American Horror Story 10 Horror Movie References Made In Coven You Didnt Notice
American Horror Story: 10 Horror Movie References Made In Coven You Didn’t Notice
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American Horror Story: Coven follows a group of witches and contains a plethora of clever horror movie references you may have missed!
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The third season of the anthology series American Horror Story, Coven, follows a group of witches through the humid, haunted streets of New Orleans. Like the seasons before and after it, Coven is an indulgent homage to the horror genre, full of visual references to previous films, books, and television shows that have formed the quintessential scary style.
Coven is set in 2013 (contemporaneous to its airing), but its action spans centuries, reaching all the way back to the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. With its characters, plot points, and imagery, allusions to horror movies abound in Coven. Choosing to set the show in a place like New Orleans was intentional. The convergence of witchcraft, voodoo, and historic subjugation makes for very compelling television.
Here are some of the films whose influence you may have missed while watching Coven.
10 The Craft
A 1996 film about a group of vengeful teenage witches, The Craft’s plot mirrors Coven’s in many ways. Coven focuses on a group of outcast teenage witches at a special boarding school learning how to get their act together, much like The Craft follows unpopular teens dealing with peer pressure and familial issues.
In Coven, when one of the witches, Madison, is assaulted by a group of frat boys, she uses her powers to flip their bus, exploding them to bits. In The Craft, the girls also turn violent when their male peers get too familiar. There are serious threads of grrl power in both the show and the movie.
9 The Beyond
Italian horror icon Lucio Fulci’s cult classic The Beyond, also filmed in New Orleans, is about a hotel containing a portal to Hell. Coined the Seven Doors of Death, this opening causes all kinds of problems, from animated bodies to bleeding paintings.
The image of Cordelia’s marbled eyes after she’s blinded with acid in Coven is taken directly from The Beyond, which features a possessed woman whose eyes are whited out by the evil forces brewing within her. Marie Laveau also retains the marbled eyes in the show when she casts spells.
8 Eve’s Bayou
Eve’s Bayou is a 1997 film about a young black woman coming of age in 1960s Louisiana. Surrounded by ghostly landscapes and adults with complicated histories, Eve, who discovers she has psychic powers, soon finds herself in a world of witchcraft and violence.
With its feminist undertones and voodoo vibes, homages to Eve’s Bayou are obvious all over Coven, from Marie Laveau’s magic to Queenie’s struggles to fit in among her white peers. The black witches portrayed in both the movie and the show are powerful, keen conjurers existing in the space between their own sense of agency and their obligations to their craft.
7 Haxan
The Seven Wonders in Coven are a series of tests that dictate whether or not a witch is strong enough to be Supreme. This part of the show is dramatized through a silent-era, black and white sequence.
In addition to paying homage to the early days of cinema, this part of Coven also makes reference to one of the oldest films about witches: 1922’s Haxan. This Scandinavian jewel features insanely devilish and stylized reenactments of witches and demons. It doesn’t hold back with visual effects, make-up, and masks.
6 The Crucible
Coven aligns itself with the Salem witch trials of the 17th century, where hundreds of women were persecuted for demonstrating “witchy” behavior. Many were killed.
The witches in the fictional world of Coven are direct descendants of the Salem witches. The Salem witch trials are highlighted in the 1996 film The Crucible, based on the play of the same name by Arthur Miller. From being targeted by witch hunters to finding comfort in sisterhood, the action of Coven often mirrors the action of the female characters in The Crucible.
5 Frankenstein
Boris Karloff brought Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein monster to life in 1931’s Frankenstein. Kyle’s role in Coven as a revived corpse wouldn’t exist without this classic gothic horror story about galvanism.
After being killed alongside his frat brothers by Madison, Kyle’s blown up body is crudely reassembled. Madison and Zoe then use a resurrection spell to bring him back to life. Kyle takes on the worst Frankenstein monster qualities. He’s angry, strong, and reactionary. Things really get strange when he’s caught in a love triangle with Zoe and Madison.
4 The Serpent And The Rainbow
Wes Craven’s 1988 Haitian voodoo flick is inspired by a non-fiction book of the same name. The voodoo practices and iconography in Coven line up with many of the plot points in The Serpent and The Rainbow.
One of the biggest connections lies with the undead corpses invoked by Marie Laveau as she battles Fiona Goode’s coven. While some zombie depictions in mainstream media have been negatively racialized – see Bela Lugosi’s White Zombie – Coven and The Serpent and the Rainbow both attempt to trace the zombie mythos with accuracy and delicacy.
3 The Evil Dead
The same zombies sent to destroy everyone at Miss Robichaux’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies by Marie Laveau look very similar to the undead in Sam Raimi’s horror-comedy Evil Dead. Known as deadites in the Evil Dead universe, Laveau’s legion attacks with the same ferocity as Raimi’s monsters.
In the episode, Zoe saves the day with a chainsaw, annihilating the corpses with ease, much like Ash does in the Evil Dead films. This tribute won over a lot of fans, turning the show’s witch trope into something altogether different, as well as something a little more fun for viewers.
2 The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Spalding, the butler in Coven, has a look inspired by the most ghoulish butler of them all: Riff-Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. This spooky musical and its bombastic style match up well with American Horror Story’s melodramatic aesthetic.
The aging, balding Spalding haunts the halls of Miss Robichaux’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies much like Riff-Raff haunts his mansion. Spalding, in American Horror Story style, takes his weirdness to the next level when viewers discover his obsession with dolls.
1 Candyman
Spirit world gatekeeper Papa Legba is a real intermediary in Haitian voodoo traditions, and he appears in Coven in a form true to his origins. Known as a loa, Marie Laveau made a deal with Papa Legba in order to remain immortal. She must sacrifice a person to him every year.
While not as direct a reference as other films on this list, the tone and ambiance of the 1992 horror film Candyman are felt in the relationship between Marie and Papa Legba. Candyman revolves around the legend of a former slave who taunts residents of Chicago’s Cabrini-Green neighborhood. Existing somewhere between a fleshy monster and an airy specter, Candyman requires the same kind of bloodshed Papa Legba is after.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/american-horror-story-coven-horror-movie-references/
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