AHS Red Tide’s Jaws References Poke Fun At Season 10 Theme Theories

Prior to the premiere of American Horror Story season 10, fans had plenty of theories about the season’s sea-based theme, which Red Tide pokes fun at in its first few episodes with references to Jaws. Surprisingly, neither of the themes for Double Feature is actually new to the American Horror Story universe. Red Tide follows new characters as they stay in a Cape Cod town during the winter, where many off-season residents turn out to be vampires, which were already explored in Hotel. Similarly, AHS: Desert Valley trailers have revealed that Part 2 will include aliens as the core villains, a theme introduced in Asylum.

The premise of American Horror Story: Double Feature was largely kept under wraps, though was teased as a two-part season that would cover a water story and land story. Fans went to town with what new creatures Ryan Murphy would use for such themes, including popular theories about AHS season 10 finally including mermaids or sirens. Once teasers for the season included what was obviously an alien fighting a fanged, pale creature emerging from the sea, fans were sure that their sea-creature guesses would pan out. Instead, AHS season 10’s premiere episode showed that the sea villains weren’t actually from the water, they were the seaside town’s resident vampires.

One of the more widespread theme theories about AHS season 10 connected to Jaws (1975), with many believing the villains would be sinister shark humanoid creatures. It doesn’t seem to be a coincidence that fans were so adamant about a Jaws theory beforehand, and Red Tide’s first two episodes both featured references to the classic horror film. In the first episode, “Cape Fear,” Harry finds two bodies washed up on the beach, with the authorities and officials claiming that it’s nothing to worry about and is probably just a great white shark attack. Since Jaws’ corrupt mayor was adamant about putting aside shark suspicions and speculated about a boat accident instead, American Horror Stories’ authorities actually deeming the bodies shark attack victims suggested early on that the creatures wouldn’t be so simple as to be shark-related — even if they were humanoid shark experiments.

The most obvious reference to Jaws in AHS season 10 is when Macaulay Culkin’s character Mickey is relating his own fan theory to Sarah Paulson’s TB Karen. Mickey goes on a rant about how Jaws’ Quint is actually the villain, and the shark is the hero out for revenge after Quint has been hunting down his friends and family. He also comments on how the sequel, Jaws 2, was terrible, and Karen tells him how smart he is about movies; the exchange is essentially Murphy gently mocking armchair TV and film critics. Considering the dialogue is about a fan getting high and coming up with far-fetched theories, the scene appears to be poking fun at how Ryan Murphy imagined his own fans coming to such conclusions about the AHS season 10 theme.

At only a few episodes in, it’s still unknown what the full propensity of the vampire-like creatures contains, so the possibility of the Pale Creature vampires adapting into underwater shark humanoids isn’t out of the picture considering they’re based on experiments by The Chemist. Even if sharks, Lady of the Dune, or real sea creature humanoids aren’t introduced in American Horror Story season 10, the series has already been picked up for three more seasons, meaning such Jaws theories could still pan out for creatures in future installations.

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Jordan Williams
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Jordan Williams is a Movie/TV Feature Senior Staff Writer for Screen Rant. She graduated from the University of Oregon in 2020 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Media Studies.

Jordan is based in Seattle, Washington and enjoys exploring the natural beauty the PNW has to offer. She runs on coffee and classic movies, taking pride in having watched every film on AFI’s 100 Greatest Films list and every Best Picture Oscar winner.

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