American Horror Story will return with an eleventh season in the near future, so speculation over the theme for this new season has already begun, and one of its best options was teased in American Horror Story: Asylum. The popularity of the horror genre has grown in recent years thanks to many successful movies and TV shows, and among those is American Horror Story, the anthology series created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. American Horror Story premiered on FX in 2011, and fans are now waiting for details on season 11, mostly details on the theme that will be addressed this time.

Each season of American Horror Story is built around a horror theme, and while each one is a standalone story, they have ended up building an AHS universe with characters and events connected to each other. First came Murder House, which was all about a haunted house and the ghosts living in it, and since then, American Horror Story has explored a variety of themes and creatures, such as circuses, aliens, different types of vampires, cults, etc. So far, AHS has covered basic horror themes, so fans are waiting for future seasons to go beyond and explore themes that are less popular and perhaps more obscure, and the perfect one for season 11 was teased in season 2, Asylum.

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American Horror Story: Asylum premiered in 2012 and is widely regarded as the show’s best season, thanks to its story, twists, and performances. Set in the 1960s, with jumps to the present day, Asylum takes viewers to the mental institution Briarcliff Manor, following the stories of some of the inmates as well as of the doctors and nuns working there. The main threat in Asylum was the serial killer known as Bloody Face, but there were other types of horrors inside Briarcliff too, and in one episode, it showed the horrific backstory of one patient: Leigh Emerson (Ian McShane), a dark, violent version of Santa Claus who would be a great theme for American Horror Story season 11.

Leigh Emerson is introduced in AHS: Asylum’s episode titled “Unholy Night”, which takes viewers back to the night that got him sent to Briarcliff. Five days before Christmas Eve in 1962, Emerson killed a sidewalk Santa Claus who was collecting charity and stole his (bloodstained) suit. Now as Santa Claus, Emerson broke into the houses of five different families and killed them, but not without torturing and threatening them first. Emerson’s motivations are unknown, but he told one of his victims he chose their house because of their Christmas decorations outside the house. Christmas horror is one of the themes fans of AHS have been hoping to see, and season 11 could pay off Asylum’s “serial killer Santa Claus” theme by fully delving into it.

Of course, the writers of American Horror Story would find a lot more layers to the Christmas horror theme than a Santa Claus who loves to kill people before and during Christmas, and it’s a theme that doesn’t require any supernatural elements, which would be a nice change after so many seasons with supernatural creatures. Leigh Emerson hasn’t been the only tease of Christmas horror in American Horror Story but he’s definitely the most memorable one, as well as the one that can finally pay off in season 11.

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Adrienne Tyler
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Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate who wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Prior to Screen Rant, she wrote for Pop Wrapped, 4 Your Excitement (4YE), and D20Crit, where she was also a regular guest at Netfreaks podcast. She was also a contributor for FanSided’s BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. Adrienne is very into films and she enjoys a bit of everything: from superhero films to heartbreaking dramas, to low-budget horror films. Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings.

When she’s not writing, you can find her trying to learn a new language, watching hockey (go Avs!), or wondering what life would have been like had Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Limitless not been cancelled. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round.

Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once. It was great.

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