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Constance also shot her husband after catching him in the act with Moira. Believing Moira to be a temptress, she shot her, as well.
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*** Constance also shot her husband after catching him in the act with Moira. Believing Moira to be a temptress, she shot her, as well.]]
** Moira, though she hasn't suffered countless tragedies, could fit this trope. [[spoiler: In 1984, she had an affair with Constance's then-husband, Hugo Langdon. After one episode, however, she decided they should cut their sexual ties. Unfortunately, Hugo decided differently and began an attempt to rape her. While Constance was walking down the hallway, she believed the cries she heard from the room were noises of pleasure (isn't that always the way?) and withdrew a pistol. Entering the room, she didn't stop to question. She shot Moira in the eye, gave a speech to her husband, then shot him multiple times, as well. After that, she buried them both separately in the ground. In the wake of the event, all Moira wants is for someone to find her bones and release her from the house's grip, yet she watches as Ben (covering Larry's tracks when he buries a victim in the same place as Moira's bones) cements the hole her bones are in and covers it up with a gazebo. The only day she's free, Halloween, she goes to visit her dying mother (who has been mentioned before - it is clear that Moira has a deep affection for her mother) and releases her miserable body from life support. Once her mother has died completely, she sits on the bed as her mother appears behind her and beckons her to come with her to the other side. Moira then cries, telling her mother that she can't. Now, if that isn't enough, she also has to live with the constant accusations, berating, and name-calling from Constance.]]
** Moira, though she hasn't suffered countless tragedies, could fit this trope. [[spoiler: In 1984, she had an affair with Constance's then-husband, Hugo Langdon. After one episode, however, she decided they should cut their sexual ties. Unfortunately, Hugo decided differently and began an attempt to rape her. While Constance was walking down the hallway, she believed the cries she heard from the room were noises of pleasure (isn't that always the way?) and withdrew a pistol. Entering the room, she didn't stop to question. She shot Moira in the eye, gave a speech to her husband, then shot him multiple times, as well. After that, she buried them both separately in the ground. In the wake of the event, all Moira wants is for someone to find her bones and release her from the house's grip, yet she watches as Ben (covering Larry's tracks when he buries a victim in the same place as Moira's bones) cements the hole her bones are in and covers it up with a gazebo. The only day she's free, Halloween, she goes to visit her dying mother (who has been mentioned before - it is clear that Moira has a deep affection for her mother) and releases her miserable body from life support. Once her mother has died completely, she sits on the bed as her mother appears behind her and beckons her to come with her to the other side. Moira then cries, telling her mother that she can't. Now, if that isn't enough, she also has to live with the constant accusations, berating, and name-calling from Constance.]]
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** Constance is "no stranger to tragedy" herself - you can practically hear her Virginia drawl! [[spoiler: In a way, Constance is responsible for most of the tragedies caused, however. Mother of three or four kids (at the beginning, she says four, though we only hear about three), all died before they even reached adulthood. Her first child we know about was Beau, a disfigured young man who was chained up by Constance in the attic. When Child Protective Services threatened to take Beau away for criminal child neglect on Constance's part, Constance had her then-lover, Larry, carry through their discussed plan. Larry went upstairs, tucked Beau in, then smothered him with a pillow, making it so he'd forever be in the Murder House. Her second oldest child, Tate, was of "model good-looks," but he was deeply disturbed inside, something Constance refused to see. One day, Tate went straight to Larry's office, set him on fire, then to his school and killed 15 kids. He was killed in the Murder House later that day when the police came around. Finally, Constance's youngest, her daughter, Addie, was both a monster and a gift in Constance's eyes. Born with mental disabilities, Constance was always ashamed to walk down the street with her - at the same time, however, she would maul anyone who laid a hand on Addie, as was with all her children. This was the one tragedy she was not directly responsible for. Constance gave Addie a mask for her Halloween costume; however, when Addie ran out into the middle of the street to try and catch up with some trick-or-treaters, her peripheral vision was blocked and she was hit by a car. Constance was unable to get her to the Murder House lawn in time, so Addie was her one child that truly died. Luckily for Constance, she was able to contact her through Billie Dean, her medium, and Addie told her she was happy she didn't get to the lawn - she didn't want to be with the other spirits, and Tate scared her. She also eased Constance's conscience through various words. (Also, if you'd like to count the final child she cares for, though it's not her own, she had to deal with the Anti-Christ).
Constance also shot her husband after catching him in the act with Moira. Believing Moira to be a temptress, she shot her, as well.
Constance also shot her husband after catching him in the act with Moira. Believing Moira to be a temptress, she shot her, as well.
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** Though not much information is given on Chad and Patrick before they were ghosts, we know that they were planning on having children for a long time. However, as soon as they moved in, they became an unhappy couple. [[spoiler: Patrick began cheating on Chad constantly, such as sleeping with his trainer, (if one would consider it cheating, as it seems to be a debate) online roleplaying in an S&M chatroom with "JungleJim4322", etc. Though Chad tried his hardest, he seemed to only ever be in the mood to do something "weird" around Halloween, much to the chagrin of Patrick. On Halloween of 2010, Patrick was going to the gym (this followed a snarky exchange between him and Patrick about condoms and his trainer) while Chad stayed at home decorating. A man in a rubber suit appeared and Chad immediately remembered the suit that was supposed to be used for sex from a few months before. Assuming it was Patrick's way of apologizing, he accepted the "apology" and said the suit looked sort of spooky. However, it was Tate underneath the rubber. Rubber Man drowned Chad in his apple-bobbing bowl. When Patrick arrived home, Rubber Man shoved a fire-poker into him, killing him. Therefore, Chad and Patrick found themselves stuck forever in their unhappy relationship.]]
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** Nora and Charles get married in the first place (Charles is a drug-addict surgeon who can't pay the bills; Nora's used to a higher-class lifestyle, making her [reasonably] upset with Charles' failure [the way she expresses it, though, is not very civil]). [[spoiler: After they set up a secret abortion clinic, one girl can't hold her tongue and her boyfriend is enraged. The boyfriend kidnaps their child, Thaddeus, and leaves a cryptic message for Nora: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. When Nora goes to check the crib, the child is gone. A while later, the police come around and Charles answers the door. The police don't allow Nora to see what is inside, even though it's quite obviously Thaddeus' body, and the image drive Charles even further into his madness. One night, Nora descends the stairs with what she wants to bury their child in only to find that Charles was working on his new Frankenstein creation: he was sewing a hoof onto their child. What is assumed to be a few days after the incident, Charles finally comes to Nora and tells her to go check the nursery, that he was finally a success after "using the beating heart from one of our girls." She does so. When she returns, she says he truly is a genius, that she's proud of him. However, she then explains that she tried to nurse the child when arriving, but it wanted something else (blood). She says she attempted to kill it with a letter opener, but it didn't work. Charles, however, still in awe that he was finally able to impress his wife goes over to hug her. While he's looking away, she pulls out a gun and shoots him, then puts the gun in her mouth and shoots herself. After this, we don't see much of Charles, though we know that he's still practicing surgery in the basement. Every time we see Nora, however, it seems that she's forgotten that she's dead (likely due to the brain damage a bullet through the skull would've caused) and is wondering where her baby is.]]
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tate and ben were mr fan service
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*MrFanservice: Tate Langdon.
**Dr. Ben Harmon.
**Dr. Ben Harmon.
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** The ending of the season when the [[spoiler: family is united in death and stages elaborate hauntings to scare out the new family]] has many shades of BeetleJuice.
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** The Black Dahlia only briefly appears with her mutilations, though this could be because the mutilations were inflicted after she died on her body.
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** The Black Dahlia only briefly appears with her mutilations, though this could be because the mutilations were inflicted on her body after she died on her body.died.
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* CaptainObviousReveal: [[spoiler: Tate being the Rubber Man. The scene where he takes the mask off in episode 8 feels like it's supposed to be a big revelation, but it was pretty obvious after we saw him wearing the suit on Halloween.]]
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* DaydreamSurprise: Horrifically subverted. The answer to the viewer's startled "did that just happen?" is always "yes".
