity. Season 5 is set in the titular Hotel Cortez, an ornate downtown Los Angeles hotel embellished with golden Art Deco architecture. But it’s the hotel’s hypnotic patterned carpeting – nothing less than a direct allusion to The Shining – shadowy corners and vacant lobby that assure us the darkest of things can, and will, happen in the most beautiful of places.

American Horror Story will begin its fifth chapter this coming Wednesday (early review forthcoming!), its first without Jessica Lange at the center, and pop icon Lady Gaga stepping in to run the Hotel in her place. That said, one has to wonder if a potential AHS Season 6 would land us right back in the search for a new female lead, though creator Ryan Murphy seems to have gone Gaga, through and through. Oh, and confirmed Season 6, while he's at it.

American Horror Story: Hotel premieres this week, and early casting information has given us a few clues about the terrors we can expect as the hit FX series enters its fifth season. Among the new cast of characters are Lily Rabe’s Aileen Wuornos, inspired by the real-life serial killer previously portrayed by Charlize Theron in Monster. That’s not the only bit of true life horror that has inspired Hotel, nor is it the only time American Horror Story has taken inspiration from real, terrifying events. Here, we take a look back at some of the more notable American horror stories that have been used in the four previous seasons, as well as a couple of true stories that we can anticipate in Hotel.