American Horror Story Still Needs To Adapt These 7 Horror Subgenres Before The Series Ends

As American Horror Story prepares for its 13th season and plot details are unknown, there are some horror subgenres I would love to see on the show soon. Created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, American Horror Story has been quite popular for over a decade, even if its quality has declined in recent years. Each season of American Horror Storycovers a different horror theme, often mixing various, giving every season their own story and style, though all of them with the show's signature narrative and visual style.

American Horror Story began with MurderHouse, which brought together a haunted house and ghosts. Since then, the show has covered asylums, witches, freak shows, haunted hotels, cults, vampires, aliens, and even real-life events but with a bigger touch of horror. The future of American Horror Story beyond season 13 is currently unknown, and season 13 has been theorized to be the show’s last, but supposing it continues, there are some horror subgenres that the show hasn’t focused on and I would love to see.

7 Giallo

Dario Argento Is The Most Famous Giallo Filmmaker

American Horror Story has paid homage to some classic horror subgenres, either briefly or for an entire season. The most notable example is American Horror Story: 1984, which was inspired by the big slasher movies of the 1980s, such as Friday the 13th and John Carpenter’s Halloween. A subgenre that would be very interesting to watch in the style of American Horror Story is Giallo, which developed in the mid-to-late 1960s.

Giallo influenced the slasher genre, hence their many similarities.

Giallo brings together slasher, psychological horror, sexploitation, and thriller, and its stories usually involve a killer whose identity isn’t revealed until the final minutes. Giallo influenced the slasher genre, hence their many similarities. The plot in a Giallo movie would involve a mysterious and psychopathic villain who stalks and kills its victims, usually women. The Giallo protagonist would be an outcast in some way and there’s a big mystery to solve.

Imagery-from-Deep-Red-and--The-Bird-with-the-Crystal-Plumage

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Some of the most notable Giallo filmmakers are Dario Argento and Mario Brava. Giallo, then, would be perfect for American Horror Story and would give the show a much-needed twist in its narrative and visual style, which could be refreshing after over 10 seasons of pretty much the same style.

6 Zombies

Zombies Have Been Widely Popular In Recent Years

American Horror Story has covered various horror themes for over a decade, but it’s still surprising that it hasn’t included some of the most popular ones. Such is the case of zombies, which haven’t been included in any capacity yet, though there have been some characters who fall into “undead” category, but don’t fit the definition of a “zombie.” A zombie is a reanimated corpse, though the source for its rise varies depending on the story. What they all have in common, however, is that they are cannibalistic.

White Zombie (1932) is considered the first zombie movie, while George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) was key in creating the modern zombie.

Zombies have gained popularity in the last decade, with TV shows like The Walking Dead boosting this new wave. American Horror Story surprisingly hasn’t seized the popularity of zombies, but it’s not too late (yet). American Horror Story has already made changes to vampires, so zombies could go through some modifications to make them scarier and more believable while also bringing a tragic story, as these creatures are often quite tragic.

5 Werewolves

Werewolves Are The Missing Classic Monster In American Horror Story

Another surprising creature and subgenre that hasn’t been covered in American Horror Story is the classic werewolf. As mentioned above, American Horror Story has already featured vampires (and more than once), so it would be fair that werewolves got their chance, too. In fiction, werewolves are a human and beast hybrid, and the classic concept of them is a human who has been infected, and so they transform into a wolf or a similar beast in specific circumstances. Along with Dracula, Frankenstein’s creature, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the werewolf became one of the classic monsters.

A character from Being Human is looking straight into the camera, while a werewolf from Penny Dreadful is yelling up towards the sky.

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Just like zombies and vampires, the origins, symptoms, actions, and more of werewolves vary depending on the artist. American Horror Story could give werewolves a more grounded origin and style without missing the elements that make them tragic but horrifying creatures. Usingwerewolves would also bring American Horror Story closer to body horror, which is another realm it hasn’t fully explored yet.

4 Aquatic Horror

The Depths Of The Sea Surely Are Full Of Horrors

An underrated and often forgotten horror subgenre is aquatic horror. These are stories set in the water, either in the depths of the sea or on the surface, but with the horrors coming from the water. Aquatic horror can go full-on claustrophobic with underwater stories, following the characters in an underwater vessel with no way out as they are haunted by a horrifying threat. On the other hand, it can also explore the horrors that live underwater from the surface, as Steven Spielberg did with Jaws.

Although some stories and moments throughout American Horror Story have been set near the water, the show hasn’t fully gone into them. There’s a lot of hope that, if not season 13, a future season will finally cover the theme of sirens, which fits perfectly with aquatic horror and, at the same time, features a mythological creature.

3 Space Horror

Deep Space Can Be Terrifying

If not the depths of the sea, why not the mysteries and horrors of outer space? So far, American Horror Story hasn’t really gone into sci-fi horror, with some hints here and there but never using it as a central theme. As such, American Horror Story has mostly taken place on Earth (except for some scenes at the lab of aliens), but it might be time to take things a bit higher… literally. Just like the depths of the sea, there are many mysteries in outer space and potential horrors, and it would make it very difficult for those up there to get help.

A cover image made featuring a hand covered in cables from the movie Pandorum sits next to Laurence Fishburne from Event Horizon

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Space horror would give American Horror Story some interesting and creative options, such as the classic one of the main characters coming across a horrifying alien creature, or something more suspenseful but still terrifying, such as being trapped in outer space with no way back to Earth. It would be a completely different territory for American Horror Story, which is why I would love to see it.

2 Christmas Horror

American Horror Story: Asylum Came Close To It

Holiday horror isn’t a subgenre American Horror Story has properly explored, but it has had some episodes set on specific holidays – however, the one I would love to see as a central theme is Christmas horror. This branch has seen some classics like Black Christmas and more modern stories like Krampus, showing that there’s versatility in it. The closest American Horror Story has gotten to Christmas horror was one episode of Asylum, with the character of Leigh Emerson.

Asylum’s Leigh Emerson episode shows how well Christmas horror would work for the show.

The spin-off/companion series, American Horror Stories, has a whole episode using Christmas horror, but the main show can use it as an example of how not to do it. While truly any other holiday that isn’t Halloween would be interesting to watch in the context and style of American Horror Story, Asylum’s Leigh Emerson episode shows how well Christmas horror would work for the show.

1 AI Horror

A Current Issue In Real- Life & A Popular Topic In Fiction

As mentioned above, American Horror Story hasn’t really gone into sci-fi horror, but if it does, I would love to see it going for AI horror. This branch of horror has gained a lot of force in recent years thanks to the rise of AI in the real world, which has sparked a lot of controversy in many areas. Movies like Ex-Machina, Upgrade, M3GAN and Subservience, and TV shows like Black Mirror have used the topic of AI in different ways to show the potential risks of this technology, all with different outcomes.

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American Horror Story going into AI horror would be fitting with what’s currently happening in the real world, would seize an ongoing horror trend, and would be something completely new for the series. American Horror Story could do some interesting and terrifying things with AI horror, more so if it mixes it with other horror themes, as it usually does.