American Horror Story: Freak Show is one of the best and most terrifying seasons that American Horror Story has to offer. It is the fourth season and Jessica Lange is even still in the series which lets you immediately know that it is amazing.
AHS: Freak Show has some horrifying scenes throughout the entire season from the first episode to the last. Then add in Twisty the clown, and AHS has just become even more nightmare-inducing. These scenes can get under your skin and lodged deep into your memory. Continue reading to see the 10 scariest scenes from American Horror Story: Freak Show!
Twisty Makes His First Appearance: Season 4, Episode 1
An attractive young couple is having some nice one-on-one time together, laying out in the grass in an open field. The girlfriend gives her boyfriend a small gift and he tells her that he has one for her as well but it’s in his car. He leaves her alone to go get it and the woman rightfully gets scared sitting there all by herself.
Twisty, a maniacal looking clown, appears seemingly out of nowhere and strides casually up to the woman. He first pulls out a thing of flowers and then some bowling pins. When the boyfriend comes back, Twisty hits him in the head with one of the pins. As the boyfriend falls to the ground, Twisty pulls out a pair of scissors and starts stabbing him repeatedly while the hysterically frightened young woman watches her boyfriend dying a horribly painful and premature death. She starts screaming “No!” as Twisty turns to her and the scene ends.
The Caged People: Season 4, Episode 1
Twisty enters his trailer where he has the young woman whose boyfriend he murdered and a little boy who we are just meeting caged up in the trailer. He brings out an old fashioned toy clown and winds it up. He hands it to the woman while she holds her hands outside the cage, frantically trying to convince Twisty to let them go. He walks away and pulls out a bunch of colorful handkerchiefs from his pocket. When he gets to the end, there is a worn rattle attached to it.
Twisty furiously shakes the rattle at them. He starts to blow up a balloon animal and when it popped it was almost like a switch got turned on in Twisty and was set to angry. Twisty goes ballistic, angrily flinging balls at the cage and then kicking it. His victim’s screams pierce the air. He is psychotically violent, throwing glasses and kicking the cage repeatedly. It’s only natural to think that he’s about to hurt the woman and boy as the scene dramatically cuts off.
The Head: Season 4, Episode 2
Twisty goes into his trailer and the woman and boy are sitting on the ground and are out of the cage. Twisty starts playing around and the woman secretly is grasping for a piece of wood. Suddenly, Twisty pulls out a severed head and his victims start screaming as the woman bashes him over the head with the wood. When they run past Twisty his mask falls off revealing his grotesque and hideously jawless face.
While they are running in the woods trying to escape, the woman runs right into Dandy. He is pretty much the worst person to run into, however, because he picks her up and brings her right back to Twisty and while she is screaming for her life the scene ends.
Elsa’s Legs: Season 4, Episode 4
Edward Mordrake appears and demands that Elsa tells him about her leg and she starts telling him a story from her life. A group of men kept serving Elsa drinks but she had no idea that they had been drugging her. They take her to this dark, spooky room that has a single bed in it. And they put stockings over their heads.
Elsa makes the mistake of laying down on the bed in her dazed state. She keeps yelling, “Where’s my co-star. A chainsaw starts revving up as they begin tying her to the bed so that she cannot move or escape what they have planned for her. One man starts filming the whole thing while another takes the chainsaw and cuts off both of Elsa’s legs. Elsa said that they are called “snuff films.”
“Please Kill Me:” Season 4, Episode 5
Dandy brings a male night-worker back to Twisty’s trailer and tells the guy that he’s not “a fruit” but that they should each turn around to get undressed and then when they turn back around to face each other “whatever magic happens, happens.” But when the guy counts backward from three, and he turns around he’s in for a disturbing scene. Dandy is standing in his underwear wearing Twisty’s mask.
