The Most Paused Moments In American Horror Story

Since 2011, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk have been pushing the boundaries of what can be shown on television with American Horror Story. With each season featuring a new location and a new plotline (at least at first), AHS boasts a core cast including Jessica Lange, Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe, Frances Conroy, and many more. These talents have taken on a variety of different roles over the course of the show, sometimes appearing as multiple characters in one season — or even one episode. 

The innovative nature of this casting is eye-catching — yet it still pales in comparison to much of the intense content presented in each AHS season. The gore, twists, and disturbing details of this show captivate and horrify viewers on a regular basis, often requiring AHS fans to pause and take a break from the grotesque events playing out on screen. From shocking reveals to gruesome murders, here are the most paused moments of American Horror Story.

Tate Langdon and Violet Harmon (Taissa Farmiga) share their hearts, dreams, and fears with each other in ways they never have with anyone else. The fact that Violet's father Ben sees Tate as the son he never had only adds to Tate and Violet's romance. But in what would become classic AHS style, there is a twist in their relationship, and it cuts like a butcher knife. We find out in horrifying detail that Tate Langdon is actually a ghost who killed himself in the Montgomery House after he orchestrated a school shooting. Said shooting took the lives of several classmates and wounded many others.

To make things worse, Violet appears to develop agoraphobia and a panic disorder, which flares up every time she tries to leave the property. Ultimately, we discover that in a bout of grief, Violet overdosed on sleeping pills and died. Her body was hidden by Tate in the crawlspace under the house. She has been a ghost for some time, just like Tate. Their seemingly sweet romance ends in further tragedy when Violet finds out her love is the one who assaulted and impregnated her mother. There's a whole lot to pause and take in here. 

It's bad enough to lose a limb for any reason, but on AHS, it sometimes happens for no reason at all. Two gruesome and unnecessary amputations occur as part of Asylum and AHS' fourth season, Freak Show. 

Asylum introduces Dr. Arden, a sadistic Nazi who enjoys torturing the poor folks he is entrusted to care for and heal. Dr. Arden is also a staunch misogynist who has no time for the women in his orbit. Shelley (Chloe Sevigny) has been diagnosed as a nymphomaniac after her cheating husband finds out that she's been returning his terrible favor with other men. Dr. Arden amputates both of her legs after she laughs at him, and dumps her in a playground where children find her and call her "the monster." Whew. That's a moment to take a pause if ever there was one. For some viewers, this moment is more than enough to hit stop and never resume watching the show again. 

In Freak Show, we find out that Dr. Arden's fetish for unnecessary amputation has actually been put on film: He cuts off Elsa Mars' (Jessica Lange) legs on a horrific underground tape. Unlike poor Shelley, whose life ends as her legs are cut off, Elsa lives and learns to walk with prosthetic limbs.

Many of AHS' most terrifying monsters weren't actually born that way — they were warped by trauma and terrible circumstance. Twisty the Clown, who is featured in Freak Show, is one of the most poignant examples of this. After a childhood accident leaves him mildly mentally disabled, Twisty becomes one of the most popular and beloved clowns on the sideshow circuit. But with all this attention comes the jealousy of his fellow clowns, who are so threatened by Twisty's success, they spread a foul rumor that he molests children. 

The rumor grows teeth, and Twisty's life as a performer for kids ends just like that. In despair, Twisty turns his shotgun on himself ... and survives. To hide his newly mangled face, Twisty once again dons his clown mask and makes it his mission to "save" children from parents he believes are hurting them. Played by John Carroll Lynch, Twisty the Clown is equal parts horrifying and affecting, even as he is physically petrifying to behold.

There is absolutely no shortage of people meeting terrible ends throughout AHS, but that violence hits viewers differently when it happens to characters who are marginalized because of their disabilities. In Freak Show, we meet Ma Petite (Jyoti Amge), a little woman from India who is one of Fraulein Elsa's best friends and a prized member of her sideshow. While Ma Petite is a grown woman of small stature, she is still treated as a child: We often see her carried around like a living doll. 

Ma Petite radiates kindness even as she's surrounded by folks committing heinous acts of cruelty and degradation. This makes it utterly devastating to watch strongman Dell Toledo (Michael Chiklis) murder her for pay, then hand her body over to opportunistic Stanley (Denis O'Hare), who plans to install her pickled body in a museum of human oddities. Ma Petite's death hits hard: Much like Pepper, she represents purity and innocence within American Horror Story's dark world, all too quickly snuffed out.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Northern California was terrorized by the Zodiac Killer. He mainly targeted young couples, but also claimed a number of other victims in letters he wrote to the San Francisco Police Department. American Horror Story's sixth season, Cult, offers us an entirely new theory of who the Zodiac might be: Valerie Solanas (Lena Dunham), author of SCUM Manifesto, whose other claim to fame was attempting to murder Andy Warhol. 

With one of the most involved and double-cross-heavy plots in AHS history, Cult takes the very long way around to introduce Solanas — not just as the Zodiac Killer, but also the progenitor of Kai Anderson's (Evan Peters) woman-hating cult. It was, in the beginning, actually meant to inspire women to rise up against men. This convoluted story requires quite a lot of pausing, as viewers try to keep up. In many ways, it ends up overshadowing the creepy clowns, nasty incest, and political commentary that also drives Cult.

AHS fans were given many hints that the eighth season, Apocalypse, would feature crossover events going all the way back to season one's Murder House and season three's Coven. The question was, how would these events happen? In Apocalypse, Satan's son has risen, and the end of the world is a done deed. The wealthy are sequestered in bunkers all over the world, and in Outpost 3, stranger things than usual are afoot ... especially when a handsome stranger named Michael Landon (Cody Fern) shows up, and all hell quite literally breaks loose. 

As it turns out, angel-faced Michael is actually Lucifer's child, born of the unholy union between Tate Langdon and Vivien Harmon. Only the surviving witches from Coven can reverse the end of the world and eliminate Michael once and for all. Madame Robicheaux's witches appear like magic in the middle of Apocalypse, replete with their characteristic black dresses and incredible powers. It's a most-paused moment for sure, but a rare one for AHS in that fans pause to savor it, rather than recoil in horror.

When promoting AHS' ninth season, 1984, Ryan Murphy claimed it would be a standalone season, a statement fans took with an enormous grain of salt. Once upon a time, Murphy said none of the show's seasons would be connected, despite the fact that they very clearly are. So it comes as no surprise when AHS' newest serial killer, Margaret Booth, begins buying up murderous properties, some of which are the sites of previous AHS seasons. 

One key location is Briarcliff Manor, setting of the second season, Asylum. A whole lot of horror goes down there: Serial killing, a Nazi doctor's human experimentation, demonic possession, and so much more. Margaret Booth doesn't make it out of Camp Redwood herself, but someone who amassed that much wealth surely had a plan in place for her assets, in the event of her death. What will become of her grisly purchases? Only time will tell.