Top 20 Scariest American Horror Story Moments
#20: Nuclear Armageddon
Of all the horror scenarios for “AHS” to portray realistically, it just had to be the one that scares the whole world. “Apocalypse” opens with news that a nuclear strike on Los Angeles is imminent. Nobody knows exactly why or even who launched the nuke. All people can do is panic and watch the solemn news broadcast until it cuts off. A few people barely escape on Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt’s private jet before a missile completely obliterates LA. The rest of the world soon follows in this eerie dramatization of sudden doomsday, a nightmare which has only grown more potent since 2018. “Apocalypse” gets more fantastical from there, but wastes no time in delivering on the scariest season title yet.
#19: Human-Alien Hybrids
We don't see much of the extraterrestrials in the “Double Feature” sub-season “Death Valley”. Their telepathic control of humans is freaky enough. Of course, nothing could prepare a captive Troy Lord for the big reveal of the aliens’ offsprings with humans. The masked Theta tries in vain to calm him as she observes his pregnancy with a hybrid. When she finally removes her mask to reveal what Troy is expected to give birth to, the image is ghastly. It seems like you’d get used to Theta’s crudely mixed-up mug as she becomes key to the rest of the story. But with the horrors in store for the human-alien hybrids, it's safe to judge this book by its disturbing cover.
#18: Meet Mr. Jingles
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“1984” promises horror fans a nostalgic homage to classic slashers. The season even opens with a play on the cliché of a serial killer interrupting frisky campers. Then all the gory fun is spoiled by the sheer savagery of Mr. Jingles’s 1970 massacre at Camp Redwood. He butchers the threesome with a knife, before severing their ears for his collection. The camera then slowly pans out to reveal that he killed everyone in the cabin. This hook is gory, but feels more than just sensationalistic in how it draws out the killer’s process and the atmosphere. You know straight away the menace that Mr. Jingles will bring on his return to the camp in 14 years’ time.
#17: Santa Claus is Coming to Town
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If any actor can make Santa Claus utterly terrifying, it's Ian McShane. Never mind Leigh Emerson making his own run on Christmas Eve. The spree killer’s arc on “Asylum” begins with him gunning down a charity Santa to steal his suit. He then breaks into a house, ties up a small child's parents, and shoots them dead. The whole time, McShane smoothly delivers a deranged monologue about targeting the most seemingly happy households. This was just one of the five family slayings that got Emerson committed to Briarcliff Manor. Whatever trauma could have caused the pretty criminal’s psychotic break, his random acts of violence are awful enough without him killing the Christmas spirit.
#16: Burning Down the Ascension Bar
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The more dramatic season “NYC” has terror to spare in the hulking, leather-clad Big Daddy. The public generally ignores the serial killer’s targeted attacks on New York’s gay community. That is, until he makes a grand gesture by throwing a Molotov cocktail into the Ascension Bar after chaining its doors shut. The fire causes serious injuries and several casualties. Viewers observe Big Daddy as an allegory for the horrors stalking the LGBT community in the 1980s. What makes this moment uniquely horrific is that it represents mass hate crimes that persist to this day. Airing mere months after a high-profile arson attack on a Brooklyn LGBT club, “Smoke Signals” features one of the most relevant shocks of an important season.
#15: Adeline’s Death
For most of “Delicate”, it was believed that Dex Harding’s first wife died in an accidental fire. As second wife Anna Alcott begins to uncover a conspiracy surrounding her pregnancy, a flashback episode reveals the truth about Adeline Harding. It turns out she was a former member of a cult that sacrifices pregnant women to sustain eternal youth. When Adeline becomes pregnant herself, her old comrades strap her down, cut her stomach open, and bathe in the blood. They then burn her alive to cover their tracks. Adeline’s gruesome demise confirms the very real danger following a paranoid Anna. At the same time, it fully gestates the season’s body and psychological horror metaphors for pregnancy.
