Every American Horror Story season ranked from worst to best – from Murder House to Delicate

Ah, American Horror Story. Perhaps one of the most inconsistent yet utterly captivating series on TV, Ryan Murphy’s ode to the horror genre has been running for 15 years and (now) 13 seasons, ranging from excellent to bizarre. The show resurrected the anthology format and, for the first few seasons anyway, was one of the best and most popular shows on television.

The beauty of an anthology series is that each new season is a fresh start with new characters and new ideas. And Murphy sure isn’t short of new ideas. The downside of an anthology show is that the quality can vary wildly from season to season and nowhere is that more evident than American Horror Story.

From near-perfect seasons of television to wildly inconsistent and incomprehensible seasons, AHS has given us everything and the kitchen sink across its run.

However, as its 13th season is about to drop, promising to bring back fan favourite characters, we thought now was the perfect time to rank every season of the legendary series.

The only season not to have Ryan Murphy as a showrunner and the only season to be based on another piece of media, Delicate lands with a bit of a thud in the end. A grab bag of ideas and influences including, among others, Rosemary’s Baby and an attempted commentary on Hollywood, everything takes just a little too long to get where it’s going.

Delicate is, at best, a less sensationalised season of AHS and at worst, a bit boring. And Ryan Murphy is a lot of things as a writer, but boring isn’t one of them. We do get Kim Kardashian making her AHS debut alongside returning favourites Emma Roberts and Denis O'Hare, but even star power can’t make up for a plodding plot.

Dare I say this one was a bit too delicate to make for a good AHS season?

11. 1984 (Season 9)

One of the biggest problems that plagues AHS is that the show seems both overstuffed and somehow stretched thin. Early episodes hold promise, even if they are too jammed with ideas, only for the back half of the season to fail to follow through on any of those lingering plot threads. Nowhere is that more prominent than in the slasher themed season, 1984.

Those early episodes are a blast, full of gory and hilarious slasher set pieces that feel ripped straight out of the films that inspired them. As the season wears on and we get deeper into the mystery surrounding Camp Redwood, things get a lot less fun and a lot more of a slog. It does have a great cast that, for the most part, feel at home in the brilliantly realised 1980s setting. Still, maybe skip this one.

10. Double Feature (Season 10)

A lot of lists ranking the AHS seasons place Double Feature lower on the list, but we can't help but admire Murphy and co for trying something different for the show’s 10th outing. Splitting the season in half and telling two stories, one about a mysterious coastal town and the other about aliens, is a fascinating idea that immediately appeals to this writer.

The double feature angle is also a cleaver homage to the classics of the genre that both of the seasons’ storylines draw from. Unfortunately, what we end up with are two undercooked storylines instead of a single, fully baked one. Attempts to weave thematic strands together fall flat and, stop me if you’ve heard this one before, nothing comes together in the end. Still, things could be a lot worse and the sci-fi angle for both stories at least gives us a some variety in the AHS rogues gallery.

9. Cult (Season 7)

I guess you could call this the Trump season. It's also the season where Evan Peters plays several characters, including Charles Manson and the series' central cult leader, Kai Anderson. Cult is a weird one, given that it delves into everything from cults of personality to actual cults, rarely managing to pull its many, many ideas together in any real way.

It's an ambitious season with some great performances (see Peters and Paulson) but it fails to really tackle any of its lofty themes with any real conviction. It's also one of the seasons where the focus on shock factor wears thin more quickly than most. It’s scary in an existential sense, given its real world inspirations, but its true impact will likely depend on how unnerving you find an endless parade of creepy clowns.

8. Hotel (Season 5)

What do you do if Jessica Lange wants to leave your show? You hire Lady Gaga. Hotel is the haunted hotel themed season, which draws inspiration from pretty much every kind of haunted hotel story you've ever seen, read or heard rumours about in a TikTok. It's also an absolute mess.

Like pretty much every season of AHS, it starts off strong by introducing the Hotel Cortez and its many mysteries before losing track of its characters and spiralling into a strange, true crime obsessed journey through the dark underbelly of Los Angeles.

It’s particularly notable for being the season that featured a dinner party attended by some of America's most heinous serial killers in a precursor to Murphy's Netflix series Monster. It's a shame, because the central storyline and its primary inspiration (the infamous Cecil Hotel) are all consistently interesting and Gaga is a fantastic, if underused, addition to the cast. Unfortunately, nothing comes together in an even remotely satisfying way.

7. NYC (Season 11)

The evil at the heart of NYC is decidedly human. AHS is no stranger to the world of serial killers (pretty much every season features at least one) but by setting this season firmly within the queer community of the early '80s, NYC has more focus than most seasons of the show. From leather clad killers to the growing AIDS crisis gripping the city, NYC is rooted in real history at a scale AHS hasn’t really attempted before and it’s all the better for it.

