Despite being a crucial financial arm of the film industry, as evidenced by the runaway success of Obsession and Backrooms this year, horror has never been as successful on the small screen as it is in theaters. There are, of course, standouts like the original Twilight Zone, procedural-adjacent work like The X-Files, and even recent outings like Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay, but for the most part, it seems like television doesn’t love the genre as much as film does. Part of the reason is surely TV being stricter with what can and can’t be shown (although shows like Hannibal have pushed the envelope there), but there’s also the fact that sitting down to watch a 90-minute horror movie immerses you in a way that eight weekly episodes of television simply can’t.
One man, however, has spent the last 15 years bringing terror to the masses on TV: Ryan Murphy. His anthology series American Horror Story, which began in 2011, has gone from an incendiary oddity to one of FX’s mainstays, and with 12 seasons in the books, it’s also become the longest-running hour-long scripted series in the channel’s history. Now there’s a 13th season on the way, and it looks to be another season that ties together the show’s previously disconnected narratives.
