“Feral,” episode 6 of American Horror Stories season 1, involves the terrifying mythology behind feral people living in national parks, bringing a popular TikTok rumor to life. American Horror Stories is the anthology spinoff series of American Horror Story, introducing a new premise about lore, urban legends, and supernatural themes in each episode. American Horror Stories episode 6, “Feral,” also features a cast and characters that connect back to the show’s American Horror Story universe, including Apocalypse actor Cody Fern and AHStories “Rubber Woman” actor Aaron Tveit.
American Horror Stories episode 6 follows a young couple whose 3-year-old son goes missing on a camping trip at the fictional Kern Canyon National Park. After 10 years, a hunter finds Jay and Addy Gantz to tell them he knows what happened to their son Jacob, only for the sinister nature of the woods to reveal itself. The national park they camp in is home to a subpopulation of cannibalistic humans known as “Feral Nation,” who live deep in the woods and have genetically mutated over time. In American Horror Stories episode 6’s ending twist, Jay and Addy discover Jacob has been raised by the Ferals and now serves as their de facto king.
While the concept of cannibal humans lurking in every forest may be new to Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story canon, users on TikTok have been floating such theories for a while. On the popular social media site, users have been sharing stories about eerie occurrences in U.S. national parks, specifically conspiracies surrounding cannibal communities and feral humans. Exploring what's out in the woods or deep in the sea are inherently creepy concepts to people, which make for compelling real-life feral conspiracies and horrifying American Horror Stories storylines. It’s likely that Ryan Murphy was inspired by such popular conspiracy theories when crafting American Horror Stories episode 6, essentially fuelling the fire of the questionable rumors into a real-world situation.
On TikTok, people have shared stories about seeing such feral people in national parks, with a key piece involving the United States government’s supposed cover-up in sightings. In one story, via Drivin’ & Vibin’, a TikTok user shared a video on hearing a family screaming about something trying to kill them in the woods and requesting help from rangers. When the user later asked park rangers about the incident, they claimed to have no recollection of the situation. American Horror Stories “Feral” adds onto such suspicions, detailing the background of the U.S. government always being aware of Feral Nation, simply choosing to dispel rumors and send Army Rangers to sweep the woods and kill as many Ferals as possible. The American Horror Stories character Park Ranger Stan Vogel gives the U.S. government’s reason for keeping Ferals a secret as financial; national parks bring in significant revenue for the country, and if people knew about feral human cannibals in the woods, they wouldn’t spend money to enter the parks.
The TikTok theorists also use the rumor of real-life feral humans to explain why so many people disappear in U.S. national parks. American Horror Stories episode 6 supports this claim by saying the thousands that do go missing in the parks disappear because they turn into the dinners of feral humans. In reality, the American Horror Stories episode is having fun with the popular TikTok concept by allowing it to be visually experienced - not necessarily giving it more truth. The majority of people who go missing in the U.S. national parks disappear when they’re unable to navigate the trails, suffer from an injury, or experience sudden medical emergencies. Although plenty of people claim to be eyewitnesses to feral humans, American Horror Stories “Feral” equates the phenomenon to the centuries-old Bigfoot conspiracies.