There's a reality to the horror in NYC that grounds its events beyond the shock factor that the show has become known for. An excellent cast (as always), led by newcomer Russell Tovey, bring its characters to life in a way that keeps the tension high without ever sacrificing or undercutting the core themes. It still suffers from a feeling of being rushed that drags it down the list but its more serious approach certainly differentiates it within the AHS canon.

6. Apocalypse (Season 8)

Season 13 of AHS is set to bring back many beloved cast members and characters from earlier seasons, including (finally) Jessica Lange. Each actor is set to play multiple roles in what promises to bring together many dangling plot threads from the show’s long legacy in one bombastic event. Only, we've kind of done this before, haven't we?

Season 8, titled Apocalypse, finally revisits the antichrist storyline from Murder House and brings together beloved characters from Coven to tell the story of, well, the apocalypse. We even get a special guest appearance by Lange as Constance Langdon. As for the plot, well it’s standard AHS stuff. Nuclear war, time travel, witchcraft and ghosts.

It might not all land, as has become the pattern for AHS by this point, but a combination of fan service and an excellent villain in Michael Langdon (played by Cody Fern) and you've got a solid season of AHS. The ball’s in your court, season 13.

5. Freak Show (Season 4)

It's always hard to follow up your best work and nowhere is that more evident than Freak Show. This was the season that lost me when I first started watching AHS as it was coming out. Sure, there's plenty to like about the season (the cast are fantastic as usual and Twisty the clown is a memorable addition to the AHS rogues gallery) but it’s also the first time that the elements that don’t work overshadow those that do.

When the show loses focus on its core characters, led by Lange's Elsa Mars, the whole thing falls apart. Still, Freak Show is saved by a vividly realised setting and some standout moments of weirdness (which is saying something for AHS). AHS has never been perfect but Freak Show was the first time the cracks really started to show.

4. Roanoke (Season 6)

After a couple of misses in a row, as we've previously discussed, season 6 took the unusual step of keeping the theme a secret right up until the first episode dropped. Even then, it took a few episodes before we finally found out that AHS was doing its own version of the Roanoke story, but that slow reveal, along with the meta documentary style presentation, made this one of the more exciting an experimental seasons.

In classic AHS style, it doesn't fully come together in the end, but it proves that mixing up the classic formula and adding a few new cast members (see Cuba Gooding J, fresh off of his starring role in American Crime Story's first season) can make for a solid entry into the AHS canon.

3. Asylum (Season 2)

When AHS first aired, it wasn't marketed as an anthology series. It was just another show from Ryan Murphy, albeit closer to Nip Tuck than Glee. Then Asylum revealed that the show would take the same cast (with a few new additions) and create a whole new world and story for them to inhabit. The result was perhaps the only season of the show to actually scare me.

Whether it's Adam Levine getting stalked by a sinister serial killer, or the always excellent Sarah Paulson being trapped in the titular asylum, season 2 upped the ante in pretty much every way. While it lacks the charm of the season that would follow, Asylum is still peak AHS in pretty much every way.

2. Murder House (Season 1)

The original season might get a bit overshadowed by the theatrics of later entries, but Murder House is still an exceptional season of TV. Centred around the Harmon family, who move into a haunted LA home overflowing with secrets (and ghosts), Murder House is a sultry, violent and gripping mystery with some all time great TV moments.

It definitely feels a little dated on a rewatch (the pilot is wildly overstuffed), but it also features some of the best characters in the whole show, including Lange's nosey neighbour Constance Langdon and Evan Peters's troubled teen Tate. It also introduced us to the Rubber Man, deeply upsetting basement oddities and a demonic baby – all iconic elements the show would revisit in future seasons. AHS might not have peaked with season 1, but it came close.

1. Coven (Season 3)

Was any other season ever going to top the list? Coven and its story of witchcraft, murder and mystery in New Orleans is the perfect blend of drama, horror and camp that only Ryan Murphy can pull off. Packed with memorable characters, many of whom return in future seasons, and plentiful references to the witchy horror movies that inspired it, Coven is AHS at its absolute best.

Following the students at Miss Robichaux's Academy, Coven brings back the whole gang, including Jessica Lange as the formidable Fiona Goode and Sarah Paulson as headmistress Cordelia Goode, whose interactions make for some of the shows best moments.

Add to that Lily Rabe’s mysterious Misty Day, countless Fleetwood Mac needle drops and a sweaty Southern gothic tone, and you’ve got all the ingredients for a wonderfully witchy brew that proves AHS is at its best when it’s relying on its vibrant cast of characters. Coven is also proof that witches make everything better.

American Horror Story season 13 will begin on FX on 24 September and will be available to stream internationally on Disney+.

Previous seasons are available to stream now on Disney+ in the UK – sign up to Disney Plus from £5.99 a month or £79.90 a year now.

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