These scenes left viewers shocked, disturbed, terrified, or all three! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at the most bone-chilling scenes of horror in FX’s haunting anthology.
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00:00 "I have to show you something, and then you're free to go wherever you want."
00:03 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the most bone-chilling scenes
00:07 of horror in FX's haunting anthology series, American Horror Story.
00:11 "I'd fairly swoon when I see the moment of terror register on a handsome face.
00:16 Makes me feel young again."
00:19 If you're afraid of spoilers, beware of what's ahead.
00:22 Number 20. Nuclear Armageddon
00:25 Of all the horror scenarios for AHS to portray realistically,
00:29 it just had to be the one that scares the whole world.
00:32 Apocalypse opens with news that a nuclear strike on Los Angeles is imminent.
00:36 "Missile alert is real. In less than an hour, Los Angeles is going to be an empty crater."
00:41 "Hey, Daddy, you're scaring me."
00:42 Nobody knows why or even who launched the nuke.
00:45 All people can do is panic and watch the solemn news broadcast until it cuts off.
00:50 A few people barely escape on Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt's private jet before
00:54 a missile completely obliterates LA. The rest of the world soon follows in this
00:59 eerie dramatization of Sudden Doomsday, a nightmare that has only grown
01:03 more potent since 2018.
01:05 "The end?"
01:05 "No, the beginning."
01:09 Apocalypse gets more fantastical from there,
01:12 but wastes no time in delivering on the scariest season title yet.
01:16 Number 19. Human-Alien Hybrids
01:19 We don't see much of the extraterrestrials in the double-feature sub-season Death Valley.
01:24 Their telepathic control of humans is freaky enough.
01:27 "We've spoken before. From another body."
01:32 "Maybe."
01:34 "She's in here, Mr. President. And she's not very happy about it."
01:40 Of course, nothing could prepare a captive Troy Lord for the big reveal of the alien's
01:45 offspring with humans. The masked Theta tries in vain to calm him as she observes
01:49 his pregnancy with a hybrid. When she finally removes her mask to reveal what
01:54 Troy is expected to give birth to, the image is ghastly.
01:57 "Don't focus on the pain. Focus on the future."
02:04 "Please, just tell me what happens next."
02:17 It seems like you'd get used to Theta's crudely mixed-up mug as she becomes key
02:20 to the rest of the story. But with the horrors in store for the human-alien hybrids,
02:25 it's safe to judge this book by its disturbing cover.
02:28 Number 18. Meet Mr. Jingles
02:31 1984 promises horror fans a nostalgic homage to classic slashers.
02:36 The season even opens with a play on the cliche of a serial killer interrupting frisky campers.
02:41 "What was that?"
02:46 "I know you two heard it. Jingling."
02:48 "It's probably those annoying wind chimes the eight-year-old made."
02:51 Then, all the gory fun is spoiled by the sheer savagery of Mr. Jingles' 1970 massacre at
02:57 Camp Redwood. He butchers the threesome with a knife, before severing their ears for his collection.
03:03 The camera then slowly pans out to reveal that he killed everyone in the cabin.
03:07 This hook is gory, but feels more than just sensationalistic in how it draws out the
03:11 killer's process and the atmosphere. You know straight away the menace that Mr. Jingles will
03:16 bring on his return to the camp in 14 years' time.
03:20 "This is the site of the worst summer camp massacre of all time."
03:22 "Come on, Rita."
03:24 "His name was Benjamin Richter, but everybody called him Mr. Jingles."
03:29 Number 17. Santa Claus is coming to town
03:32 If any actor can make Santa Claus utterly terrifying, it's Ian McShane.
03:37 Never mind Lee Emerson making his own run on Christmas Eve.
03:40 "He's gonna be pretty steamed at you if he doesn't get that hat."
03:43 "Well, if he's good enough, his mother will end up giving it to him.
03:47 If he's not, he'll blame himself."
03:48 "It's never your fault."
03:50 The spree killer's arc on asylum begins with him gunning down a charity Santa to steal his suit.
03:55 He then breaks into a house, ties up a small child's parents, and shoots them dead.
03:59 The whole time. McShane smoothly delivers a deranged monologue about targeting the
04:04 most seemingly happy households.
04:06 "What do you want?"
04:07 "I'm Santa Claus. I'm here to bestow a little Christmas spirit upon you because..."
04:11 "What is Christmas about if it's not about families being together?
04:15 Do you appreciate that right now, do you?"
04:17 This was just one of the five family slayings that got Emerson committed to Briarcliff Manor.
04:22 Whatever trauma could have caused the petty criminal's psychotic break,
04:25 his random acts of violence are awful enough without him killing the Christmas spirit.
04:29 Number 16. Burning down the Ascension Bar
04:33 The more dramatic season NYC has terror to spare in the hulking, leather-clad Big Daddy.
