TOP 10: “American Horror Story” Opening Credit Sequences
While working on this week’s episode devoted to the best characters from FX Network’s long-running “American Horror Story” anthology series, we also realized it was a good opportunity to consider one of our favorite elements of the show: the opening credits.
Each season of “American Horror Story” tackles different themes that scare the bejeezus out of Americans past and present. And each season has its own unique opening credits, which — in the best cases — set the tone for the episodes, and creep out the viewers even before the first commercial break.
Below find my ranking of all 12 “AHS” opening credits as of 2024. (Note that, to my knowledge, Season 6 “Roanoke” did not have traditional opening credits; I watched the season and loved it, but can find no record of credits on the internet.) Disagree with my takes? Drop a comment below.
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I will go on to complain about credits that either don’t relate to a season’s themes, or which are too obliquely related. “Red Tide” has the opposite problem. The first part of Season 10’s “Double Feature,” these credits are extremely literal. It’s all laid out for you: drugs, creativity (specifically writing and music, the two central art forms for our protagonists), shots of Provincetown in the winter, meat and blood, some dead animals, and even a shot of vampire fangs (even though that’s not quite how the “monsters” this season work). And more drugs. The main problem is, none of this aside from maybe the butchery scenes is in any way disturbing. These credits feel paint-by-numbers compared to the rest.
11. “Asylum” (Season 2)
“Asylum” as a season is overstuffed narratively. Its credits however, have the opposite problem. They do a good job focusing on the setting of the season, including numerous shots of specific locations that would prove important. The religious figures watching on passively (the priest) or actively (the nun straddling a restrained patient) evoke a main subplot of the season. But the numerous shots of patients looking nervous don’t add much, and the whole thing feels like a very narrow peek into one of the more disturbing and scary seasons of this show. Given how impactful the Season 1 credits were, this felt like a disappointment, especially given how ambitious “Asylum” was overall.
10. “Coven” (Season 3)
My main issue with the “Coven” credits is that they feel like they were produced before the script was written. Tonally there’s a huge disconnect from the season itself, which focused much less on the “horror” and more on the wonder of witchcraft and the competition between women. Much of the credits features black-robed figures wearing KKK-like hoods that I suspect were meant to reference the witch-hunter subplot, but a) I don’t recall the hunters wearing anything like that, and b) that became a sub-subplot this season. The voodoo elements of these credits work well, offering a glimpse of something exotic and ecstatic. There are a few shots of extreme fashion that speak to the power and danger inherent in unburdened women. But the most potent shot of the credits — that jump scare courtesy of the cryptid in the woods — has literally nothing to do with the season.
9. “Delicate” (Season 12)
Boy, people hate “Delicate.” Confession: I haven’t watched it yet (the only season I haven’t!). But I think the credits are effective. One thing the “Delicate” credits do better than any other season is build and climax to something truly horrific. This show has done the Rosemary’s Baby concept a few times now, but this entire season was devoted to motherhood and navigating the world as a woman. It starts out with lots of shots of pregnancy and femininity, and then starts to transform into something more sinister. A high heel instantly becomes covered in spikes. The baby at the breast takes on demonic features. It ends with a baby carriage bursting into flames. Plus, it features Kim Kardashian’s name emblazoned over a doll fully on fire. Surely we can all agree on that.
8. “Death Valley” (Season 10.2)
People generally hate this 1950s-set season — the second half of “Double Feature” — but the credits are solid. They’re also a big departure from anything else in “AHS” history, yet completely appropriate for this season, which is all about alien abduction and experimentation. We get 50’s-style flying saucers beaming humans into their ship, and then we get tentacles — lots and lots of tenctacles. So many tentacles! The wrap around people (especially women) and in short order we have shots of a fetus in-utero developing alien characteristics. All of it is shot in black and white, continuing with the 50s aesthetics. I give this one points for novelty.
7. “Cult” (Season 7)
“Cult” is not well loved, although I will defend it as a bold swing for the show. Rather than examine the supernatural and its impact on America, this season focused on the existential horror of living in modern American politics, and the awful things ordinary people do to one another. These credits are aggressively unsettling, starting with the the shrill trumpet notes playing over the typical theme music, and including shots of the American flag drenched in blood, obscured figures creeping in the shadows, a person scrubbing bloody hands in the sink, and bugs crawling in and out of someone’s body. It all speaks to paranoia and guilt, and the bee shots evoke the hivemind nature that is the season’s central thesis. No matter how you lean politically, creeps wearing the Trump and Hillary masks likely left you unsettled.
