Ryan Murphy's American Horror Story has become a TV sensation. Featuring a different, self-contained story each season might sound mad, but it works - taking us from a mental asylum to a New Orleans school for witches and a carnival sideshow.

With American Horror Story: Hotel debuting next month, we're diving deep into the past, future and shared mythology of the AHS world.

True tales of American horror

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It goes without saying that AHS plays with some classic horror tropes, from haunted house in season 1 and witches in season 3 to anything they could possibly think of in Asylum.



But AHS also draws a lot of material from true stories, because the real world is the scariest place of all.

Season 1: Murder House



Several of the grisly events that went on behind the doors of the Murder House were based on real killings, with Mena Suvari making a cameo as Elizabeth Short, better known as the Black Dahlia. The killer who brutally mutilated and killed the would-be actress was never found.



The murders of several nurses in 'Home Invasion' were also inspired by the massacre committed by Richard Speck in Chicago in 1966.

Season 2: Asylum

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It gets pretty depressing if we think too long about how many of the abuses in Asylum probably happened in real life. More than one Nazi scientist found their way over to America, so James Cromwell's Dr Arthur Arden might not be as unlikely a figure as you might think, though perhaps with fewer mutants in his garden.



Kit and Alma Walker (Evan Peters and Britne Oldford) were inspired by the couple Barney and Betty Hill, who in 1961 became some of the first people to claim that they had been abducted by aliens.

Season 3: Coven

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Madame Delphine LaLaurie (Kathy Bates) was a real figure from 19th century New Orleans, who during a fire at her mansion was discovered to have been brutally torturing her slaves, although as far as we can tell she escaped to Paris rather than being made immortal and buried alive!



Her enemy Marie Laveau (Angela Bassett) was a voodoo priestess who had a great following in the 1800s, although there is no evidence LaLaurie and Laveau ever crossed paths.



Danny Huston's murderous character was based on the Axeman of New Orleans, who left a trail of dead and wounded victims across the area in 1918 and 1919. The killings eventually stopped and the Axeman was never caught. Possibly because he was already in hell with Jessica Lange.



The season also saw Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks - with tongue firmly in cheek - embracing the longstanding rumours that she was a witch.

Season 4: Freak Show



Many of Freak Show's characters in season 4 were based on real figures, from Peters's Jimmy Darling - based on troubled Grady Franklin Stiles Jr, whose ectrodactyly gave him lobster-like claws - to recurring Asylum character Pepper (Naomi Grossman) - who was based on microcephaly sufferer Schlitzie 'The Pinhead' Surtees, who featured in the 1932 movie Freaks.



Wes Bentley's (literally) two-faced man Edward Mordrake is purported to have been a real English aristocrat with diprosopus, although the evidence of his existence is somewhat flimsy.

And finally, the terrifying Twisty the Clown took inspiration from infamous serial killer and real life clown John Wayne Gacy. As if clowns weren't scary enough already. Thanks for that, AHS.

A world of horror



American Horror Story doesn't just reflect events in the real world, but also has its own internal consistency, which is slowly becoming more apparent as the show continues.



The most overt connection so far was the appearance of both Pepper and Sister Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe) in Freak Show, after they had also featured in Asylum two seasons earlier.

James Cromwell's Asylum character Dr Arthur Arden - otherwise known as the Nazi scientist Hans Gruper - also showed up again as a young man in Freak Show just in time to saw off Elsa's legs.

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So far there are no obvious links to Coven, but expect that to change in the future, as Murphy has promised that the different stories are "all connected".



"We're just beginning to tell you how they're connected," he told EW. "They're all very separate but there's clues every season that we're now telling you how the different worlds are intertwined.

"That's the fun of the show," he added. "Hopefully by the end of the run, be it 10 years or 15 years, people will be able to stand back and be able to say, 'Oh that was connected to x'."

Checking into the hotel

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AHS will be back in October for its fifth season, subtitled Hotel. Jessica Lange - who has been a consistently fantastic core of the show for the first four years - will not be returning, with Murphy calling the season a "true ensemble" now that his star has gone.

Lily Rabe, Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson are back as the only actors to have starred in every season of AHS - their fellow four-season alumnus Frances Conroy has not been confirmed, but has a habit of turning up in surprising places!

Other notable returns include Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett as Ramona Royale, Chloë Sevigny, Emma Roberts, Wes Bentley, Matt Bomer and Denis O'Hare.

New additions to the cast include none other than Naomi Campbell, as well as Cheyenne Jackson, Max Greenfield and Twin Peaks star Mädchen Amick.



Lady Gaga will be swapping the stage for the screen again as the owner of the Hotel Cortez known alternately as Elizabeth or The Countess, a bisexual socialite who we are assured has an ambitiously nefarious plan for her guests. Bates will be the hotel manager Iris, with Paulson as her bitter foe with the incredible moniker of Hypodermic Sally.



Murphy hasn't revealed much about the story, following the guests and staff of a rambling, Art Deco-style hotel, with the usual promise that it will be "darker, grimmer, more disturbing" than ever, with a slew of murders guaranteed (no surprise there).

Bomer and Wittrock are rumoured to be Gaga's main love interests, and we are told that Paulson will have her first "purely evil" role.

Hypodermic Sally. We'll just keep saying it until we have anything more to give you. Hypodermic Sally.

American Horror Story: Hotel will premiere on FX in the US on October 7 and on FOX UK on October 20.

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