#14: First-Person
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“Roanoke” consistently makes creative, chilling use of its mockumentary–found footage format. It gets especially immersive when three “My Roanoke Nightmare” fans film their own paranormal investigation with helmet-mounted GoPros. The theory that these one-off characters are audience avatars becomes all too clear with their deaths. After a possessed Lee kills Todd, the ghost colony eventually catches up with Sophie and Milo. The two desperate kids are then impaled on wooden pikes and burned alive. Their cameras show the whole agonizing event from a first-person POV. It may already be one of the most grisly deaths ever seen on “AHS”. And seeing it from the victims’ perspective brings home the unique horror of this season’s visual style.
#13: Polk Family Dinner
All the supernatural horrors of “Roanoke” can barely compete with the real horror creeping in the Virginia backwoods. Okay, really more stereotypical horror. The Polk family are a banquet of hillbilly horror tropes, especially when they kidnap three of our heroes for a grotesque feast. Audrey and Monet are forced to eat meat that they soon learn was carved from Lee’s leg during torture. It's a stomach-twisting feat of physical and psychological horror even by “AHS” standards. Many may not take kindly to this or any of the other extreme homages to rural horror’s caricatures. But dinner with the Polks effectively raises the stakes by playing into the most knee-jerk fears of this region.
#12: Addiction Demon
Many disturbing manifestations of people’s demons occupy “AHS: Hotel”. A literal demon formed by years of substance abuse in the Hotel Cortez is particularly freaky, if only for its introduction. While tripping out, Gabriel notices a shadowy figure lurking around his room. All of a sudden, a revolting creature with wax skin and no face pops up to throw him over the bed. Gabriel is helpless against, let’s just say, a drill-bit strapped to the demon’s waist. This scene’s frantic pace and flesh-crawling imagery make for one of the craziest jump scares in “AHS” history. It’s so surreal that it would be ridiculous, were it not for the shock value or frank metaphor for messing with dangerous substances.
#11: Twisty Puts on a Show
Twisty the Clown is coulrophobia incarnate. When he first shows up on “Freak Show”, his gruesome appearance and grinning mask are instant nightmare fuel. Still, a young woman having a picnic humors the stranger’s seemingly innocent circus act. He then knocks her out when her significant other arrives to shew him away. When she comes to, she sees Twisty brutally stabbing her boyfriend to death before chasing her into the woods. This scene has so much impact that “AHS: Cult” loosely recreates it in a comic book. Really, any scene with the clown is as blood-curdling as the first. His introduction just says everything about one of the most twisted characters “American Horror Story” has cursed us with.
#10: Thaddeus and the Twins
Well, "American Horror Story" definitely did not waste any time in living up to its name. The pilot's opening scene contains one of the most hair-raising moments of the entire series, as two twins vandalize the wrong house and pay a hefty price. Now, to be honest, this scene is not going to win any awards for originality, but it does a fantastic job of establishing "American Horror Story's" tone while also just being an all-around intense moment. Thaddeus appears a few more times throughout the first season, but the Infantata arguably peaks in the opening scene.
#9: Penny’s Transformation into the Lizard Girl
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"Freak Show's" main storylines tend to be rather polarizing among fans, with the season's highlights generally revolving around Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities. Unlike most of the other troupe's members, Penny's transformation from hospital volunteer to Astonishing Lizard Girl was artificially induced by the girl's hateful father. In "Freak Show," the supposedly "normal" people – who constantly ridicule or hurt members of Elsa's troupe – are the real monsters, and no scene better encapsulates this theme than Penny's undesired mutation at the hands of a tattoo artist and the worst parent of all time.
#8: A Special Dinner Party
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In the aptly titled “Devil's Night” episode, the ghosts of infamous criminals convene at the Hotel Cortez for an annual feast that mostly consists of the other patrons. With the likes of Aileen Wuornos, Jeffrey Dahmer, and the Zodiac Killer on the guest list, this dinner is unsurprisingly packed with rousing conversations and unforgettable entertainment. "American Horror Story" loves to blend fact and fiction, and "Devil's Night" took this one step further by creating the definitive terrifying banquet featuring some of the vilest people to ever walk the face of the planet.