Dandy starts violently stabbing the guy in the stomach. When the guy goes down, Dandy starts attacking him even more over and over again. When Dandy goes to walk away, the guy surprisingly gets up and starts crawling and screaming, “Help me!” Dandy starts talking about how this guy should be dead already, which causes Dandy to attack him once more. Then, while Dandy is trying to clean up the mess and get rid of the evidence, the poor guy opens his eyes and begs Dandy, “Please kill me.”
The Wheel Of Death: Season 4, Episode 6
Elsa goes crazy on her “freaks” after they confront her about the missing twins. She furiously yells and demands that one of her “freaks” get on this red and white wheel that spins while someone else throws knives at them. She demands that they do this so that they could prove their loyalty to her by having someone get on this wheel and she says that she won’t settle for anything less.
Jimmy steps forward to volunteer but Paul volunteers himself instead. He tells Elsa to try not to miss, and she retorts with, “I always miss. That’s the point.” The “freaks” all stand by dreading what is about to happen. While the wheel is spinning, she gets the first two knives right, but the third one she hits in dead center and nails Paul in the stomach. Elsa swears that it was an accident but we know the truth!
The Bearded Lady: Season 4, Episode 8
Ethel learns about Elsa’s prosthetic leg and Elsa tells her that she is just like the rest of her “children.” Elsa begins to tell Ethel about how a kind-hearted doctor saved her life and gave her new legs. Ethel gets angry and asks why Elsa had been keeping it a secret from her. Meanwhile, Ethel has been holding a gun to Elsa. And when Elsa asks Ethel to put the gun away and that basically she’s crazy if she thinks that the others will help her hide this secret if Ethel murders her. Ethel looks her right in the eye and says, “This bullet’s for me.”
To distract Ethel, Elsa mentions having one last drink with her and Elsa notices a knife nearby and grabs it. The unsuspecting Ethel gets a knife thrown right in her eye as shes about ready to pull the trigger on Elsa. Elsa tries to cover it up and makes it looks like Ethel took her own life. Maggie was the one who found her in a car that had supposedly crashed and Elsa had made it look like she had been decapitated.
Revenge Is Best Served Hot: Season 4, Episode 8
After Penny’s father horrible mutilates her face, she goes back to her “sisters” at the “freak show.” The group of women decided to take revenge on Penny’s father. They go to his house and break-in. When the father hears a noise, he comes out of his bedroom with a shotgun. He sees his daughter standing in front of him and he exclaims, “You.” He asks how she got in when he changed the locks. Penny simply says, “Locks can’t keep us out.” The father asks who she brought with and she tells him her “sisters.” Desiree clubs him in the head.
The women bring him back to Desiree’s trailer where they had been boiling some hot tar. They have Penny’s father tied to a chair, and as they are getting ready to pour the scalding hot tar on him, Penny runs out and yells, “Wait.” Then she says she’ll do it. They pour hot tar all over his body and throw feathers on him.
Avon Calling: Season 4, Episode 9
An unsuspecting Avon lady knocks on the wrong house as she cheerfully says, “Avon calling! Is the lady of the house home?” Dandy answers the door and tells her to come in since his mother would love some company. As the poor woman walks through the house, Dandy strikes her on the back of the head with an object.
Next thing you know, the Avon woman’s decapitated body is lying on the ground with blood everywhere. Dandy is seen stitching something up and it turns out he had stitched the Avon woman’s head onto his mother’s lifeless body and pretends that it was the conjoined twins that he was obsessed with; Bette and Dot.
Last Curtain Call: Season 4, Episode 13
Dandy had bought the “Freak Show” and called it “Dandy’s Cabinet of Curiosities.” Dandy gets into a confrontation with the “freaks” and he ends up getting pushed to the ground and Paul tells him that he is “boring” and that he will never be one of them. They all quit, which sets Dandy off into an even worse psychotic break. Dandy walks around the tented areas and trailers and starts executing the “freaks” one by one. First to go down was Paul and then his girlfriend Penny and the horrendous murder spree continues from them. All the unsuspecting victims hear is gunshot after gunshot as these friends and family members are being slain.