Why Some AHS Fans Prefer The Non-Supernatural Seasons

With nine seasons – and a 10th forthcoming – each with a different theme and a sprawling cast list, "American Horror Story" has something for every type of horror fan. With each new season and theme, "AHS" co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk try to craft stories that frighten and unsettle us, drawing from humanity's long list of monsters and bogeymen. There've been aliens, witches, demons, ghosts, robots, the undead, a minotaur, and even Satan himself to tap into our worst fears and nightmares. And though these baddies usually track pretty high on our fear factor scale, some viewers are actually more spooked by a very common source of evil: humankind itself.

Redditor u/Bat_Feather recently started a conversation on the platform in which they declared "AHS: Cult," the series' seventh season, as the most frightening of all the series' themes due to the absence of the supernatural and paranormal. Many agreed with that assessment, as well as u/Bat_Feather's suggestion for a paranormal-free theme of a future season of the hit show.

In the thread, the Redditor said that "AHS: Cult," which features the rise of a cult leader inspired by the election of Donald Trump in 2016, "encapsulated the true American horror story." One response, from u/u/TorthOrc, agreed that "Cult" "taps into a very real and very relevant time and ideas," which makes the season all the more frightening. Similar views have been expressed about Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale," which depicts an all-too-possible reality in which a cult has imposed its strict doctrines on a largely unwilling population (via the Guardian). Another Redditor commented that they hated "Cult," not because of any lack in production quality, but rather because the theme was too realistic, and thus too scary, a sentiment also shared by u/Garciasgarden, who said that "Cult" "really freaked me out and had me so paranoid" due to its real-world probability.

In u/Bat_Feather's original post, they suggested a future reality-based theme of "AHS: Online," which would feature all the horrors of the internet, like online stalking, human trafficking, and the much-rumored-about "Red Rooms" of the Dark Web, in which people allegedly pay to watch actual rapes and murders. We don't know what Murphy and Falchuk have planned after the upcoming "American Horror Story: Double Feature," but "AHS: Online" or another theme sans the supernatural could be another truly terrifying journey into humanity's wickedness.