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** Possibly a coincidence, but the way the Murder House works bears a strong resemblance to the one from the ''Nothing Dead Here'' story arc of the long-running webcomic ''SluggyFreelance''.
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** It's also where Travis and the home invaders were killed and where The Black Dahlia was chopped up.
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** Also, babies. Everyone either wants one or lost one or has one on the way.
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** The Black Dahlia only briefly appears with her mutilations.
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** The Black Dahlia only briefly appears with her mutilations.mutilations, though this could be because the mutilations were inflicted after she died on her body.
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* ViralMarketing: Several videos, referred to as clues to the show's content, have been released on the show's Website and YouTube channel. [[spoiler: These directly hint towards Vivien's miscarriage, her later pregnancy, and the rubber suit man's involvement, among other things.]] There was also a chance to sign up for a "house call" to come face-to-face with one of the show's characters.
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* ViralMarketing: Several videos, referred to as clues to the show's content, have been released on the show's Website and YouTube Website/YouTube channel. [[spoiler: These directly hint towards Vivien's miscarriage, her later pregnancy, and the rubber suit man's involvement, among other things.]] There was also a chance to sign up for a "house call" to come face-to-face with one of the show's characters.
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** Everyone is haunted.
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* CreepyBasement: The most dangerous place in the house. It's where the twins meet their fate, where Violet and Tate teaches [[AlphaBitch Leah]] a lesson, and where Dr. Montgomery carried out his backroom abortions.
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* CreepyBasement: The most dangerous place in the house. It's where the twins meet their fate, where Violet and Tate teaches [[AlphaBitch Leah]] a lesson, and where Dr. Montgomery carried out his backroom illegal abortions.
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* [[HallOfMirrors Room Of Mirrors]]: The "Bad Girl Room".
* RacistGrandma: The realtor may not be quite old enough to be considered a grandma, but she is apologetically racist and a bit homophobic. As of "Birth" [[spoiler: Constance]] also counts.
* TheReveal: The opening for "Rubber Man". [[spoiler: The Rubber Suit Man who fathered one of Vivien's twins and killed Chad and Patrick is Tate.]]
* RichBitch: Billie Dean, the medium who Constance contacts after [[spoiler: Violet discovers that Tate's dead]].
* RichBitch: Billie Dean, the medium who Constance contacts after [[spoiler: Violet discovers that Tate's dead]].
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* RacistGrandma: The realtor may not be quite old enough to be considered a grandma, but she is apologetically racist and a bit homophobic. As of "Birth" [[spoiler: Constance]] also counts.
* TheReveal: The opening for "Rubber Man". [[spoiler: The Rubber Suit Man who fathered one of Vivien's twins and killed Chad and Patrick is Tate.]]
* RichBitch: Billie Dean, the medium who Constance contacts after [[spoiler: Violet discovers that Tate's dead]].
* TheReveal: The opening for "Rubber Man". [[spoiler: The Rubber Suit Man who fathered one of Vivien's twins and killed Chad and Patrick is Tate.]]
* RichBitch: Billie Dean, the medium who Constance contacts after [[spoiler: Violet discovers that Tate's dead]].
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* RacistGrandma: [[HallOfMirrors Room Of Mirrors]]: The realtor may not be quite old enough to be considered a grandma, but she is apologetically racist and a bit homophobic. As of "Birth" [[spoiler: Constance]] also counts.
* TheReveal: The opening for "Rubber Man". [[spoiler: The Rubber Suit Man who fathered one of Vivien's twins and killed Chad and Patrick is Tate.]]
* RichBitch: Billie Dean, the medium who Constance contacts after [[spoiler: Violet discovers that Tate's dead]]."Bad Girl Room".
* TheReveal: The opening for "Rubber Man". [[spoiler: The Rubber Suit Man who fathered one of Vivien's twins and killed Chad and Patrick is Tate.]]
* RichBitch: Billie Dean, the medium who Constance contacts after [[spoiler: Violet discovers that Tate's dead]].
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** The show also gives a couple of subtle shout-outs to ''Film/TheShining''. Tate's practically an homage to ''TwistedNerve'', whistling the theme tune and everything. Then there are all of the ''Rosemary's Baby'' references.
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** The show also gives a couple of subtle shout-outs to ''Film/TheShining''. Tate's practically an homage to ''TwistedNerve'', ''Twisted Nerve'', whistling the theme tune and everything. Then there are all of the ''Rosemary's Baby'' references.
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** He seems to fill both roles. He does ask Tate questions regarding his medication.
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** [[spoiler: Constance murders both her husband and Moira when she catches them in bed together.]]
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** [[spoiler: Constance murders both her husband and Moira when she catches them in bed together. Though he was actually trying to rape her.]]
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** A more obscure one: Travis' last name, Wanderley, is shared by the protagonist of Peter Straub's novel Ghost Story. Straub's novels in general are similar enough in tone and execution to this series that at times [[AmericanHorrorStory]] feels like a SpiritualLicensee.
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* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: [[spoiler: One of the serial murderers get sick from the poisoned muffin Constance baked for Violet.]]
** [[spoiler: Larry kills Hayden when she is about to tell Vivian about her pregnancy, he even tells Ben the problem is solved without Ben having to become a murderer.]]
** [[spoiler: Larry kills Hayden when she is about to tell Vivian about her pregnancy, he even tells Ben the problem is solved without Ben having to become a murderer.]]
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* VomitIndiscretionShot: Episode 3, Ben after [[spoiler: Hayden gets whacked.]]
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* VomitIndiscretionShot: VomitIndiscretionShot:
** Episode 3, Ben after [[spoiler: Hayden gets whacked.]]
** Episode 3, Ben after [[spoiler: Hayden gets whacked.]]
* WeirdnessMagnet: Violet, eventually. [[spoiler: The rest of the house's ghosts start appearing to her, but Tate instructs her to tell them to go away when they do. They listen. Of course, by then she's actually one of them too, but doesn't know it at that time.]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: Nora was apparently this for Charles. Too bad Charles was a drug-addicted mad scientist who [[spoiler: murdered a girl to put her still beating heart into the resurrected body of his formerly dismembered child]]. Nora did say he was a genius before [[spoiler: she shot him in the head.]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: Nora was apparently this for Charles. Too bad Charles was a drug-addicted mad scientist who [[spoiler: murdered a girl to put her still beating heart into the resurrected body of his formerly dismembered child]]. Nora did say he was a genius before [[spoiler: she shot him in the head.]]
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** "Birth". [[spoiler:Ben finally finds out that her daughter's dead, Chad reveals to Violet that Tate impregnated her mother, and Vivien ends up giving birth to TheAntichrist, [[DeathByChildbirth dying in the process]]]].
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** "Birth". [[spoiler:Ben finally finds out that her his daughter's dead, Chad reveals to Violet that Tate impregnated her mother, and Vivien ends up giving birth to TheAntichrist, [[DeathByChildbirth dying in the process]]]].
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* WeirdnessMagnet: Violet, eventually. [[spoiler: The rest of the house's ghosts start appearing to her, but Tate instructs her to tell them to go away when they do. They listen. Of course, by then she's actually one of them too, but doesn't know it at that time.]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: Nora was apparently this for Charles. Too bad Charles was a drug-addicted mad scientist who [[spoiler: murdered a girl to put her still beating heart into the resurrected body of his formerly dismembered child]]. Nora did say he was a genius before [[spoiler: she shot him in the head.]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: Nora was apparently this for Charles. Too bad Charles was a drug-addicted mad scientist who [[spoiler: murdered a girl to put her still beating heart into the resurrected body of his formerly dismembered child]]. Nora did say he was a genius before [[spoiler: she shot him in the head.]]
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** [[spoiler: Chad and Patrick, killed by Tate several months before the Harmons moved in]].
* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler:Ben. After his wife dies and he finds out that his daughter overdosed, he seriously considers killing himself to be with them. Shortly after their ghosts talk him out of it, he gets killed anyway by the ghosts of Hayden and the two home invaders, who conveniently hang him from a chandelier]].
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* WhamEpisode: "Rubber Man". [[spoiler: The Rubber Suit Man's identity is revealed, Hayden tries to marshal the ghosts against Vivien and Ben, and Ben has Vivien committed.]]
