Every Season Of American Horror Story - Ranked

This year, due to obvious seasons, we’ve had to live without a new season of American Horror Story.

But as season creator, Ryan Murphy, has started to tease what 2021’s season ten could be about, fans are getting back into the spooky spirit.

We can only speculate what this new season will have in store. So, in the meantime, let’s reminisce about the 9 seasons that have already graced out screens…

And ruthlessly rank them, of course.

Over the years, we’ve seen it all: hotels designed to stash the victims of serial killers; asylums plagued by Nazi doctors; witches fighting the Antichrist in order to save the world. That, and the apocalypse.

However, not every season has hit the mark. Whether it's failing to rehash an idea that worked in a previous season, or taking a risk that didn’t pay off, American Horror Story is not without its faults.

Let’s look at the good, the bad, and the scary: the things that make AHS the game-changing horror show we all know and love, and the things we desperately wish they would’ve avoided.

When American Horror Story released their sixth season, Roanoke, they took a big risk. Unfortunately, through an accumulation of its faulty parts, that risk didn’t pay off.

When the theme of the series was revealed, it had fans excited. The title Roanoke referred to the real-life Roanoke Colony, a settlement in 1580s North America that disappeared without a trace. This mystery had been referred to in previous seasons – namely, by the medium Billie Dean Howard in Murder House. Six years after it had first been referenced, we were about to see AHS’s take on the disappearance.

The show decided to present the season as a documentary titled “My Roanoke Nightmare,” that explored the haunting of a couple who had relocated to North Carolina. Halfway through the series, it switched, and took on the found footage format to show the rest of the events.

There were a few problems with this: the two styles felt gimmicky, and strayed too far away from AHS’s classic sleek format. The slow pacing and the lack of an interesting aesthetic meant Roanoke didn’t feel like a season of American Horror Story.

But, most unforgivingly of all, the new style meant they scrapped the beloved opening credits sequence - an artistic, stylised intro that changes every season and acts as its own miniature film.

Gimmicks could be forgiven, but AHS’s opening sequences have become iconic, and to get rid of it was a bad idea.

Although the theme was interesting, all of the above meant that it couldn’t be explored to its full potential. What could have been a season inspired by the modern folk horror movement became the worst of American Horror Story’s endeavours.