The Most Disturbing AHS Villain According To Fans
"American Horror Story" has had its fair share of upsetting villains. From Howard Hughes- and H.H. Holmes-inspired serial killers, to real-life sadistic slave owners, to the literal antichrist — "AHS" seasons are in many ways defined by their Big Bad. A Reddit post asked fans to weigh in on which villains they found most disturbing and the answers spanned the seasons.
One poster was most upset by Season 3's Delphine Lalaurie, since she was a real-life racist murderer, writing "as a POC racism has always scared me to the very core of my soul." Lalaurie was a real woman in New Orleans, and the stories of her cruelty toward enslaved Africans became legendary in the French Quarter. Ultimately, the extremity of her actions was used to prop up slavery in some ways, as discussed in an article in the Journal of Global Slavery. Other slave owners could reject Lalaurie's torture and ignore the fundamentally dehumanizing nature of the institution, saying "Well at least I'm not that."
Other posters were creeped out by Dandy Mott and Kai, the villains of "Freak Show" and "Cult," respectively. But one Big Bad kept coming up the most.
Fans are majorly spooked by Dr. Thredson
Zachary Quinto's Dr. Oliver Thredson, one of the many malevolent actors in Briarcliff Manor in Season 2 of "AHS," came up again and again in the list of most disturbing villains. Fans were creeped out by how normal he appeared at first. Nice, even. "He works slow, gets to know his victims," one user wrote, "makes them feel comfortable like he's a safe space then pulls the old switcheroo on them. Makes my skin crawl!"
Thredson worked as a psychiatrist at Briarcliff, advocating for more humane treatment of the patients there. This was a facade, however, as Thredson was also the serial killer Bloody Face. Thredson would kidnap women he thought might possess motherly skin, whatever that means. When these women were ultimately found wanting, he would behead and skin them. He turned their skin into furniture, a la real-life killer Ed Gein. Dr. Thredson also tried to "cure" Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson) of her homosexuality with aversion therapy. His torturous methods were only slightly worse than what real doctors of the time practiced, as New Now Next discussed.