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* WhamEpisode: WhamEpisode:
** "Rubber Man". [[spoiler: The Rubber Suit Man's identity is revealed, Hayden tries to marshal the ghosts against Vivien and Ben, and Ben has Vivien committed.]]
** "Rubber Man". [[spoiler: The Rubber Suit Man's identity is revealed, Hayden tries to marshal the ghosts against Vivien and Ben, and Ben has Vivien committed.]]
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** "Birth". [[spoiler:Ben finally finds out that her daughter's dead, Chad reveals to Violet that Tate impregnated her mother, and Vivien ends up giving birth to TheAntichrist, [[DeathByChildbirth dying in the process]]]].
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* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: Inverted in that [[spoiler:Hayden]]'s choice to ''not'' have an abortion is presented as the wrong choice because it involves pulling TheBabyTrap on the father, and she's clearly presented as delusional for thinking otherwise. [[spoiler:Becomes a moot point when Larry kills her]]. Likewise the girls who went to Dr. Montgomery are presented as victims of his insanity and not villainized for their abortions.
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* BuryYourDisabled: [[spoiler: Adelaide, who has Down Syndrome, is fatally hit by a car in the fourth episode.]]
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* BuryYourDisabled: [[spoiler: Adelaide, who has Down Syndrome, is fatally hit by a car in the fourth episode. Although of the characters who die she probably has the best fate since she's not stuck as a ghost in the house for eternity and actually gets to pass on.]]
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* RacistGrandma: YMMV on whether or not the realtor is old enough to be considered a grandma, but she is apologetically racist and a bit homophobic. As of "Birth" [[spoiler: Constance]] also counts.
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* RacistGrandma: YMMV on whether or not the The realtor is may not be quite old enough to be considered a grandma, but she is apologetically racist and a bit homophobic. As of "Birth" [[spoiler: Constance]] also counts.
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* XmeetsY: ''AmericanBeauty'' meets ''Film/TheShining''.
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The first season of ''American Horror Story'', originally titled ''American Horror Story'' but retroactively titled ''American Horror Story: Murder House'', follows the story of a couple from Boston, Ben and Vivien, and their daughter, Violet, who decide a change in location to sunny Los Angeles will help heal the wounds left by Vivien’s miscarriage and by Ben’s affair with a former student. Their nightmares are far from over, however, as their new dream house turns out to be full of dark secrets.
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The first season of ''American Horror Story'', ''Series/AmericanHorrorStory'', originally titled ''American Horror Story'' but retroactively titled ''American Horror Story: Murder House'', follows the story of a couple from Boston, Ben and Vivien, and their daughter, Violet, who decide a change in location to sunny Los Angeles will help heal the wounds left by Vivien’s miscarriage and by Ben’s affair with a former student. Their nightmares are far from over, however, as their new dream house turns out to be full of dark secrets.
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/American_Horror_Story_Poster_2503.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''Murder House'' cast.[[note]]From left to right: [[TeensAreMonsters Tate]], [[EvilMatriarch Constance]], [[IJustWantToBeBeautiful Adelaide]], [[MsFanservice Young Moira]], [[LoveMakesYouCrazy Larry Harvey (on fire)]], [[TheWoobie Old Moira]], [[NightmareFetishist Violet]], [[SupernaturalProofFather Ben]], [[OnlySaneMan Vivien]]. Above them: [[CreepyTwins The Twins]] and [[DressedAllInRubber Rubber Man]].[[/note]] ]]
The first season of ''American Horror Story'', originally titled ''American Horror Story'' but retroactively titled ''American Horror Story: Murder House'', follows the story of a couple from Boston, Ben and Vivien, and their daughter, Violet, who decide a change in location to sunny Los Angeles will help heal the wounds left by Vivien’s miscarriage and by Ben’s affair with a former student. Their nightmares are far from over, however, as their new dream house turns out to be full of dark secrets.
Jessica Lange won a Primetime Emmy and a Screen Actor's Guild award for her portrayal of Constance in ''Murder House''.
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!!''American Horror Story: Murder House'' provides the following tropes:
* ADateWithRosiePalms:
** Ben walks in on the young Moira doing this and quickly exits to his bedroom to do a little of his own.
** Vivien enjoys herself while she has a DreamSequence about Luke, Ben and the Rubber Man.
* ADayInTheLimelight: "Rubber Man". Explains the origins of the rubber suit [[spoiler: and reveals that Tate had donned the suit to kill Patrick and Chad, then to father one of Vivien's twins, just because Nora wanted her baby.]]
* AdultFear: One of the reasons the Harmons [[spoiler:(and Chad and Pat before them)]] [[ClosedCircle can't just leave]] is because they've sunk so much money into the house that just leaving or making the house price low enough to attract people would be like committing financial suicide.
* AdultsAreUseless: Violet walks around public areas of the school smoking and is never confronted by any authority figures about it, she is also repeatedly attacked in those same public places and no authority figure ever steps in. Given one of the writer's [[Series/{{Glee}} other show]], the high school's Darwinian approach to discipline isn't too surprising.
* AmericanTitle
* AndIMustScream: Unlike most examples, [[spoiler: Moira]] has the opportunity to actually scream.
* AntiChrist: [[spoiler:Michael, conceived by a ghost and a living woman: Tate and Vivien. He kills his half-brother in the womb and kills his nanny at the age of three]].
* AnyoneCanDie: The only cast members to survive to the end are [[spoiler: Constance, Leah, Larry, Billie Dean, Luke, Marcy, and Hallie.]]
* ArtisticTitle: The opening credits manage to be both creepy and fascinating.
* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Ben is supposedly a psychiatrist, a medical doctor specializing drug management of mental illness. He is shown do little if any medical treatment, instead acting as a psychotherapist.
* ArtisticLicenseReligion: Claiming that people invented reincarnation to comfort themselves (in reality reincarnation is viewed negatively in the religions it originated from) and that the Catholic Church believes in TheAntiChrist.
* AssShove: [[spoiler: Tate shoved a fireplace poker up Patrick's ass before killing him.]]
* AteHisGun: [[spoiler: How Nora Montgomery committed suicide after killing her husband out of grief over her monster baby.]]
* TheAtoner:
** Larry, [[spoiler: except not really, he just wants to impress Constance]].
** [[spoiler: Tate claims to want redemption in the season finale, but Ben has his doubts]].
* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Addie toward the family dog, when Vivien is trying to get across that she can't keep breaking in.
* BarredFromTheAfterlife: The spirits trapped in the house in the first season.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Some ghosts still have the wounds that killed them, though sometimes they do not, usually in the interest of preserving their looks.
** Moira's young self does not sport the eye bullet wound that killed her, though her old form has a blind eye.
** Hayden sports no more than a bloody nose after being fatally smashed in the face with a shovel. After she bathes, she has no visible injuries.
** The Black Dahlia only briefly appears with her mutilations.
* TheBechdelTest: Pass.
* BirdsOfAFeather: Tate and Violet, who bond over the cuts they've given themselves.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: All of the Harmons die and are trapped in the House with all the other ghosts forever, but are actively working to make sure no other family ends up like them and are finally happy being dead together. Constance is raising the Antichrist, with mixed emotions. Tate and the rest of the ghosts in the house are still miserable]].
* BlondesAreEvil: Constance, Tate, Nora, and ultimate [[spoiler:Michael, the antichrist]].
* BreatherEpisode:
** It's an odd show where an episode featuring multiple characters being shot and another attempting suicide is the breather episode, but "Piggy Piggy" was much less chaotic and downplayed following the big grand Halloween episodes, and had more answers than questions. [[spoiler: Although it turns out to be less of a breather episode when it is revealed later in the season that Violet actually succeeded in her suicide attempt later.]]
** The episode "Spooky Little Girl" also counts. Aside from [[spoiler: the ghost of Elizabeth Short]] appearing and [[spoiler: how her murder happened]], this episode is more character driven, focusing mostly on Ben, as well as Hayden's motives and Travis wanting to become famous. Then enters MoodWhiplash territory when Billie Dean and Constance talk about what exactly happens [[spoiler: if a spirit had a child with a human, with Billie revealing that it would result in the AntiChrist]].
