American Horror Story Refs

AHS REFS is dedicated to pointing out various references to historical events, movies, books, and pop culture in the American Horror Story series.

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Ready for a new season of AHS Refs?

Freakshow already appears to be chock-full of references to film, pop culture, history, and lore...just one episode in~

Would anyone be interested in a resurrection of the AHS Refs blog?

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This blog is so intense. I love it!

Ah! Thank you! As you can see, it's been abandoned for a bit. But I will resume once the new season starts. ^^

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i really loved the idea of this blog and while going through it, it came to be: how is it possible that there isn't a tumblr about AHS theories? i'm not asking you to do one, but maybe by putting the idea out there, someone gets motivated? thank you!

There is one! :)

AHSTheories Tumblr

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There are girls who dig it, but the kind of girls who dig it are usually trouble.

Rick Genest on his infamous zombie tattoos.

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Rick Genest (Zombie Boy)

S01E01 Pilot

While Tate imagines himself walking down the hallways of Westerfield High, preparing for his "noble war," he appears with a detailed skull painted across his face.

This look closely resembles the face and body tattoos of "Zombie Boy" Rick Genest. Genest is a male model best known for having over $7,000 worth of tattoos etched across most of his body, giving him the appearance of a living zombie. After working in a Canadian circus side show act, Genest gained fame walking the runway at Thierry Mugler's Fall/Winter 2011 show and appearing in Lady Gaga's Born This Way video.

Genest cites his love of horror movies and "the art of a rotting cadaver" as influences on his choice of ink. But what was the catalyst for his extreme appearance change?

"Before, I hated pretty much everything and everybody. I just wanted to pass out in the gutter and swear at cars as they went by, shit like that. I wasn’t a happy person at all. 

That’s why I got the skull tattooed on my face in the first place, I suppose – I wanted to fucking kill everybody.

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"The Yellow Wallpaper"

S01E08 Rubber Man

Episode 8 of AHS was all about the literary references, with Moira filling in as your Feminist Literature 101 professor. She sums up the premise of Charlotte Perkins Gliman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" nicely in her talk with Vivien:

Haven't you read "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilmore? Her husband--a doctor--locks her away in the upstairs bedroom to recuperate from a slight hysterical tendency. Staring at the yellow wallpaper day after day, she begins to hallucinate that there are women trapped in the pattern. Half mad she scrapes off the wallpaper to set the women free. When her husband finally unlocks the door, he finds her circling the room, touching the wallpaper, whispering "I finally got out of here." Since the beginning of time, men find excuses to lock women away. They make up diseases, like hysteria. Do you know where that word comes from? The Greek word for "uterus."

In addition, "The Yellow Wallpaper" opens with the narrator and her husband moving in to a new and strange house. She suspects something is wrong with the property, as it was obtained cheaply and left abandoned for some time. It is also of note that the narrator has recently had a child and is locked, alone, in an old nursery to recover. And she really, really hates the wallpaper.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" was written as an exaggerated account of author Charlotte Perkins Gilman's experiences with depression and "melancholia." After seeking medical help, Gilman was prescribed a "rest cure" by her physician, renown specialist Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell. She was only allowed two hours of "intellectual life" per day and was instructed to "never touch pen, brush, or pencil again." Gilman followed the doctor's directions for months before finding herself at "the borderline of utter mental ruin." She eventually threw aside Dr. Mitchell's advice, returned to working, and started to recover. She wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" as a warning to doctors and patients alike, and in the process created a staple of feminist literature.

To read the short story in full (do it!), click here.

And click here to read Gilman's "Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper."

[On a side note: I'm surprised Ben didn't claim he was screwing the hysteria out of Hayden. He was merely being a good therapist!]

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Twisted Nerve/Kill Bill

S01E01 Pilot / S01E05 Halloween pt. 2

As submitted by Anonymous:

I've always noticed multiple references throughout the show as well. One thing that stood out to me was the song Tate was whistling. It was originally used in the 1968 film "Twisted Nerve" (as well as Kill Bill). In the film, the main character Martin has a younger mentally challenged brother, his father passes away, his mother finds a new husband, and he likes this girl and kills anyone who gets in his way. I definitely think Tate's character was modeled after Martin.

As mentioned above, the Twisted Nerve theme (by previously established AHS favorite, Bernard Herrmann) was also featured in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. The song scores a scene in which Elle Driver calmly walks down a hospital hallway, staring straight forward, preparing to kill an unsuspecting (and unconscious) Bride. While she doesn't like The Bride, Elle remarks that her death is one born of respect.

This is mirrored by Tate's walk down Westfield High's halls before he starts shooting classmates. Both scenes also involve characters who wear a sort of costume (Tate's skeleton makeup and Elle's nurse uniform) to complete their task.

As Kill Bill was released many years after Tate's death, this part of the reference is obviously from the writers' behalf, not from the character himself.

