The Cage Theory That Changes Everything About American Horror Story: Hotel

For whatever reason, the only prominent modern anthology media available is horror. There's the "Dark Pictures" video game catalog, the long-running "Goosebumps" children's book series, and, of course, "American Horror Story." Perhaps it has to do with the thrill of a scare or the brevity in which said scare is shared. Still, when consumers are allowed to sit with a concept that's intended to stir fear, they become desensitized to its power, and numbness permits dissection. Okay, maybe that's a poor choice of word when discussing the horror genre, but the point still stands. Horror, when critically considered, is usually no longer horrific.

However, it does in turn become intriguing and excellent fodder for fun little theories. In this way, the details of Season 5 of "American Horror Story: Hotel" were found to potentially have a deeper meaning. After all, murder cages must be tended to with love and care. 

In a subreddit dedicated to the series, u/CheshireCandy shared their theory about the iron maiden cages. "I noticed that Iris puts the two Swedish girls into the cages and rambles about how they need to be cleansed ... Ramona also gets put into one of those cages in a later episode. My 'theory' ... is that those lights on the cages are UV lights. UV-B Rays are responsible for creating Vitamin D, something that those girls would be lacking after spending a lot of time indoors ... those with the Blood Virus are weakened by the sun, nature's UV machine. By locking Ramona in the cage, also indoors ... the UV lights would weaken her instead. I'm probably wrong, but to me, it looks like the lights could actually serve a dual purpose; being able to 1; weaken another afflicted or 2; [keep] a human strong for feeding, all while keeping them locked away in a dark place."

For clarity, "American Horror Story: Hotel" features cages known as iron maidens, surrounded by oppressive lights. Up to this point, it would have been easy to assume they were simply a bizarre decoration choice — that's how "AHS" operates. But this Redditor's suggestion that the lights served a secondary, adaptable purpose doesn't feel that far-fetched. There's a meet and greet for serial killers to share tips, Lady Gaga goes on a sexually charged, vampiric murder spree, and the first episode features a human organ smoothie. It's not beyond reason to assume the iron maidens were more sinister than they first appeared to be. Everything Ryan Murphy makes is.