* BreathlessNonSequitur: Unsurprisingly, [[DeadpanSnarker Chad]]:
-->'''Pat''': [leaving] I'm hitting the gym.\\
'''Chad''': ''Well make sure you wear a condom.'' And pick me up some gala apples. I thought these golden delicious would look dramatic in the bobbing bucket, they just look dull and depressing... there's no contrast.\\
'''Pat''': [[[{{Beat}} re-enters]]] Why would I wear a condom at the gym?\\
'''Chad''': ''Maybe because you're screwing that twink trainer of yours?'' And I need gourds. I'm going to hang them on the tree out front... spray paint them and they're going to be these clever, little, organic ghosts.
* BuryYourDisabled: [[spoiler: Adelaide, who has Down Syndrome, is fatally hit by a car in the fourth episode.]]
* CallingTheOldManOut: Violet does this to her parents to little effect. Tate also did this to his mom to little effect.
* TheCallsAreComingFromInsideTheHouse: [[spoiler: From under the gazebo, at least.]]
* CameBackWrong: [[spoiler: Charles and Nora Montgomery's child, Thaddeus, AKA the baby-thing in the basement. Charles used a ''still-beating heart'' to resurrect it, but it came back with a craving for blood, resulting in Nora attempting to kill it.]]
* CassandraTruth: Adelaide directly told the twins that they would die in the house. They didn't listen. [[spoiler: She also tells Vivien that she'll die in the house. She didn't listen either.]]
* CentralTheme: Infidelity.
* ChekhovsGun:
** The rubber suit Vivien discovers in the attic. [[spoiler: Later worn by the father of one of Vivien's twins.]]
** Chekhovs Cupcakes: The cupcakes Constance brought over for Violet. [[spoiler: One is eaten by one of the home invaders, which makes her ill and results in her not joining the other two in the basement.]]
** Chekhovs Crime: A subtle one, but the cop at the end of the second episode says that [[spoiler: Bianca]] was found blocks away from the murder house, nearly cut in half. He says that it looked like her friends tried to do a Black Dahlia on her. [[spoiler: The Black Dahlia is revealed to have happened in the murder house in episode 9. And carried out in the same way.]]
** The realtor had an actual gun [[spoiler: which Vivien later steals and accidentally shoots her husband with]]. Quite a lot of the onscreen deaths are caused by guns.
* ChekhovsGunman: The young woman Ben is counseling in the second episode. [[spoiler: She is one of the three people who invade the house, and is the only one who escapes alive. She is later found dead by the cops who believe she was murdered by her accomplices, whose bodies haven't been found.]]
* ChristianityIsCatholic: The [[spoiler:Antichrist]] subplot is played out in Catholic terms.
* ClosedCircle: The Harmons can't just leave because they can't afford to lose such a large amount of money. Later added to when Violet threatens to run away if they move again, and [[spoiler:Vivian's doctor warns her that the stress of moving is potentially detrimental to her unborn child]].
* CreepyTwins: The creepy twins that were murdered in the first episode and now haunt the house.
* CreepyBasement: The most dangerous place in the house. It's where the twins meet their fate, where Violet and Tate teaches [[AlphaBitch Leah]] a lesson, and where Dr. Montgomery carried out his backroom abortions.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Pretty much everyone, but points go to the Harmon family, whose problems could count as DeusAngstMachina.
* DeadAllAlong:
** [[spoiler: Moira, killed by Constance long before the series began.]]
** [[spoiler: Tate, killed by a full-on SWAT team after shooting up his school. This is how Constance knew about the house's power, as they were living there at the time.]]
** [[spoiler: Violet, who did not survive her overdose.]]
* DeathByChildbirth: [[spoiler:Vivien, along with one of her twins.]]
* DeathBySex:
** [[spoiler: Travis hooks up with Hayden twice. She stabs him to death after the second time.]]
** [[spoiler: Travis' death is a callback to a previous episode, where she does the same to Constance's late husband. As he was dead, it didn't affect him.]]
** [[spoiler: Constance murders both her husband and Moira when she catches them in bed together.]]
* DefeatMeansFriendship: After her encounter in the Harmons' basement, this seems to have happened with [[AlphaBitch Leah]] and Violet.
* DistractedByTheSexy: Seems to be a chronic problem for Ben.
* DreamingOfThingsToCome: The girl in the second episode who kept dreaming that she got cut in half [[spoiler: is sliced along the stomach.]]
* DreamSequence: Vivien's prone to these. In one episode, it was her baby's hand being visible through the skin of her stomach.
* DressedAllInRubber: The man in the rubber suit. Thinking it's Ben, Vivien has sex with him [[spoiler: and conceives one of her twins]].
* DrivenToMadness:
** Violet shows signs of this [[spoiler: after she discovers the truth of what Tate had done. It's further compounded when she looks for Tate in the basement and instead finds one of the nurses, the two home invaders, and Charles, leading to her being DrivenToSuicide.]]
** What is being done to [[spoiler: Vivien by the ghosts.]]
** Constance is after [[spoiler: she discovers that Tate raped Vivien]]. It resurfaces in her monologue near the end of "Afterbirth".
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: After being Driven To Madness, Violet intentionally overdoses. Tate, screaming and sobbing at her not to die on him, drags her to the bathroom, but is unsuccessful in saving her life.]]
** On subsequent tours of the house, Marcy says this is what happened to [[spoiler: Ben]].
* DysfunctionJunction: Every family and relationship, except the Latin family in the final episode.
* EasyAmnesia: Ben, during the third episode. Coupled with spacing out. [[spoiler: Caused by Moira spiking his coffee with laudanum, in an effort to get him to dig up her bones.]]
* TheEighties: The beginning of the third episode takes place during this time period.
* EnfantTerrible:
** [[spoiler: The baby-thing in the basement that attacks Leah, nearly attacks Violet, and is responsible for the death of the twins. If Tate can be believed, this is Thaddeus, the son of Charles and Nora Montgomery, killed in revenge for an abortion and resurrected using a ''still-beating heart'' by Charles.]]
** [[spoiler: Vivien's AntiChrist baby.]]
* EvilDetectingDog: Hallie, Vivien's dog, which leads Violet to the basement the first time they visit the house and bites Adelaide.
* EvilRedhead:
** The twins, though they were more {{Jerkass}} than outright evil.
** Moira, who appears as a young woman to Ben and seems to be trying to seduce him. Somewhat subverted in that all she really wants [[spoiler: is for someone to find her bones.]]
** Hayden, a victim of LoveMakesYouCrazy and LoveMakesYouEvil.
* FanDisservice: Young!Moira playing with herself is hot, until you remember that she's actually an old lady who appears young to Ben.
** Though considering she's a [[spoiler: ghost]], it's ambiguous which appearance is real and which is false.
*** Consider what she says in the third episode: men see what they want, whereas women see into a person's soul. Thus why Ben sees her as a young woman and Vivien as a remarkably older one. Both are the real appearance; Ben sees her as she looked before [[spoiler: she died]] whereas Vivien sees her as how she looks after the fact.
* {{Fanservice}}: This seems to be young!Moira's main purpose in the show. We also get a few shots of Ben's naked ass.
* FetusTerrible:
** What the situation is with [[spoiler: one of Vivien's twins, specifically the one Vivien and Rubber Man conceived during the pilot]].
*** [[spoiler: It started kicking ''at eight weeks'', then was revealed on the ultrasound to be much further along, and ''made the nurse faint''. The nurse later quits her job. When Vivien meets her again, she claims she saw what can be interpreted as the AntiChrist.]]
** The jars in the basement invoke this trope.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The basement incident gives subtle hints that [[spoiler: Tate already knows he's Dead All Along. He switches places with Thaddeus several times before appearing next to Violet to watch]].
** The medium's story of Roanoke Colony. [[spoiler: It's almost completely inaccurate, so it's no surprise when it turns out to be worthless.]]
** When Violet's ex-bully tells her that [[spoiler: the devil is beautiful, not ugly.]] It mainly works as a parallel to her relationship with [[spoiler: Tate, but it later applies to her beautiful baby brother - the AntiChrist.]]