04:39 The public generally ignores the serial killer's targeted attacks on New York's gay community.
04:44 That is, until he makes a grand gesture by throwing a
04:47 Molotov cocktail into the Ascension Bar after chaining its doors shut.
04:51 The fire causes serious injuries and several casualties.
04:59 Viewers observe Big Daddy as an allegory for the horror stalking the LGBTQ+ community in the 1980s.
05:05 What makes this moment uniquely horrific is that it represents
05:08 mass hate crimes that persist to this day.
05:11 "Half the people in this city would love to burn down a gay bar."
05:14 "Not me."
05:14 "What else better go get a drink?"
05:16 Airing mere months after a high-profile arson attack on a Brooklyn LGBTQ+ club,
05:21 Smoke Signals features one of the most relevant shocks of an important season.
05:25 Number 15. Adeline's Death
05:28 For most of Delicate, it was believed that Dex Harding's first wife died in an accidental fire.
05:33 "Oh God, I wish she could see you now. She'd be so proud, Dex."
05:36 "Talia."
05:38 "I can feel her spirit with us right now."
05:40 "Jesus."
05:42 "Can't you?"
05:42 As his second wife, Anna Alcott, begins to uncover a conspiracy surrounding her pregnancy,
05:47 a flashback episode reveals the truth about Adeline Harding.
05:51 It turns out she was a former member of a cult that sacrifices pregnant women
05:55 to sustain eternal youth. When Adeline becomes pregnant herself, her old comrades strap her down,
06:01 cut her stomach open, and bathe in the blood. They then burn her alive to cover their tracks.
06:06 Adeline's gruesome demise confirms the very real danger following a paranoid Anna.
06:11 At the same time, it fully just dates the season's body
06:21 and psychological horror metaphors for pregnancy.
06:24 Number 14. First Person
06:26 Roanoke consistently makes creative, chilling use of its mockumentary found footage format.
06:32 It gets especially immersive when three My Roanoke Nightmare fans film their own
06:36 paranormal investigation with helmet-mounted GoPros.
06:39 "Yo, yo, what are you doing? You can't turn the camera off. We gotta film everything."
06:42 "Okay, I was just gonna take a leak. I didn't want to accidentally get a shot of my Johnson."
06:46 The theory that these one-off characters are audience avatars
06:49 becomes all too clear with their deaths.
06:51 After a possessed Lee kills Todd, the ghost colony eventually catches up with Sophie and Milo.
06:57 The two desperate kids are then impaled on wooden pikes and burned alive.
07:01 Their cameras show the whole agonizing event from a first-person point of view.
07:05 "Present yourself for slaughter."
07:07 "You don't deserve to die, you b****."
07:09 "Please, Lee, we don't want to be here. I want to be a doctor to help people.
07:14 Milo's a good person. He told me that the shelter don't do this."
07:18 It may already be one of the most grisly deaths ever seen on AHS,
07:22 and seeing it from the victim's perspective brings home
07:25 the unique horror of this season's visual style.
07:27 Number 13. Polk Family Dinner
07:31 All the supernatural horrors of Roanoke can barely compete with the real horror
07:35 creeping in the Virginia backwoods. Okay, really more stereotypical horror.
07:39 "Please, please just let us go. We will go back to California and no one will ever see us again."
07:46 "No, they won't, sweet mate. The Polks have always been as good as their word.
07:51 We have a deal with the butcher and she's gonna get you back."
07:55 The Polk family is a banquet of horror tropes,
07:58 especially when they kidnap three of our heroes for a grotesque feast.
08:02 Audrey and Monet are forced to eat meat that they soon learn was
08:05 carved from Lee's leg during torture.
08:07 "Eat up. Need your strength."
08:11 It's a stomach-twisting feat of physical and psychological horror,
08:14 even by AHS standards.
08:16 Many may not take kindly to this or any of the other extreme homages to rural horrors caricatures,
08:21 but Dinner with the Polks effectively raises the stakes by playing
08:25 into the most knee-jerk fears of this region.
08:27 Number 12. Addiction Demon
08:30 Many disturbing manifestations of people's demons occupy AHS Hotel.
08:34 A literal demon formed by years of substance use in the Hotel Cortez is particularly freaky,
08:40 if only for its introduction.
08:41 "You know what? It's your lucky day. Mama's feeling magnanimous."
08:46 While tripping out, Gabriel notices a shadowy figure lurking around his room.
08:50 All of a sudden, a revolting creature with waxed skin and no face
08:54 pops up to throw him over the bed.
08:56 Gabriel is helpless against, let's just say, a drill bit strapped to the demon's waist.
09:01 The scene's frantic pace and flesh-crawling imagery make for
09:04 one of the craziest jump scares in AHS history.