Extra thanks to dontopentildoomsday for also submitting!

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Hey! I'm new here... If you love AHS like me, please, follow my new Tumblr! It's all about AHS. Quotes, photos, gifs, texts... It's gonna be super cool! Thank you!

Gorgeous page! Publishing since I can't follow with this blog.

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Little Lord Fauntleroy

S1E08 Rubber Man

Before siccing him on Vivien, Hayden calls Tate "Little Lord Fauntleroy."

Little Lord Fauntleroy was a children's novel, published in 1886 by Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden, A Little Princess), about a young American boy who learns he is heir to an English estate. His grandfather, the Earl, attempts to transform the polite boy into a true aristocrat. The novel is perhaps best known for it's influence on American fashion, with the "Fauntleroy suit" (velvet coat and pants with a large ruffled collar) becoming popular for young boys around the time of publication.

However, Hayden doesn't seem to be referring to the novel's plot or fashion when calling out Tate.  

A "Little Lord Fauntleroy" is also a derogative slang term for a feminine boy, or a man that displays homosexual tendencies.

Hayden McClaine: One classy lady.

[Part One in the Hayden Thinks She's a Lit Major series. See also: References to Tate's Sexuality]

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Just a quick message...

I have a big list of references that I'm slowly chipping away at. I have received several suggestions for posts that I will get to as well. If you suggest a reference I am already working on, I will still give you a shout-out in the post to show my appreciation. If you suggest a ref I haven't listed yet, I will create a graphic and quote your submission (with credit, of course).

So, all this is to say that I appreciate each and every suggestion, even if it's something I'm already working on. So keep them coming!

And a huge thank you to all of the awesome people who've followed, promoted, liked, and reblogged AHSRefs. It means so much. :D

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This is fucking fantastic! Congratz on a quality blog!

Thank you very much. :D It means a lot to hear that people actually like it.

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Vertigo

S1E07 Open House (and throughout the series)

A "Dolly Zoom" (or "Vertigo effect") is a camera technique discovered by Irmin Roberts and first used in Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958). It is constructed by rolling the camera back (or forward) on a dolly while simultaneously zooming with the lens. This creates a "falling into the abyss" effect, where the focus of the shot stays the same size while its surroundings appear to stretch and distort around it.

This shot was used in Vertigo to show the main character, Scottie's, crippling fear of heights. The film in general follows ex-detective Scottie as he investigates Madeleine, a woman who claims she has been possessed by a dead ancestor, and Judy, a mysterious woman who appears to be almost identical to Madeleine.

In episode 7 of AHS, Open House, Vivien boards the Eternal Darkness tour bus once again to hear Charles Montgomery's full story. As the story ends, a Vertigo shot is used to close in on the house. It should be noted that this is not the only time Vertigo is referenced in AHS--many scenes throughout the series, including those in Open House, are backed by Bernard Herrmann's legendary Vertigo score.

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AHSRefs: 1

According to Ryan Murphy's latest EW interview, Thaddeus 2.0 is "sort of half-Frankenstein, half-Dracula."

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(click for player)

S1E03/07 Murder House/Open House

While Charles is more of a Frankenstein man, his son Thaddeus appears to take a few cues from a different classic monster--Dracula.

Wojciech Kilar's "Dracula - The Begining," originally from Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), is used multiple times as score in American Horror Story. It normally appears in scenes with post-dismemberment Thaddeus. Most recently it played in Open House, as Nora slowly creeps upstairs to view Thaddeus 2.0.

Maybe this choice of score was foreshadowing for little Thad's more, ahem, sanguine tastes.

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Camus's L’Étranger (The Stranger)

S1E02 Home Invasion

While Vivien tries to foist a poison cupcake upon her daughter, Violet is pictured setting in her bed reading a book for school. This book appears to be The Stranger by Albert Camus.

The Stranger features Meursault, a man often described as indifferent and detached from humanity. He is unaffected by his own mother's funeral and shows no remorse after committing murder. The novel as a whole deals with the idea of free will and explores philosophies such as absurdism, existentialism, and nihilism.

Does anyone notice any connections between The Stranger and AHS?

(I can only give minimal input, as I've never read all of The Stranger.)

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Constructive Criticism: You are making really bad assumptions and not researching at all. Researching before you post is like thinking before you speak. If you don't do it, you look like an ass.

Hmmm, I don't think it's constructive if you end your statement with "you look like an ass." To clear up any confusion, this is a blog that takes scenes from AHS and connects them to possible references, or expands upon things mentioned in the show. However, so far I haven't posted anything other than refs that seem blatantly obvious. You might want to bow out now before I start posting more ambiguous ones.

[Edited to delete an assumption I made about what this was referring to. Apologies!]

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The Montgomery's baby was named Thaddeus. This could be a reference to Thaddeus Beaumont, the lead character in Steven King's The Dark Half.

Oooh, could be. Interesting to note that Thaddeus had a twin.