** At one point, Adelaide remarks that [[spoiler:she hopes to never become a ghost as she finds the idea horrible]]. But the end of the episode, [[spoiler:Constance tries to make this happen unsuccessfully, and Adelaide later has a medium explain she's still glad to have died instead]].
** The events of episodes 5 and 6 are alluded to when [[spoiler:Tate has his first session with Ben; the sequence where Tate is shown walking through a school and a very brief shot where Tate sees himself covered in blood alludes he actually has acted on his murderous thoughts.]] Additionally, [[spoiler:Tate also being a ghost is implied when the dead cheerleader remarks that she would be 34 if he hadn't killed her; since she went to the same high-school at the same time at Tate, it's highly implied that he should be about 30 too.]]
* FrenchMaidOutfit: Moira wears a highly-eroticized version of this as her younger self, complete with garter belt.
* GenreSavvy: Marcy invokes this when she pulls a gun on Larry during the open house. Too bad she's WrongGenreSavvy.
* GirlOnGirlIsHot: Elizabeth and young!Moira attempt to invoke this on Ben. It doesn't work.
* GhostShipping: [[spoiler: Violet and Tate.]]
* GlasgowSmile: Given to both Elizabeth Short and [[spoiler: Travis']] corpses by [[spoiler: Charles Montgomory.]]
* GoingInCircles: [[spoiler: Violet flees the house but keeps ending back inside no matter how many times she tries because she died and is now a ghost trapped in the house]].
* GoryDiscretionShot[=/=]TakeOurWordForIt: [[spoiler:Charles is shown a box of jars containing their dead baby by two officers; not only are their contents hidden, an officer then stops Nora from seeing them, and it's enough to help drive Charles insane. Subverted soon after when Charles is shown sewing appendages onto an infant arm.]]
** The horribly mangled "Dead Breakfast Club" subverts this considering how grotesque their injuries are. [[spoiler:Played straight in the next episode, as said horrible injuries are inflicted offscreen.]]
* GroinAttack: [[spoiler: Moira's part of the plan to kill the Armenian man. Under the pretense of fellatio, she ''bites his penis off''.]]
* HauntedHouse: Murders and suicides have been taking place in the house since at least the 1920's.
* HasTwoDaddies: In a way. [[spoiler: Vivian's twins were fathered by Tate ''and'' Ben.]]
* HereWeGoAgain: [[spoiler: After Ben is killed,]] another family buys the house. [[spoiler: Ben and Vivien save their lives by convincing them to leave shortly afterward, ''scaring the ever-loving hell out of them'' in the process. Marcy has to redouble her efforts to sell it.]]
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Elizabeth Short, aka The Black Dahlia, in "Spooky Little Girl". [[spoiler: She was raped and killed inside the house.]]
** Her appearance is also {{Foreshadowing}}, as [[spoiler: Travis' body is mutilated the same way hers was]].
* HopeSpot: For Moira, after [[spoiler: Larry Harvey discovers her bones while digging a hole to bury Hayden in]]. Dashed when [[spoiler: her bones are not removed, Hayden is buried with her, ''and'' Ben builds a gazebo on top of them]]!
** Invoked in Episode 3 when [[spoiler:Adelaide]] appears and tries to help. This is quickly reverted when [[spoiler:Constance misinterprets what she's saying, and locks her in a closet to keep her quiet.]]
* [[IJustWantToBeBeautiful I Just Want To Be A Pretty Girl]]: Adelaide, who obsesses over being a pretty girl at least for Halloween. [[spoiler:Assuming the medium is to be believed, she got her wish after she died.]]
* InTheBlood: [[spoiler: Tate's son apparently inherited his dad's psychotic tendencies, if the nanny he murdered at ''three years old'' is any indication.]]
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Tate to Violet. However, he has several major misconceptions about how to go about it. [[spoiler: Like trying to kill off the new owners' son, who had only displayed a passing interest in her, so she wouldn't be alone.]]
* JustAFleshWound: When [[spoiler: Ben was shot, he]] didn't go to the hospital because it was just a through and through.
** Justified, as being shot in the thigh is one of the places you can take a bullet, without sustaining a terrible injury.
* [[spoiler: KillEmAll: None of the Harmons survive. Except the dog. Really, this show killed off almost every cast member. Constance and Larry are the only major characters who are still alive.]]
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler: The entire Harmon family, Hayden, Travis, and several others are killed and return as ghosts. Adelaide is the only one who died who did not return as a ghost, as she died off-property.]]
* KissKissSlap
* LightmareFuel: Harvey [[spoiler: hitting Hayden with a shovel.]]
** And then Ben builds a gazebo in under an hour. Scary because [[spoiler: he was hiding a body]], funny because it's ridiculous.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The dozens of people who have died in the house are all still there.
* LookBothWays: [[spoiler:Addie is struck by a car while trying to join the other trick-or-treaters.]]
** The brutal irony is that the accident was caused by [[spoiler: the mask Addie's mother gave her to look like a "pretty girl", which blocked her peripheral vision.]]
* LockedIntoStrangeness: The incident in the basement causes [[AlphaBitch Leah's]] hair to start turning white.
* [[MalevolentMaskedMen Malevolent Masked People]]: The home invaders in the second episode, who are intent on reenacting one of the murders that had occurred in the house. [[spoiler: Two are lured to the basement and dispatched by the victims of said murder. The third, seriously injured by Tate, manages to get away and dies off-property.]]
* MadwomanInTheAttic: Beau, Constance's son which she kept chained up in the attic.
* MajorInjuryUnderReaction: Travis handles [[spoiler: being murdered]] rather well, only being bummed that he won't be famous now.
** He even asks if he was in the news [[spoiler: after his body is found]], then requests newspaper clippings. He plans on starting a scrapbook.
* MamaBear: Despite her obvious contempt for her daughter, Constance threatens to break Vivien's arm if she touches her again.
** Constance's reaction to [[spoiler: Adelaide being hit by a car]] is [[TearJerker heartbreaking]].
** She is this way with [[spoiler: Tate]] and [[spoiler: her second son, Beau]], as well. [[spoiler: Tate hates her.]]
** Constance will ''kill'' to keep her family together. [[spoiler: She even allies with Larry and Moira to off a possible buyer, as he was going to tear the house down.]]
* MeaningfulEcho: "You're gonna regret it", said by Adelaide to the twins, is heard again a few minutes later in the episode as Vivien confronts Ben. Considering this was the main catalyst that caused them to move to the house and everything that happened afterward, it's quite safe to say they're regretting it.
** The music that played as the twins wrecked the place is heard again, midway through "Afterbirth". [[spoiler: It plays as the new buyers flee the house.]]
** Tate's whistled theme is heard again as [[spoiler: Constance finds his son and the body of the boy's nanny, who he had killed.]]
* MercyKill: [[spoiler: Moira ends her mother's life by disconnecting her oxygen.]]
* MoeGreeneSpecial: [[spoiler: How Constance killed Moira. She's even impressed with her own marksmanship.]]
* MurderSuicide: According to the realtor, the gay couple who lived in the house before the series started died this way.
** Revealed in the first part of the Halloween two-parter to have been at least partially caused by [[spoiler: the man in the rubber suit, who first tries to drown then snaps Chad's neck. After Patrick walked into the room, he killed him as well.]].
** [[spoiler: Charles and Nora Montgomery, after Nora discovers just what their child had become. She kills him, then herself.]]
* NeverTrustATrailer:
** That scene in the trailer for episode 6 where [[spoiler: Vivien's baby's hand is clearly visible pressing against her stomach is a Dream Sequence.]]
** The trailer for episode 10 implies that Tate is going to kill Violet. [[spoiler: He does not, instead revealing that she's been Dead All Along since her overdose.]]
* NightmareFetishist:
** Violet only wants to move in the house after the real estate ladies tells the family about the murders.
** Tate, who has many macabre fantasies and interests. [[spoiler: Some of which he has acted on.]]
** The reenactment group in the second episode.
** It appears that Hayden REALLY enjoyed [[spoiler:stabbing Travis]].
* TheNineties: Episode 6 starts here in a very shocking way.
* NonHumanLoverReveal: Revealed to [[spoiler: Violet but not to Tate]].