09:07 "Say I love you, Sally, and it will all go away. Say it."
09:12 "I love you, Sally."
09:15 It's so surreal that it would be ridiculous were it not for the shock value
09:19 or frank metaphor for messing with dangerous substances.
09:22 Number 11. Twisty Puts On a Show
09:25 Twisty the Clown is coulrophobia incarnate.
09:28 When he first shows up on Freak Show,
09:30 his gruesome appearance and grinning mask are instant nightmare fuel.
09:34 "Oh, for me? Oh, okay. Thank you."
09:43 Still, a young woman having a picnic humors the stranger's
09:46 seemingly innocent circus act.
09:48 He then knocks her out when her significant other arrives to shoo him away.
09:51 When she comes to, she sees Twisty brutally stabbing her boyfriend
09:55 to death before chasing her into the woods.
10:02 This scene has so much impact that AHS Cult loosely recreates it in a comic book.
10:08 Really, any scene with the clown is as blood-curdling as the first.
10:12 His introduction just says everything about one of the most
10:14 twisted characters American Horror Story has cursed us with.
10:17 Number 10. Thaddeus and the Twins
10:20 "Excuse me. You are going to die in there."
10:25 "Shut your mouth or we're gonna kick your ass!"
10:29 Well, American Horror Story definitely did not waste any time in living up to its name.
10:34 The pilot's opening scene contains one of the most hair-raising moments of the entire series,
10:39 as two twins vandalize the wrong house and pay a hefty price.
10:43 Now, to be honest, this scene is not going to win any awards for originality,
10:47 but it does a fantastic job of establishing American Horror Story's tone
10:51 while also just being an all-around intense moment.
10:53 Thaddeus appears a few more times throughout the first season,
10:56 but the infantada arguably peaks in the opening scene.
10:59 "Ahhhhhh!"
11:01 Number 9. Penny's transformation into the Lizard Girl
11:08 "Were you there again with him?"
11:12 "Yes, and I'm going back for good.
11:20 I just came home to pack. You're gonna have to kill me to stop me."
11:22 Freak Show's main storylines tend to be rather polarizing among fans,
11:28 with the season's highlights generally revolving around Elsa's cabinet of curiosities.
11:32 Unlike most of the other troupe members, Penny's transformation from hospital volunteer
11:36 to astonishing lizard girl was artificially induced by the girl's hateful father.
11:40 "Beauty is painful, sweetheart."
11:43 In Freak Show, the supposedly "normal" people,
11:50 who constantly ridicule or hurt members of Elsa's troupe, are the real monsters.
11:55 And no scene better encapsulates this theme than Penny's undesired mutation
11:59 at the hands of a tattoo artist and the worst parent of all time.
12:03 "This is my fault. What have I done? Oh."
12:09 Number 8. A special dinner party
12:13 "Hey, hey, hey, come sit next to me.
12:16 Between you and me, you don't want to sit next to Jeff or John.
12:19 They like him young and cute, like you."
12:21 "Just keep your distance."
12:23 "Aww!"
12:23 "Enjoy your last night of freedom."
12:25 In the aptly titled "Devil's Night" episode,
12:28 the ghosts of infamous criminals convene at the Hotel Cortez for an annual feast
12:32 that mostly consists of the other patrons.
12:35 With the likes of Eileen Wuornos, Jeffrey Dahmer, and the Zodiac Killer on the guest list,
12:39 this dinner is unsurprisingly packed with rousing conversations and unforgettable entertainment.
12:45 "To our special night and our new guest."
12:47 American horror story loves to blend fact and fiction,
12:51 and "Devil's Night" took this one step further by creating the definitive terrifying banquet
12:56 featuring some of the vilest people to ever walk the face of the planet.
13:00 "But imagine what he could have accomplished had he really listened to me.
13:03 33 bodies. He could have had 333!"
13:08 Number 7. American Morbidity Museum
13:12 "Why we gotta travel all this way for skeletons and such?"
13:16 "Because I need a witness to this."
13:17 "Orphans" is not only one of the strongest standalone episodes of season 4,
13:22 but also of the entire series.
13:24 One of the episode's highlights sees Maggie taking Desiree to the American Morbidity Museum,
13:28 more popularly and accurately known as the Museum of Horrors.
13:32 During a tour provided by the unnervingly sprightly curator,
13:36 Desiree is shown some of the museum's attractions,
13:39 including Ma Petit's remains, poor Salty's recently acquired head,
13:43 and to Maggie's surprise, Jimmy Lobster Boy Darling's hands.
13:47 What makes the scene extra creepy is how it's presented as just any other museum.
13:52 "Commonly referred to as lobster hands.
13:56 Notice the few digits connecting the first and the middle."
14:02 Number 6. Lana Undergoes Conversion Therapy
14:05 "I mean, you would never intentionally expose these little angels to a homosexual, would you?
