Why None Of American Horror Storys Scariest Villains Are Supernatural

Why None Of American Horror Story’s Scariest Villains Are Supernatural

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American Horror Story is reaching its tenth season, and across its outings the show has featured worse human villains than supernatural threats.

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Why None Of American Horror Storys Scariest Villains Are Supernatural

American Horror Story season 10 is approaching in 2021; across its many outings, the anthology horror show has consistently featured more heinous human villains than supernatural threats, but why? Coming from Glee co-creator/ TV juggernaut Ryan Murphy, American Horror Story is a campy, ultra-violent slice look at different elements of the horror genre. The show’s seasons, each of which carries a different theme, are some of the most unique on television — for better or worse.

At times poignant, genuinely disturbing, and often laugh-out-loud funny, each new season of American Horror Story brings bizarre stories to life, as promised by the title. But beyond that commitment to scares, there’s seemingly almost nothing consistent about American Horror Story, a show whose seasons can begin as a grounded serial killer thriller and end up featuring alien abductions, demon-possessed nuns, and a killer Santa all within a few episodes, not to mention Zachary Quinto’s scariest character to date, Bloody Face from American Horror Story season 2, Asylum.

Believe it or not, though, there is one consistent theme running through the show’s ten outings, well hidden as it may be. Odd as it sounds, few of the show’s primary antagonists are actually supernatural entities. Despite the series featuring a coven of witches, countless ghosts, demonic entities, the literal antichrist himself, and the aforementioned abducting aliens, American Horror Story’s plots are grounded in human conflict. This may sound strange, but it’s because the show aims—with varying degrees of success, depending on the season—to comment on social and cultural issues relevant to the real world. As a result, many of its most monstrous figures are severely screwed-up humans rather than literal monsters. A look at some of American Horror Story’s most terrifying—and still very human—villains illustrates how the show uses this approach to apply realistic threats.

American Horror Story Is Rooted In Human Conflict

Why None Of American Horror Storys Scariest Villains Are Supernatural

In many seasons, the villains of American Horror Story are human because the show’s plot is rooted in interpersonal conflict. Take the primary villain of American Horror Story season 2, Asylum, Sister Jude. Despite the season featuring a veritable slew of paranormal baddies, Jude is a very human, overpowered authority who, like the title character of Murphy’s 2020 Sarah Paulson collaboration, Ratched, abuses her position to harm those working beneath her as well as the patients in her care. Sister Jude consistently crops up as a creepy thorn in the side of the beleaguered heroine, Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson), refusing to acknowledge the demons possessing her staff, the alien abductions occurring around her, the experimental zombies roaming the grounds, and the ghosts plaguing her asylum. As a result, this human character comes to represent a more real threat than any of these fantastical monsters, namely the fear of being stuck rebelling against bureaucracy gone mad.

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An unthinking authority figure who demands that anyone under her thumb follow the rules as she defines them, the character needs to be human to underline that real caregivers, religious figures, police, and teachers can all end up fulfilling the villainous role of Jessica Lange’s Sister Jude, even without any demons, zombies, or other assorted ghouls being involved. A human embodiment of not talking about the elephant in the room, Sister Jude’s character ensures that, despite all the paranormal window dressing, it’s actually a realistic (if heightened) human conflict that drives the season’s plot, making Asylum feel far more realistic, relatable, and involved.

Humanity Gives (Some) AHS Villains A Sympathetic Edge

Why None Of American Horror Storys Scariest Villains Are Supernatural

To keep viewers engaged and to comment on social issues, the show’s villains must be human and, at times, even relatively sympathetic. Since the critically acclaimed first season Murder House, the reason for American Horror Story’s focus on sympathetic human monsters has been clear, as the show strives to make sense of what drives “normal” people to commit evil acts. When Constance (Jessica Lange) murders her husband and his mistress, poisons her neighbors, abuses her daughter, and goes on to raise the Antichrist, the show treats her as both a villain and a victim of tragic circumstances, driven to evil by an uncaring world.

The show displays compassion toward Constance and many of its villainous figures whose inability to achieve happy, stable lives drives them to commit evil deeds; the series’ most potent conflicts are rooted in believable interpersonal conflicts such as screwed up families and unhappy marriages. These realistic, sympathetic details serve to ground the show’s more out-there elements (like the aforementioned antichrist). Although Constance isn’t portrayed outright sympathetically, the character suffers for her sins and, because there’s nothing supernatural about her plight (at least initially), the show forces viewers to face very real—and deeply scary—tragedies of infidelity, alcoholism, and dysfunctional families.