** [[spoiler: And revealed to Violet by Tate, along with the fact that Tate knew he was dead the whole time.]]
* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Ghosts in the house are normally unseen by the living, with a few exceptions, but can make themselves be seen if they want to. They can be attacked by the living and other ghosts, but are unfazed by any damage. They in turn can kill the living and otherwise interact with the rest of the world. Sometimes they are aware they are ghosts, other times they cannot remember. Only ghosts inside the house are ever shown, and they cannot leave the house [[spoiler: except on Halloween, when they are allowed to leave for the day. Other ghosts unrelated to the house appear on Halloween too, but it is unknown how much they can interact with the rest of the world the rest of the year.]]
* ParentalAbandonment: While her parents spend all their time and energy on their shattered relationship, Violet is left to fend for herself.
** [[spoiler: They don't even notice her being DrivenToMadness, overdosing, and ''dying''. In her own words, they think she's depressed.]]
* PetTheDog: Constance doesn't have many redeeming qualities, but you feel damn sorry for her when [[spoiler: Adelaide gets hit by a car and she tries desperately to keep from losing her.]]
** [[spoiler: What she says to Adelaide's ghost.]]
** [[spoiler: Nora rescuing a young Tate from Thaddeus.]]
* [[HallOfMirrors Room Of Mirrors]]: The "Bad Girl Room".
* PoliceAreUseless: The dozens of murders and disappearances over the years certainly haven't inspired the police to do anything like thorough investigations.
* PortmanteauCoupleName: "Violate" for Violet/Tate.
* {{Retcon}}: The first season was given the subtitle ''Murder House'' after the show's seasonal anthology format was announced.
* RoleAssociation: One of Tate's school shooting victims is played by Ashley Rickards, who was Evan Peters's love interest on ''OneTreeHill''. It makes the association kind of funny.
* RacistGrandma: YMMV on whether or not the realtor is old enough to be considered a grandma, but she is apologetically racist and a bit homophobic. As of "Birth" [[spoiler: Constance]] also counts.
* TheReveal: The opening for "Rubber Man". [[spoiler: The Rubber Suit Man who fathered one of Vivien's twins and killed Chad and Patrick is Tate.]]
* RichBitch: Billie Dean, the medium who Constance contacts after [[spoiler: Violet discovers that Tate's dead]].
* SelfInflictedHell: Some of the ghosts complain about not being able to leave (due to their bones interred on the grounds) but they seem more interested in staying to torment each other (and the new living residents) for their perceived "crimes".
** This seems to only be the case with [[spoiler: Moira]], we don't know why everyone else is stuck there and it's not possible that all of their bodies are buried on the grounds since there are records of their deaths, meaning that someone would have had to have found their bodies following said deaths (or else the records would have just said that they disappeared.) The only condition for someone becoming a ghost in the house is that they die on the grounds, not that their bodies remain there.
*** It's explained that the only reason [[spoiler: Moira]] wants her body found is so that Constance will finally be caught and face retribution for what she did. It won't get her out of the house, but it would probably make it easier on her mind frame if she didn't have her murderer mocking her at every turn.
* TheSeventies: The beginning of the pilot takes place in this time period.
* ShipSinking: [[spoiler: Tate and Violet, torpedoed near the end of the season once Violet learns that Tate killed Chad and Patrick and raped her mother.]]
* ShootTheShaggyDog: Ben's patient Derek from "Piggy Piggy" finally overcomes his fear of being alone in the bathroom [[spoiler: only to be murdered by two robbers in the bathroom]].
* ShoutOut:
** The man who has half of his face burnt has the surname of Harvey, as in [[Comicbook/TwoFace Harvey Dent]].
** Larry Harvey says that when he murdered his family under the influence of voices, he felt like an obedient child. The character played by Laurence Harvey in [[TheManchurianCandidate ''The Manchurian Candidate'']] murdered people under the influence of [[spoiler: his mother.]]
** Larry Harvey is also the name of one of the founders of Burning Man. And what happened to the show's Larry Harvey?
** The second episode uses the score from ''Psycho'' and is reminiscent of ''TheStrangers''.
** In episode five, Tate and Violet are confronted on the beach by five teenagers: [[TheBreakfastClub A jock, a cheerleader, a nerd, a goth girl, and a guy dressed in a leather jacket]].
*** Violet even calls them "The Dead Breakfast Club".
** Tate axes a serial killer groupie named Bianca. Anyone familiar with the [[UsefulNotes/CharlesManson Manson case]] will recognize those names.
** Hayden in "Halloween, Part 2" subverts a FatalAttraction shout-out.
** Tate gives a Shout-Out to ''TaxiDriver'' [[spoiler: right before he commits SuicideByCop.]]
*** Tate also gives another one prior to that when he says something similar to Bickle's "rain washing away" speech when he first meets with Ben.
** The show uses the score from ''Bram Stoker's Dracula'', particularly in the scene where Nora opens the door to see her "baby" in his room.
** The show also gives a couple of subtle shout-outs to ''Film/TheShining''. Tate's practically an homage to ''TwistedNerve'', whistling the theme tune and everything. Then there are all of the ''Rosemary's Baby'' references.
*** One of those Film/TheShining shout-outs happens with Beau's ball. He rolls it to an unsuspecting person while hidden in the shadows, like how a tennis ball is rolled unsuspectingly to Danny.
** "Twisted Nerve" plays over Tate's shoot out, the theme to the eponymous film about a psychotic boy who does crazy things for a girl he loves.
** When Ben sees Larry for the first time in the first episode, the scene itself is an homage of [[Film/{{Halloween 1978}} Laurie seeing The Shape in the Strode backyard for the second time]].
* ShovelStrike: How [[spoiler: Larry Harvey kills Hayden.]]
* TheSixties: The beginning of the second episode takes place in this time period.
* {{Sleepwalking}}: Starts happening to Ben after they move in, coupled with a disturbing fascination with fire. [[spoiler: Later, Larry Harvey, former owner of the house, confirms that this happened to him as well. In his case, he claims it led to him killing his family and horribly burning himself, but later reveals that he'd lied about killing his family.]]
** It's also mentioned in the Rubber Man episode that [[spoiler: Patrick]] started sleepwalking after he moved in, suggesting the house tends to have this effect on its residents.
** [[spoiler: And the new owner of the house, Miguel, does as well. He doesn't stick around long enough for anything to develop from it.]]
** In "Afterbirth" we learn why, [[spoiler: It's Loraine waking them up and leading them down to the stove. She wants them to burn themselves and feel her pain. Pretty creepy. It was one of the examples of how the ghosts in the house work, trying to get others to feel their pain. She's been the one doing it.]]
* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler: Hallie, the dog. Adopted by Marcy after Ben is killed.]]
* StalkerWithACrush:
** Tate, towards Violet. Likes to stare at her while she sleeps. [[spoiler: He's not breaking in, though.]]
** Larry is a platonic version of this to Ben. He keeps appearing out of nowhere and talking to him. Though Ben is repulsed by him, he apparently just wants to be buds. In episode three, he even helps Ben out by [[spoiler: killing Hayden.]]
*** Took a turn for the worst in episode 4. [[spoiler: He really wants his thousand dollars. In episode 5, he willingly teams with [[PsychoExGirlfriend Hayden]] to get revenge on Ben.]]
**** [[spoiler: Larry claims the whole reason he wanted the Harmons out of the house was so he could stay close to Constance. When she discovers this, Constance is fairly disgusted.]]
* StarCrossedLovers: Tate and Violet, [[spoiler: due to Tate being Dead All Along]].
** [[spoiler: Resolved now that Violet is also Dead All Along.]]
*** [[spoiler: And promptly sunk, when Violet finds out Tate killed Chad and Patrick, and raped her mother.]]
* StockUnsolvedMysteries: Elizabeth Short, AKA The Black Dahlia, [[spoiler: was accidentally killed during an operation, and her body was dismembered by a ghost for easier transport. She is now one of the ghosts haunting the house.]]
* StrawMisogynist: The Armenian man who plans on buying the house displays this behavior, especially towards Constance and Moira. [[spoiler: However, this isn't the reason why Constance, Moira, and Larry team up to do away with him. He planned on tearing the house down.]]
