Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk knew they had a star for their new FX series, American Horror Story, as soon as they saw it. The it being a house, not an actor. They needed a house that had its own haunted presence and regardless of what paranormal events occurred it would retain its evil aura and could handle ghosts, murderers, sexual deviants, over lapping time lines and other strange manifestations. The creator/writers needed something exceptional; a house that would never give up its secrets: past, present or future.
“It was just love,” Murphy said. “We walked in and we were like, “Oh, okay, this is the one.” That’s how I felt when I saw it. With a lot of things that we wrote in the pilot, we put them in there, based on the house. The Tiffany chandeliers and the stain glass fixtures all of that was there. I was excited about that so we could have it.
“I don’t think it will do anything like Poltergeist, where I believe it imploded into itself, if I’m not wrong. But it definitely is a character. I currently live in a house that I believe has another spirit in it. And everybody I talk to has those stories. I think that’s really interesting and fascinating and definitely a part of the layering of the show.”
The house was built in 1910, which isn’t very old by some haunted standards, and designed by architect Alfred Rosenheim. The house is just south of Hancock Park in what is referred to as the “Country Club Park” area of Los Angeles. It was later used as an administration building in a convent, but is now once again a single family dwelling. But does it have any real ghosts?
Falchuk agrees that the house is perfect for the show even if it is set in LA. “When you talk about haunted cities I think Los Angeles is a wonderfully haunted city. It’s got plenty of great ghost stories and great horrors in it. So in picking a city, Los Angeles seemed actually pretty perfect for it. We considered others, but, Los Angeles has this wonderful history of the Black Dahlia and Manson murders and Richard Ramirez and so many others that really make this place a great ghost town. There’s got to be houses from the 1800s around here somewhere too.”
In a spectacular surprise during last week’s episode Vivien (Connie Britton) died to become a full time specter of the house. With one more episode to go how in the world will they top this?
Watch tonight’s final cliff-hanging episode “After Birth” at 10:00 PM on FX!
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