How Was American Horror Story's Murder House Cursed?

Ryan Murphy's long-running anthology series, "American Horror Story," has given horror fans many chilling tales and memorable characters, but it's worth noting that you might never have witnessed the disturbing glory of, say, Twisty the Clown (John Carroll Lynch) if the show's very first season wouldn't have been such a success. "American Horror Story: Murder House" introduced viewers to many of the franchise's talismans, like Evan Peters and Jessica Lange. Many fans still consider it one of the best installments in the series, and it's no accident that the titular house is the first place the "American Horror Stories" spinoff anthology.

The central concept of "Murder House" is, of course, the titular restored, extremely haunted mansion, which contains ghosts, creeps, and disturbed individuals that range from the monstrous Infantata (Ben Woolf) to whoever happens to be wearing the iconic Rubber Man costume at any given time. It's pretty clear that the house is deeply cursed — but why, exactly, did it end up that way? Here's how fans think "American Horror Story's" Murder House was cursed.

The Murder House originally belonged to famed surgeon Dr. Charles Montgomery (Matt Ross), and his wife, Nora (Lily Rabe). Charles fell dramatically from grace and became a shady back alley doctor, which led to the death of his baby son, Thaddeus. The despairing Charles resurrected the remains as the Frankenstein abomination known as the Infantata, which in turn caused Nora to take ... drastic measures. With an origin story like that, one could argue there's no way the house wouldn't develop a hefty evil aura, and fans on Reddit indeed feel this may be the reason behind the grim nature of the house. 

"I assumed Charles cursed it when he brought Thaddeus back to life," redditor GaladintheGrey wrote. "He broke the natural law and invited evil into the house." User MaryKlar had similar thoughts, and they attribute the house's cursed nature to a sort of haunted house pile-up effect that started with Charles and Nora. "[...] I think Charles remained in the house after his death due to all these horrible and unforgivable things he had done to the people, so there couldn't be any possible place for him to rest in peace," they wrote. "Nora was chiding herself and died with a great wish to get her baby back, maybe that's why she got attached to the house. So then we have the haunted house with ghosts, and that's not good for further residents as we know." 

While others attribute the house's nature to a more traditional "they built it on cursed land" backstory, the idea of evil just building up over time does seem like an extremely "American Horror Story" concept ... and the Montgomery family's horrifying fate does seem like a good starting point for that.