#7: American Morbidity Museum
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"Orphans" is not only one of the strongest stand-alone episodes of Season 4 but the entire series. One of the episode's highlights sees Maggie taking Desiree to the American Morbidity Museum, more popularly and accurately known as the Museum of Horrors. During a tour provided by the unnervingly sprightly curator, Desiree is shown some of the museum's attractions, including Ma Petite's remains, poor Salty's recently acquired head, and – to Maggie's surprise – Jimmy "Lobster Boy" Darling's hands. What makes this scene extra creepy is how it’s presented as just any other museum.
#6: Lana Undergoes Conversion Therapy
When journalist Lana Winters decides to investigate the insane asylum Briarcliff Manor, she finds herself an unwilling “patient” instead. Left in the charge of psychiatrist Dr. Thredson, whose compassionate and reasonable facade hides a sinister truth, Lana is forced to undergo so-called conversion therapy. Everything related to this storyline is hard to watch, but what pushes Lana's therapy over the edge is that it has a basis in fact. "American Horror Story" definitely has plenty of more graphic scenes, but this is one of those instances when the show's knack for psychological horror shines true.
#5: Shelley at the Playground
In the competition to determine "American Horror Story's" most unfortunate character, Shelley floats to the top after being put through a series of truly horrifying trials at Briarcliff. Abandoned in the woods, with her legs amputated, she clings to life just enough to crawl to a schoolyard nearby. But the children and their teacher react with horror at the sight of her, leaving her not only physically but mentally devastated. Seeing someone who has been through so much desperately fighting to survive could have been uplifting, if not for the fact that "American Horror Story" hates happy endings.
#4: Lee Meets the Piggy Man
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Pig men seem to be a recurring theme on “American Horror Story”, and they creep us out every time. In the second episode of "Roanoke," Matt and Shelby are haunted by strange visions after moving into their new house. Although the ghostly woman standing outside the house is quite unsettling, the apparition has nothing on the disgusting pig thing that stops by to say a quick hello to Matt’s sister Lee. The costume is just the right mix of cheesy and gross, while the scene comes so out of nowhere that it almost doesn't feel real.
#3: Dr. Oliver Thredson’s Secret
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For the first few chapters of “Asylum”, the seemingly well-meaning Dr. Thredson is the one beacon of hope at Briarcliff. Then, episode 5 happens and twist: the good doctor is Bloody Face. After escaping from the asylum and taking refuge at Thredson's home, Lana notices the doctor's unique hand-crafted furniture and begins to wonder whether maybe something is not right. Along with being a genuine surprise for not only Lana but everyone watching, this reveal is expertly paced so that the secret is pieced together just seconds before Thredson abandons the facade.
#2: Buried Alive
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With this moment, "American Horror Story" covers its bases when it comes to phobias. Surprisingly exempt of gore, this Season 7 scene sees a young couple being buried alive inside coffins by a group of demented clowns. The moment is preceded by Rosie, one of the victims, talking about how therapy helped her overcome a childhood fear of being buried alive. Combine that with the eerie music, and the bone-chilling sound of the coffins being screwed shut, and you’ve got pure nightmare fuel. If nothing else, the clowns sure have a great sense of ironic timing.
#1: Violet Discovers Her Own Body
Violet is the living personification of teenage angst, as the young girl tries to deal with living in a less-than-ideal household while also having feelings for the resident ghost. At one point, Violet tries to take her own life but is seemingly saved by Tate, the guy at least partly responsible for driving her over the edge. Or, at least, she seems to have been rescued, until later on Violet discovers her own body in the house's crawl space. This reveal represents everything awesome and haunting about "American Horror Story," a moment that is both shocking and tragic.
Which “American Horror Story” moments have given you the biggest fright? Scream it out in the comments.
