After ten seasons—and an eleventh on the way in the very near future—American Horror Story has transformed the anthology genre along with other television shows such as Black Mirror, True Detective, and Fargo. They each have their own unique qualities about them, but American Horror Story especially keeps drawing fans in with the storylines, characters, scores, and beautiful cinematography that is hard to compare to.
Now that fans are waiting for the next season to debut, there are plenty of movies that are similar to and some that likely directly inspired American Horror Story that can fill the void.
Murder House: The Conjuring (2013)
Like Murder House, the James Wan creation The Conjuring is the new gold standard for haunted domiciles in the horror genre. Like Murder House, the Perron family has stumbled upon a too-good-to-be-true home that has a sinister story with an even more terrifying entity still there. Set in Rhode Island, the hopeful family starts to experience odd occurrences, while the mother and the youngest daughter endure the worst of it.
It's up to famous paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, respectively played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, to rid the house of the satanic haunting while there's still time left. What strengthens the connection between the movie and series is that Vera Farmiga is the big sister of Taissa Farmiga, the actress who plays Violet in Murder House. The Conjuring has some of the scariest entities in the horror genre, and it will definitely go on as one of the best horror movies to come out of its decade.
Asylum: 12 Monkeys (1995)
Asylum is one of the best seasons of the entire franchise because of its character development and scary scenes in combination with multiple themes and running storylines, which is why it's so unique. The same can be said of 12 Monkeys. Set in the year 2035, a man named James Cole, played by Bruce Willis, is a prisoner of the state and is sent back in time to find out what started the plague that has wiped out most of the world's population.
It's there where James is admitted to a psychiatric facility because of his mission, and it's there where he meets a scientist named Dr. Railly and a patient named Jeffrey Goines, who is the son of a virologist. James Cole goes down the rabbit hole of what's real and what isn't to prevent the plague while also experiencing the twists and turns of time travel. Although there are no alien abductions in 12 Monkeys, it will keep fans on the edge of their seats.
Coven: The Craft (1996)
Zoe Benson, Madison Montgomery, Queenie, and the rest of the coven are beloved characters in all of American Horror Story, but the original witchy foursome is none other than the women in The Craft. There are other iconic witch characters in other movies, but The Craft embodies four teenagers and the dark path they embark on.
When newcomer Sarah Bailey enrolls in a Catholic prep school, she meets three girls who are the outcasts of the school. They realize Sarah is special and start to practice witchcraft together; it's then they realize Sarah is the fourth to close their circle. The magic they practice is innocent at first, but it takes a dark turn once they use it on people who have bullied and angered them. The Craft is a standout movie from the 1990s that portrays the witch genre in the light and the dark.
Freak Show: Berserk (1967)
Freak Show was set in Jupiter, Florida in 1952. The circus isn't what it used to be, and the cast of the circus has its own issues, as do the characters in Berserk. Ringmaster Monica Rivers, played by Joan Crawford, is trying to gain traction for her traveling circus, but mysterious murders surround the group, and some end up dying.
The crew knows that there is a killer on the loose, and suspects that Monica is the one doing it. It's a classic whodunit movie with a fantastic cast and a simple storyline that highlights great movies from the 1960s.
Hotel: 1408 (2007)
Mike Enslin, played by John Cusack, is a cynical writer that makes his money off of alleged paranormal activity in hotels across the United States. Mike travels to Los Angeles on his most recent target, the Dolphin Hotel. Room 1408 is supposedly haunted and isn't open to guests.
After a bit of convincing, the hotel manager Gerald Olin (played by Samuel L. Jackson) decides to make him a believer. More than 50 guests have passed away in room 1408, and, throughout his stay, Mike experiences terrible entities and the after-effects of his daughter's death. It may not involve vampires or Lady Gaga, but it is an excellent movie set in a creepy hotel.
Roanoke: The Last Broadcast (1998)
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The story of the Roanoke Colony is a mysterious one, and, when American Horror Story set their sights on it, it made for an interesting season. Almost a decade before American Horror Story even came out, The Last Broadcast was released. Playing on the found-footage phenomenon, three people go into the New Jersey woods in search of the legendary Jersey Devil. What happens there is unknown, and, when one of them appears days later, the murders fall on him.
An amateur filmmaker then ventures into the woods to untangle the theories surrounding these murders and stumbles upon footage that shows what happened to the dead.
Cult: Split Image (1982)
Movies about cults have been a popular topic for decades, and it was only a matter of time before American Horror Story based a season on it, too. While Evan Peters played the role of Kai Anderson well, the movie Split Image tells an equally intriguing story that involves normal people who get sucked into the sinister and misleading world of cults.
Danny Stetson, played by Michael O'Keefe, is the boy next door who has everything going for him until he meets a girl named Rebecca. He follows her into Homeland, a commune targeting the youth, and is drawn into the leader of the group, Neil Kirklander's, influence. His once-promising life as a top-tier athlete takes a turn as he finds the "true meaning" of what life should actually be.
Apocalypse: 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
10 Cloverfield Lane is a psychological film about a woman named Michelle, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, being held in a doomsday shelter of sorts by a man named Howard, played by the iconic John Goodman. While this seems like a creepy movie about a man snatching up young women, it's much more than that. In fact, anyone that has seen the first movie, Cloverfield, will know things aren't what they seem.
As Howard warns his visitors of what awaits above, they start to realize his intentions might be sinister, and that he's lying about the fate of the outside world. What they don't know is that maybe they were safer in the shelter and should be grateful for what they were saved from. 10 Cloverfield Lane brings fresh eyes to the horror genre and is one of John Goodman's best roles in his career so far.
1984: Sleepaway Camp (1983)
Classic slasher movies are aplenty, but movies like Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th stand apart from the rest. When it comes to teen-stalking killers, Sleepaway Camp is another classic that stood out in the 1980s.
When Angela, a girl who lost her family in a boating accident, moves in with her Aunt Martha, she's sent to Camp Arawak with her cousin Ricky. Once there, she discovers something is amiss, while other campers are ending up dead. As the cast tries to pin down the killer stalking the camp, the ending will shock viewers in a way they never saw coming.
Red Tide: Limitless (2011)
The first of American Horror Story's strange Double Feature season, Red Tide tells the tale of a family of creatives who come to be reliant on a strange drug capable of boosting creativity. In the end, this backfires, and they're all entwined in a strange conspiracy involving vampire-like beings known as "pale people."
Though not a horror movie, this half of the show's tenth season bore incredible similarities to the 2011 action thriller Limitless. In the movie, a down-on-his-luck author gets his life together with the help of a strange pill known as NZT-48, but things quickly spiral out of control when those known to be taking the drug begin turning up dead.
Death Valley: Fire in the Sky (1993)
The second half of American Horror Story's tenth season flies completely off the rails, weaving an utterly weird narrative of alien invasion and government conspiracy. It's mostly about how cooperation between the United States government in the 1950s and 1960s inadvertently set the stage for an alien invasion, though the four episodes are far stranger than that.
While it could scarcely be compared to anything else, the Death Valley segment of AHS' tenth season feels just a bit like the 1993 film Fire in the Sky. Both heavily feature alien abductions and the unbelievable consequences brought about by them.