14:12 And we both know what that so-called monster in the closet really is, don't we, Miss Winters?"
14:19 When journalist Lana Winters decides to investigate the insane asylum Briarcliff Manor,
14:23 she finds herself an unwitting patient instead.
14:26 Left in the charge of psychiatrist Dr. Threadson,
14:29 whose compassionate and reasonable facade hides a sinister truth,
14:33 Lana is forced to undergo so-called conversion therapy.
14:36 Everything related to the storyline is hard to watch,
14:38 but what pushes Lana's therapy over the edge is that it has a basis in fact.
14:43 "They tried hard to crush my spirit.
14:45 Something there is that doesn't love a wall.
14:52 That sends the frozen ground swell under it.
14:56 And to destroy my mind."
15:02 American Horror Story definitely has plenty of more graphic scenes,
15:05 but this is one of those instances when the show's knack for psychological horror shines true.
15:10 "They use it at Harvard, Brigham Young, Cornell.
15:12 The theory is that we're training your body to be physically repelled by certain triggers."
15:18 Number 5. Shelley at the Playground
15:21 In the competition to determine American Horror Story's most unfortunate character,
15:30 Shelley floats to the top after being put through a series of truly horrifying trials
15:35 at Briarcliff. Abandoned in the woods with her legs amputated,
15:39 she clings to life just enough to crawl to a schoolyard nearby.
15:42 But the children and their teacher react with horror at the sight of her,
15:46 leaving her not only physically but also mentally devastated.
15:49 "Hey, that's not right. What on earth is the matter?"
15:53 "There's a monster!"
15:55 "Run!"
15:57 Seeing someone who's been through so much desperately fighting to survive
16:18 could have been uplifting, if not for the fact that American Horror Story hates happy endings.
16:24 Number 4. Lee Meets the Piggy Man
16:30 Pigmen seem to be a recurring theme on American Horror Story,
16:40 and they creep us out every time. In the second episode of Roanoke,
16:44 Shelby and Matt are haunted by strange visions after moving into their new house.
16:48 Although the ghostly woman standing outside the house is quite unsettling,
16:52 the apparition has nothing on the disgusting pig thing that stops by
16:56 to say a quick hello to Matt's sister Lee.
16:57 The costume is just the right mix of cheesy and gross,
17:06 while the scene comes so out of nowhere that it almost doesn't feel real.
17:10 Number 3. Dr. Oliver Threadson's Secret
17:20 "So, why don't we just concentrate on you,
17:22 and then I'll see what I can do for Grace."
17:27 For the first few chapters of Asylum, the seemingly well-meaning Dr. Threadson
17:31 is the one beacon of hope at Briarcliff. Then episode 5 happens and twist!
17:36 The good doctor is bloody face. After escaping from the asylum and taking refuge at Threadson's home,
17:42 Lana notices the doctor's unique handcrafted furniture
17:45 and begins to wonder whether maybe something is not right.
17:49 "I make the shades myself."
17:50 "Really? What kind of material do you use?"
17:55 "Skin."
17:57 Along with being a genuine surprise for not only Lana but everyone watching,
18:04 this reveal is expertly paced so that the secret is
18:07 pieced together just seconds before Threadson abandons the facade.
18:10 "I took her teeth."
18:18 Number 2. Buried Alive
18:20 "I'm trapped. I can't breathe. I'm screaming as loud as I can, but no one can hear me."
18:26 With this moment, American Horror Story covers its bases when it comes to phobias.
18:33 Surprisingly exempt of gore, this season 7 scene sees a young couple
18:37 being buried alive inside coffins by a group of demented clowns.
18:45 The moment is preceded by Rosie, one of the victims,
18:48 talking about how therapy helped her overcome a childhood fear of being buried alive.
18:52 Combine that with the eerie music and the bone-chilling sound of the coffins being screwed
18:56 shut and you've got pure nightmare fuel. If nothing else, the clowns sure have a great
19:02 sense of ironic timing.
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19:23 Number 1. Violet Discovers Her Own Body
19:28 "Please, Dave, please, I don't want to die."
19:32 "It's too late for that."
19:38 Violet is the living personification of teenaged angst, as the young girl tries to deal with living
19:44 in a less than ideal household while also having feelings for the resident ghost. At one point,
19:49 Violet tries to take her own life but is seemingly saved by Tate,
19:54 the guy at least partly responsible for driving her over the edge.
20:04 Or at least she seems to have been rescued. Until later on, Violet discovers her own body
20:09 in the house's crawlspace. This reveal represents everything awesome and haunting
20:14 about American Horror Story, a moment that's both shocking and tragic.
20:18 Which American Horror Story moments have given you the biggest fright?
20:27 Scream it out in the comments.
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20:44 [Music]