Real Life Issues Influence AHS’ Themes

Why None Of American Horror Storys Scariest Villains Are Supernatural

American Horror Story isn’t just using human villains to make its conflict and characters feel more real and sympathetic. A variety of real-life issues inform the plots of American Horror Story, as evidenced in American Horror Story season 3’s vilest villains. Despite Coven featuring an eponymous collective of witches as well as a ghostly serial killer and an undead student, it’s two very human threats who act as the season’s most memorable villains. Alicia Spencer (Mare Winningham) manages to make an immediate impression during her brief appearance as the single mother of a good-natured college student, Kyle (Evan Peters), who is later revealed to have been molesting her son for years. Like a lot of American Horror Story’s most heinous monsters, there’s no obvious trauma is at the root of her terrifying misdeeds, and as a result, the show can illustrate another very real fear—abusive family dynamics—to ground the season’s more over-the-top supernatural threats.

Similarly, the briefly-glimpsed frat boys who enact a group sexual assault on one of the season’s protagonists, Madison Montgomery (Emma Roberts), represent a real-world evil all too familiar to viewers who recognize countless stories of similarly entitled figures abusing their wealth and privilege to commit heinous crimes without any fear of the consequences. As different as the frat boys and Alicia may be, American Horror Story uses both antagonists as human embodiments of real-life social ills, using realistic monsters to comment on issues despite the rest of the season being filled with witches, ghosts, and the undead.

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AHS Pushes Viewers To Look Past The Obvious

Why None Of American Horror Storys Scariest Villains Are Supernatural

Often, the show will explore the difference between human monsters and what viewers perceive as traditional “monsters”, as seen in American Horror Story’s fourth outing Freak Show. Told from the perspective of the members of a traveling circus, and inspired by Todd Browning’s seminal classic, Freaks, Freak Show’s plot centers the experience of people sidelined and other-ed by most media, and makes a monster of a seemingly “normal” person. The troupe’s members are far from perfect people, and many are responsible for some awful actions in the course of American Horror Story season 4, but they’re nowhere near as monstrous as the grotesque serial killer, Dandy Mott (Finn Wittrock). An outwardly normal-seeming young man who enacts numerous vicious killing sprees during the season and frequently delights in torture and murder, Dandy allows American Horror Story to warn viewers that they need to look past initial perceptions and never judge a book by its cover.

This same season features the debut of John Carroll Lynch’s Twisty the Clown, a serial killer initially introduced as a monster, but gradually revealed to have a tragic backstory. It’s a season whose overarching theme is not judging anyone by their outward appearance, a point made clearer by Dandy’s name and his well-to-do, dapper self-presentation. A predecessor to Cult’s killer clowns, Dandy is a charming and funny presence until he’s a murderous monster, whereas the freaks are often decent people who are never given the same benefit of the doubt that Dandy relies on to pull off his audacious crime sprees. The series implores viewers to look past obvious “monsters” and watch out for real-life threats, which often come dressed in sheep’s clothing.

AHS Warns Viewers About Trusting Normalcy

The reasoning behind American Horror Story’s use of human villains has never been clearer than in season 7, Cult, wherein the series abandoned the paranormal almost entirely to tell a story warning viewers against placing their trust in normalcy. An immature slacker with a lot of bitter resentment and few legitimate grievances, Kai Anderson (and his cultists) goes from this inauspicious origin to become one of the show’s scariest antagonists. The character uses his clown-masked, eponymous cult to enact a series of sickening murders, stirring up hysteria and ensuring a terrified populace propels him into political power.

It’s a disturbingly believable plot, and one with obvious parallels to the rise of the far-right worldwide as Cult used true stories of lethal fanatics throughout recent history to inform the season’s satirical writing. Committing the very crimes he is warning his constituents of, Kai embodies the most explicit iteration of American Horror Story’s recurring theme: viewers should spend less time worrying about the literal monsters of the supernatural and paranormal world and devote more focus to the very real, human monsters hiding in plain sight.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/american-horror-story-scariest-villains-human-why-explained/

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