American Horror Story has covered different horror themes in each season, but it has also repeated a couple, sometimes with some changes. American Horror Story continues to explore different fears, horror themes, and creatures in each season, with standalone stories that, with time, have created a connected AHS universe. Because of this, it’s not that surprising that some themes have been used more than once in the series, but these are not always consistent. American Horror Story has made changes to the topics it has covered before, making way for plot holes and making the connected universe a bit confusing and even contradicting.

American Horror Story started by covering the theme of haunted houses and ghosts in the season now known as Murder House, and since then, it has explored a bit of everything, though it’s still missing some popular themes from the horror genre. American Horror Story has also taken inspiration from various horror movies, with themes from these also being repeated across different seasons. The upcoming season 12, titled Delicate, while based on a book, is also repeating a past theme, and here are more horror themes that American Horror Story has repeated so far.

8Haunted Places

There are a couple of haunted places in the universe of American Horror Story. As mentioned above, the series kicked off with Murder House, set in a house where the ghosts of all those who died there were trapped, and they kept claiming the lives of those who moved in. The theme of haunted places continued in season 5, Hotel, with Hotel Cortez also trapping the souls of those who died inside of it. The following season, Roanoke, also featured a haunted house, and American Horror Story: 1984’s Camp Redwood also turned out to be a haunted location. Although they all had different stories, what they all had in common was that they were the settings of horrible crimes.

7Ghosts

With haunted places in the universe of American Horror Story also come ghosts. In addition to Murder House and the ghosts of those who died inside the house, season 3, Coven, also had its dose of ghosts with the Axeman, and the following season, Freak Show, saw the ghosts of Edward Mordrake and Twisty the Clown. As explained above, Hotel’s Hotel Cortez was the home of a variety of tortured ghosts (as well as those of a couple of criminals), most notably Hypodermic Sally, and Roanoke featured the vengeful ghosts of the Roanoke Colony.

Due to its crossover with Coven and Hotel, Apocalypse also had a couple of ghosts, as did 1984 with its murdered counselors, and American Horror Story: NYC saw the main characters being haunted by a murderous ghost known as Big Daddy

6Aliens

American Horror Story: Asylum is widely considered the series’ best season, and it mixed two horror themes that are unlikely to be mixed: asylums and aliens. These creatures abducted different people in Asylum to experiment on them, and the aliens made another appearance in the second part of season 10, Death Valley. However, Death Valley made some changes to the aliens and their experiments as seen in Asylum, creating a plot hole that might never really be solved but can get more complicated if aliens return in a future season of American Horror Story.

5Witches

American Horror Story: Coven introduced a coven of powerful witches along with Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, thus exploring different types of practices linked to witchcraft and magic. Although Coven gave proper endings to its main characters and saw the rise of a new Supreme thanks to Cordelia Foxx, the witches returned in the crossover season Apocalypse. In it, the witches joined forces to defeat the Antichrist, and through that, American Horror Story established who its most powerful witch really is, and with every new season, rumors arise about the possible return of Cordelia’s coven or the formation of a new one.

4Vampires

Of course, American Horror Story has already featured vampires, though different versions of these classic (and tragic) creatures. Vampires made their American Horror Story debut in Hotel, as the most notable resident of Hotel Cortez was Elizabeth “the Countess” Johnson, who carried a mysterious blood virus that basically turned her into a vampire: she never aged, was immune to human weaknesses and illnesses, and had to drink blood to survive. Vampires were used again in the first part of American Horror Story: Double Feature, Red Tide, but they were different from the Countess and company.

Referred to as “Pale People”, the vampires in Red Tide were created when someone took one of the black pills created by The Chemist, which granted them intense inspiration for their art at the cost of an unbearable need to drink blood – however, those who weren’t naturally talented and took the pill ended up becoming pale creatures who lost speech and normal brain function, but still needed to drink blood.

3Real-Life Serial Killers

American Horror Story has taken inspiration from books, movies, legends, and real-life horrors, so it’s not that surprising that it has featured some fictionalized versions of real-life serial killers. First was the Axeman in Coven, based on the unidentified New Orleans serial killer of the same name, and in Hotel, James March hosted a Devil’s Night every year on the night before Halloween. This special night consisted of dinner at Hotel Cortez with some of the most infamous serial killers in American history, such as the Zodiac Killer, Richard Ramirez, Aileen Wuornos, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy. Richard Ramirez returned in American Horror Story: 1984, but this created a plot hole.

In addition to that, season 7, Cult, had Evan Peters play different cult leaders, of whom some are considered serial killers while it’s still debated if others fall into that category or not. Either way, Cult featured Marshall Applewhite (who organized the mass suicide of the Heaven’s Gate cult), David Koresh (leader of the Branch Davidians), Jim Jones (responsible for the “revolutionary suicide” of his Peoples Temple commune), and Charles Manson.

2Cursed Children

American Horror Story has also featured cursed children, though they all have different backstories and conditions. Murder House was home to the Infantata, the son of Dr. Montgomery who was dismembered, and though Dr. Montgomery sewed him back together and used the heart of one of his patients, he ended up creating a horrific creature. Murder House was also the place that saw the birth of Michael Langdon, who went on to become the Antichrist in Apocalypse. In Hotel, the Countess kidnapped children she turned into vampires as she couldn’t have children, and the trailers and posters for the upcoming American Horror Story: Delicate hint at season 12 also dealing with a cursed child.

1Cursed Pregnancies

With cursed children also come cursed pregnancies. The first cursed pregnancy in American Horror Story was in Murder House, when Vivien Harmon became pregnant with the future Antichrist, and Asylum also saw strange pregnancies (though whether they count as “cursed” or not is debatable) as the aliens impregnated Alma Walker and Grace Bertrand. The Countess’ vampire children in Hotel also fall into this category, and these kids will probably be joined by Anna’s child in American Horror Story: Delicate.