6. “Hotel” (Season 5)
There’s a lot to like in the “Hotel” credits. The neon sign font evokes American hotels. Using the peep holes to peer into the depraved and disturbing events of each room is a great framing device. The shots of the mouldering people coming out of or being pulled into their beds is nightmare fuel. It all starts with monstrous beings clawing their way out of the walls, which may be an explicit nod to the story arc of Lady Gaga’s Countess character. My issue with “Hotel” is the Ten Commandment signs that flash throughout, which seem almost wholly unconnected to the narrative of the season. Maybe I’m forgetting a significant element to these proceedings, but I recall very little of that kind of plot; it was a season mostly about individual tragedies in an isolated place, and being unable to escape yourself and your past. Oh, and very glamorous vampires.
“NYC” is also not a fan favorite, although I think if you’re a gay man — especially one who was alive during the AIDS epidemic — I suspect you may be more appreciative of it. These credits do a great job of finding a balance between referencing the plots without being super obvious. We get lots of kink/S&M/gay sexual imagery, paired with camera imagery; it evokes the work of Robert Mapplethorpe. At the same time, we get shots of cells (and cocktail umbrellas) rapidly dividing and human sickness. The shots of the deer are both a direct reference to Billie Lourd’s character, but also thematically much more potent — this season is ultimately about gay young men (bucks) in their prime being cut down by not one, but two murderers. One is the AIDS virus that will decimate their community, and the other the sadistic killer stalking their nightspots (hence the cocktail umbrellas). This is probably the most sexual intro for the series, and I think it’s both disturbing and arousing.
4. “Freak Show” (Season 4)
I would argue that the “Freak Show” credits are in some way more successful — at least, more cohesive — than the season itself. This was the first season with credits that really played with the aesthetic, molding it to the themes of the season overall. That extends to the theme music, which is here given a carnival-esque makeover as the camera pans in and out of a distressed Big Top tent to focus on a variety of freaks and oddities, many of them in skeletal form. I can’t think of any other “AHS” credit sequence that uses both stop-motion and computer animation this significantly, and I think they’re largely effective. Also effective: the clowns, which aren’t explicitly horrifying, just generally unsettling. As clowns generally are.
3. “Apocalypse” (Season 8)
“Apocalypse” is one of my least-favorite seasons — I consider it a mess overall — but I can’t criticize these credits. Given that this season is a mash-up of both “Coven” and “Murder Hourse,” it takes specific images from both of those credit sequences — the cryptid in the woods from “Coven” is back, as are the creepy Victorian child photos from “Murder House.” They’re joined by multiple images of the devil holding a baby or dining with men; a mushroom cloud with a horned skull superimposed over it; a Geiger counter; people seeking shelter in bunkers or being atomized. In hindsight, the most clever element of the credits are the shots of the candles, which melt and then reform, a nod to the deus ex machina that brings the season to a close.
2. “1984” (Season 9)
Easily the most fun “AHS” opening credits, “1984” is thoroughly, delightfully 80s camp. And by camp I mean both the cheesy, knowing narrative approach, and the idyllic nature spot, the setting for this exploration of slasher films. This is an 80s explosion, with the synth chords woven into the familiar “AHS” theme song, shots of 80s technology (Walkman! Atari! Stereos!), and that neon-bright 80s fashion. At the same time, we get cuts to an off-camera assailant wielding a massive butcher knife. Even the blood in this trailer looks fake, as it would have in the horror films from that time. Presenting it in classic pre-HD TV ratio, with a VHS filter and effects, puts these aesthetics over the top. 10/10 no notes.
The credits to “Murder House” (although we didn’t call it that at the time) were so genuinely disturbing that I would leave the room while they played. I don’t think there has been another credit sequence in TV history that is so evocative or unsettling. Maybe “The X-Files,” but that was more atmospheric, while the “AHS” theme is aggressive in its attempts to creep you out. Everything here works. Those deep, gutteral industrial sounds. The haunting chord progress. The repeated, indecipherable phrase (“grade skip”?). The imagery — while not exactly breaking new ground — is surprisingly effective, and references many of the season’s core themes. We have bloody, rusty surgical tools. Chilling photos of Victorian mothers and babies. Shots of abandoned attics and basements that still feel inhabited by some unseen presence. I am not sure “AHS” would have become the cultural phenomenon that it did had these credits not done their job so successfully.
What are your favorite “American Horror Story” opening credits? Leave a comment below!
