The teaser trailers for American Horror Story: 1984 aren't just marketing, they could be serving as a prequel to the new season. The ninth season of Ryan Murphy's horror anthology series is set to pay tribute to the beloved '80s slasher era of horror, while the show's tenth season is already in development to debut in 2020.
In April, Murphy released the first teaser for American Horror Story: 1984 featuring a young woman being chased by some type of crazed killer. The footage mirrored that of Friday the 13th with a heavily wooded setting and a victim taking refuge in a cabin. The season has since been confirmed to focus on a slasher storyline introducing a new killer to the AHS universe, Mr. Jingles. He will target a new group of counselors working at Camp Redwood, a camp with a dark history. The cast includes AHS alums such as Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, Cody Fern, Leslie Grossman, and John Carroll Lynch, as well as newcomers Angelica Ross, Matthew Morrison, Gus Kenworthy, and Zach Villa.
In typical fashion, a number of 80s horror-themed American Horror Story teasers have been relased. Unlike previous years where the footage indirectly related to the season, a segment of teasers featured Mr. Jingles killing his way through a number of teens. The series presented a sweepstakes contest that allowed viewers to pick the sole survivor out a group of characters: the jock, the dream girl, the nerd, the sure thing, the platonic BFF, the stoner, the prankster, and the nice girl. Each week, another character was killed before the contest revealed its sole survivor. This campaign, as Digital Spy pointed out, could actually be a prequel for American Horror Story: 1984 considering a massacre had already taken place at Camp Redwood prior to the events of the new season.
The core set of characters got jobs at Camp Redwood before learning about the camp's deadly past. Mr. Jingles was shown in the official American Horror Story: 1984 trailer breaking free from some kind of institution. He appeared as the killer in the contest videos meaning that he was behind the previous massacre. This was the first time an AHS character appeared in the show's teaser trailers. More than likely, the combined footage served as Mr. Jingles prequel story before he was locked up. He broke free and decided to head back to Camp Redwood to finish what he started the same way that iconic killers like Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees returned to their stomping grounds.
As the new Camp Redwood counselors try to survive the threat of a blood-thirsty serial killer, more details of Mr. Jingles' past will undoubtedly be of focus in American Horror Story: 1984. The other employees at the camp have knowledge of the last massacre and that will come in handy for when he returns. What drove Mr. Jingles to carry out his first set of killings will also be an insteresting mystery for the counselors to solve. Who knows, maybe the sole survivor from the contest, the platonic BFF, will make an appearance to help defeat Mr. Jingles.