* SuicideByCop: [[spoiler: Tate.]]
* SurrealHorror: Bondage monster. That is all.
* SwissCheeseSecurity: Even discounting the ghosts, it seems there is always at least one person in the house who shouldn't be there. The only thing missing is the [[TheCallsAreComingFromInsideTheHouse creepy phone calls]], which show up in the Halloween episode.
* TangledFamilyTree: [[spoiler: Tate causes all sorts of tangles when it's revealed that he is the Rubber Man and the one who had sex with Vivien]].
* TeacherStudentRomance: One of the reasons for the tension between Ben and Vivien.
* TeensAreMonsters:
** Her first day at school, Violet is confronted by a group of girls who give her an insane rant for smoking on campus. [[AlphaBitch Leah]] tries to make her ''eat'' her cigarette and promptly screams "YOU ARE SO DEAD!" in a high-pitched wail once Violet manages to get away.
*** Minor subversion in the fact that even Leah's friends thought she was going too far in trying to make Violet eat the cigarette.
** Tate, who [[spoiler: may very well be a literal monster. His backstory has not been revealed, but he just appears at times, has a history with Constance, and from what he said at the end of "Home Invasion," he seems to have an ulterior motive at the house other than receiving therapy.]]
*** [[spoiler: Some of his backstory is revealed in episode 5: he's Constance's son. Episode 6 reveals that he did shoot several of his fellow students, including the ones who had hunted him down in the episode before, to the point where a full-on ''SWAT team'' was sent to apprehend him. This led to a SuicideByCop.]]
** Violet, as well. She can be exceptionally cruel to her parents, and was willing to go along with Tate's basement plan without asking too many questions.
*** Though to be fair, she was horrified when she found out what he was doing and never thought he'd go that far.
*** She also lied to her father and the police about what she and her mother saw, allowing them to conclude that her mother is insane and lock her up.
*** Considering that her parents are almost never shown interacting with her, it's hard to feel bad for them.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted, as Ben ''is'' one. It doesn't help a whole lot.
* TitleDrop: "Spooky Little Girl". The song of the same name plays in the background during a flashback sequence [[spoiler: where Ben and Hayden first hook up]].
* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler: Tate and Violet, at least until she finds out the truth about him.]]
** [[spoiler: Ben, Vivien, Violet, and the stillborn twin.]]
** Chad and Patrick. [[spoiler:However, this is not a happy ending for them, as they were about to split up when Tate murdered them.]]
* TomatoInTheMirror: Happens to [[spoiler: Violet]] in Smoldering Children, although subtle hints are dropped in past episodes that she is a ghost trapped in the house.
* TooDumbToLive: Probably literally. It's not like Violet can't guess that continuing to stay in that house will likely lead to the deaths of her and her family, but she really doesn't seem to want to leave.
** [[spoiler: It's not ''wanting'' to leave. She ''can't'' leave.]]
* UnintentionalBackupPlan: [[spoiler:In an attempt to prevent Chad and Pat adopting Vivien's twins, Tate and Violet follow the psychic's instructions to get rid of them, which requires burning a ghost's possession and shouting a curse. The plan doesn't do anything, but Tate fighting Pat for his wedding ring results in Pat shouting how Tate's killing him means he's spending eternity with someone he doesn't love, ''resulting in Chad hearing and breaking up with him anyway.'']]
* UnusualEuphemism: "The procedure", for abortion. Justified in that, during the timeframe Charles and Nora Montgomery lived in, one did not discuss such things openly.
* UrbanLegends: One of Ben's patients, Derek, recounts one of these, about a man with a pig's head. [[spoiler: Ben has him enact the legend. Instead of the pig man, he sees one of the nurses from the second episode. Later on, he does it again. This time, he surprises a burglar in the act and is shot.]]
* ViralMarketing: Several videos, referred to as clues to the show's content, have been released on the show's Website and YouTube channel. [[spoiler: These directly hint towards Vivien's miscarriage, her later pregnancy, and the rubber suit man's involvement, among other things.]] There was also a chance to sign up for a "house call" to come face-to-face with one of the show's characters.
* VomitIndiscretionShot: Episode 3, Ben after [[spoiler: Hayden gets whacked.]]
** Episode 6, when Tate [[spoiler: shoves his fingers down Violet's throat to try to keep her from dying.]]
* WhamEpisode: "Rubber Man". [[spoiler: The Rubber Suit Man's identity is revealed, Hayden tries to marshal the ghosts against Vivien and Ben, and Ben has Vivien committed.]]
** Less of an example, but still wham-worthy, is "Smoldering Children". [[spoiler: Larry takes the fall for Constance, who is suspected of murdering Travis, and it's revealed that Violet did not survive her overdose.]]
* WhatTheHellHero: Violet calls both of her parents out on their neglectful behavior towards her.
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: [[spoiler:Everyone who becomes a ghost typically remains in the condition they died in, so characters who died under nasty circumstances make horribly disfigured ghosts, making being stuck in eternity even worse (e.g. "The Dead Breakfast Club" and Larry's family).]]
** Taken UpToEleven with [[spoiler:Chad and Pat, and later Violet and Tate; both couples break up as one no longer loves the other, but are forced to live in the same house indefinitely.]]
* WeirdnessMagnet: Violet, eventually. [[spoiler: The rest of the house's ghosts start appearing to her, but Tate instructs her to tell them to go away when they do. They listen. Of course, by then she's actually one of them too, but doesn't know it at that time.]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: Nora was apparently this for Charles. Too bad Charles was a drug-addicted mad scientist who [[spoiler: murdered a girl to put her still beating heart into the resurrected body of his formerly dismembered child]]. Nora did say he was a genius before [[spoiler: she shot him in the head.]]
* XmeetsY: ''AmericanBeauty'' meets ''Film/TheShining''.
* {{Yandere}}:
** Hayden shows some shades of this in the second episode, but the third episode is where she ''really'' shines. [[spoiler: Thank God for that shovel...]]
*** [[spoiler: The shovel made it worse. She's now taken to tormenting the holy hell out of Vivien.]]
** Tate has shades of this.
*** [[spoiler: He turns full-on {{Yandere}} after Violet rejects him.]]
* YaoiFangirl: Violet thinks gay porn is hot. [[BiTheWay Tate agrees]], though he didn't seem sincere.
[[caption-width-right:350: ''Murder House'' cast.[[note]]From left to right: [[TeensAreMonsters Tate]], [[EvilMatriarch Constance]], [[IJustWantToBeBeautiful Adelaide]], [[MsFanservice Young Moira]], [[LoveMakesYouCrazy Larry Harvey (on fire)]], [[TheWoobie Old Moira]], [[NightmareFetishist Violet]], [[SupernaturalProofFather Ben]], [[OnlySaneMan Vivien]]. Above them: [[CreepyTwins The Twins]] and [[DressedAllInRubber Rubber Man]].[[/note]] ]]
The first season of ''American Horror Story'', originally titled ''American Horror Story'' but retroactively titled ''American Horror Story: Murder House'', follows the story of a couple from Boston, Ben and Vivien, and their daughter, Violet, who decide a change in location to sunny Los Angeles will help heal the wounds left by Vivien’s miscarriage and by Ben’s affair with a former student. Their nightmares are far from over, however, as their new dream house turns out to be full of dark secrets.
Jessica Lange won a Primetime Emmy and a Screen Actor's Guild award for her portrayal of Constance in ''Murder House''.
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!!''American Horror Story: Murder House'' provides the following tropes:
* ADateWithRosiePalms:
** Ben walks in on the young Moira doing this and quickly exits to his bedroom to do a little of his own.
** Vivien enjoys herself while she has a DreamSequence about Luke, Ben and the Rubber Man.
* ADayInTheLimelight: "Rubber Man". Explains the origins of the rubber suit [[spoiler: and reveals that Tate had donned the suit to kill Patrick and Chad, then to father one of Vivien's twins, just because Nora wanted her baby.]]
* AdultFear: One of the reasons the Harmons [[spoiler:(and Chad and Pat before them)]] [[ClosedCircle can't just leave]] is because they've sunk so much money into the house that just leaving or making the house price low enough to attract people would be like committing financial suicide.
