Halloween might be more than a month away, but Wednesday evening’s highly-anticipated celebration of FX’s American Horror Story: 13 was, in fact, a real-life nightmare—albeit in the best possible way.
Outside of Hotel Chelsea, hordes of fans greeted this season’s cast, who have made the long-running series a cult favorite. The first to walk towards the step-and-repeat was none other than Rubber Man, the latex-clad terror who started it all in the first-ever installment, American Horror Story: Murder House. Almost immediately, sinister melodies from the franchise’s soundtrack blared from the speakers. The show was about to begin. h
In a way, the whole evening was a nod to those who’ve followed the anthology since its 2011 debut.“The fact that it’s lasted this long—this season really is like a thank you to the fans,” said co-creator Ryan Murphy.
Billie Lourd, dressed in midnight black—by “Rodarte, my queens,” as she told Vogue—agreed. “It is like a love letter to the fans,” she said. While Lourd kept mum on what viewers can expect, she teased, “Just watch my face in a lot of the scenes where I’m not talking. I’ll just say that. I know stuff.”
Show newcomer Joey Pollari, who recently appeared in Murphy’s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, ominously pointed to his bejeweled bee pin. “A worker bee,” he breadcrumbed. Equally tight-lipped was Leslie Grossman, who hinted that Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt’s witchy superpower of gluten detection shouldn’t be underestimated. “She may get to do something a little more badass this season,” Grossman said.
Murphy, meanwhile, offered up a few more hints ahead of the show airing on Thursday night. “There’s a lot of crazy Easter eggs for this whole season. I really Taylor Swifted it up.” (Speaking of Swift, Murphy donned a Dior blazer for the big night—the very same one he wore to the singer’s July wedding festivities.)
“Specifically, in episode 1, make sure you look at the wallpaper,” Murphy noted. “Make sure you look at the paintings. Make sure that you look at the shape of the candles. There’s a lot of that work in this show.”
Murphy-verse regular Sarah Paulson reflected on the show’s twisted journey. “I wasn’t even 37 when we started this show, and I am now 51,” she said, incredulously. From Sally’s wailings in Hotel to Cordelia’s hexes in Coven and Apocalypse, Paulson has appeared in almost every season of AHS. “I do not take one moment of it for granted,” the actress said. “I knew Emma [Roberts] from when she was just a young woman, and now she’s somebody’s wife, and I went to her wedding. And Billie has two kids. It’s just a wild thing to look back and be able to have borne witness to people’s lives and also pursued some form of art at the same time. It’s really special.”
Fellow AHS royalty Angela Bassett sauntered over in a feathered Falguni Shane Peacock gown, carrying a crystal Judith Leiber skull. When Murphy’s call came in, it was an immediate yes. Despite thinking that she might take a brief hiatus,“American Horror Story would be the one that would get [her back to TV] with a smile.”