* AdultsAreUseless: Violet walks around public areas of the school smoking and is never confronted by any authority figures about it, she is also repeatedly attacked in those same public places and no authority figure ever steps in. Given one of the writer's [[Series/{{Glee}} other show]], the high school's Darwinian approach to discipline isn't too surprising.
* AmericanTitle
* AndIMustScream: Unlike most examples, [[spoiler: Moira]] has the opportunity to actually scream.
* AntiChrist: [[spoiler:Michael, conceived by a ghost and a living woman: Tate and Vivien. He kills his half-brother in the womb and kills his nanny at the age of three]].
* AnyoneCanDie: The only cast members to survive to the end are [[spoiler: Constance, Leah, Larry, Billie Dean, Luke, Marcy, and Hallie.]]
* ArtisticTitle: The opening credits manage to be both creepy and fascinating.
* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Ben is supposedly a psychiatrist, a medical doctor specializing drug management of mental illness. He is shown do little if any medical treatment, instead acting as a psychotherapist.
* ArtisticLicenseReligion: Claiming that people invented reincarnation to comfort themselves (in reality reincarnation is viewed negatively in the religions it originated from) and that the Catholic Church believes in TheAntiChrist.
* AssShove: [[spoiler: Tate shoved a fireplace poker up Patrick's ass before killing him.]]
* AteHisGun: [[spoiler: How Nora Montgomery committed suicide after killing her husband out of grief over her monster baby.]]
* TheAtoner:
** Larry, [[spoiler: except not really, he just wants to impress Constance]].
** [[spoiler: Tate claims to want redemption in the season finale, but Ben has his doubts]].
* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Addie toward the family dog, when Vivien is trying to get across that she can't keep breaking in.
* BarredFromTheAfterlife: The spirits trapped in the house in the first season.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Some ghosts still have the wounds that killed them, though sometimes they do not, usually in the interest of preserving their looks.
** Moira's young self does not sport the eye bullet wound that killed her, though her old form has a blind eye.
** Hayden sports no more than a bloody nose after being fatally smashed in the face with a shovel. After she bathes, she has no visible injuries.
** The Black Dahlia only briefly appears with her mutilations.
* TheBechdelTest: Pass.
* BirdsOfAFeather: Tate and Violet, who bond over the cuts they've given themselves.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: All of the Harmons die and are trapped in the House with all the other ghosts forever, but are actively working to make sure no other family ends up like them and are finally happy being dead together. Constance is raising the Antichrist, with mixed emotions. Tate and the rest of the ghosts in the house are still miserable]].
* BlondesAreEvil: Constance, Tate, Nora, and ultimate [[spoiler:Michael, the antichrist]].
* BreatherEpisode:
** It's an odd show where an episode featuring multiple characters being shot and another attempting suicide is the breather episode, but "Piggy Piggy" was much less chaotic and downplayed following the big grand Halloween episodes, and had more answers than questions. [[spoiler: Although it turns out to be less of a breather episode when it is revealed later in the season that Violet actually succeeded in her suicide attempt later.]]
** The episode "Spooky Little Girl" also counts. Aside from [[spoiler: the ghost of Elizabeth Short]] appearing and [[spoiler: how her murder happened]], this episode is more character driven, focusing mostly on Ben, as well as Hayden's motives and Travis wanting to become famous. Then enters MoodWhiplash territory when Billie Dean and Constance talk about what exactly happens [[spoiler: if a spirit had a child with a human, with Billie revealing that it would result in the AntiChrist]].
* BreathlessNonSequitur: Unsurprisingly, [[DeadpanSnarker Chad]]:
-->'''Pat''': [leaving] I'm hitting the gym.\\
'''Chad''': ''Well make sure you wear a condom.'' And pick me up some gala apples. I thought these golden delicious would look dramatic in the bobbing bucket, they just look dull and depressing... there's no contrast.\\
'''Pat''': [[[{{Beat}} re-enters]]] Why would I wear a condom at the gym?\\
'''Chad''': ''Maybe because you're screwing that twink trainer of yours?'' And I need gourds. I'm going to hang them on the tree out front... spray paint them and they're going to be these clever, little, organic ghosts.
* BuryYourDisabled: [[spoiler: Adelaide, who has Down Syndrome, is fatally hit by a car in the fourth episode.]]
* CallingTheOldManOut: Violet does this to her parents to little effect. Tate also did this to his mom to little effect.
* TheCallsAreComingFromInsideTheHouse: [[spoiler: From under the gazebo, at least.]]
* CameBackWrong: [[spoiler: Charles and Nora Montgomery's child, Thaddeus, AKA the baby-thing in the basement. Charles used a ''still-beating heart'' to resurrect it, but it came back with a craving for blood, resulting in Nora attempting to kill it.]]
* CassandraTruth: Adelaide directly told the twins that they would die in the house. They didn't listen. [[spoiler: She also tells Vivien that she'll die in the house. She didn't listen either.]]
* CentralTheme: Infidelity.
* ChekhovsGun:
** The rubber suit Vivien discovers in the attic. [[spoiler: Later worn by the father of one of Vivien's twins.]]
** Chekhovs Cupcakes: The cupcakes Constance brought over for Violet. [[spoiler: One is eaten by one of the home invaders, which makes her ill and results in her not joining the other two in the basement.]]
** Chekhovs Crime: A subtle one, but the cop at the end of the second episode says that [[spoiler: Bianca]] was found blocks away from the murder house, nearly cut in half. He says that it looked like her friends tried to do a Black Dahlia on her. [[spoiler: The Black Dahlia is revealed to have happened in the murder house in episode 9. And carried out in the same way.]]
** The realtor had an actual gun [[spoiler: which Vivien later steals and accidentally shoots her husband with]]. Quite a lot of the onscreen deaths are caused by guns.
* ChekhovsGunman: The young woman Ben is counseling in the second episode. [[spoiler: She is one of the three people who invade the house, and is the only one who escapes alive. She is later found dead by the cops who believe she was murdered by her accomplices, whose bodies haven't been found.]]
* ChristianityIsCatholic: The [[spoiler:Antichrist]] subplot is played out in Catholic terms.
* ClosedCircle: The Harmons can't just leave because they can't afford to lose such a large amount of money. Later added to when Violet threatens to run away if they move again, and [[spoiler:Vivian's doctor warns her that the stress of moving is potentially detrimental to her unborn child]].
* CreepyTwins: The creepy twins that were murdered in the first episode and now haunt the house.
* CreepyBasement: The most dangerous place in the house. It's where the twins meet their fate, where Violet and Tate teaches [[AlphaBitch Leah]] a lesson, and where Dr. Montgomery carried out his backroom abortions.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Pretty much everyone, but points go to the Harmon family, whose problems could count as DeusAngstMachina.
* DeadAllAlong:
** [[spoiler: Moira, killed by Constance long before the series began.]]
** [[spoiler: Tate, killed by a full-on SWAT team after shooting up his school. This is how Constance knew about the house's power, as they were living there at the time.]]
** [[spoiler: Violet, who did not survive her overdose.]]
* DeathByChildbirth: [[spoiler:Vivien, along with one of her twins.]]
* DeathBySex:
** [[spoiler: Travis hooks up with Hayden twice. She stabs him to death after the second time.]]
** [[spoiler: Travis' death is a callback to a previous episode, where she does the same to Constance's late husband. As he was dead, it didn't affect him.]]
** [[spoiler: Constance murders both her husband and Moira when she catches them in bed together.]]
* DefeatMeansFriendship: After her encounter in the Harmons' basement, this seems to have happened with [[AlphaBitch Leah]] and Violet.
* DistractedByTheSexy: Seems to be a chronic problem for Ben.
* DreamingOfThingsToCome: The girl in the second episode who kept dreaming that she got cut in half [[spoiler: is sliced along the stomach.]]
* DreamSequence: Vivien's prone to these. In one episode, it was her baby's hand being visible through the skin of her stomach.
* DressedAllInRubber: The man in the rubber suit. Thinking it's Ben, Vivien has sex with him [[spoiler: and conceives one of her twins]].
* DrivenToMadness:
** Violet shows signs of this [[spoiler: after she discovers the truth of what Tate had done. It's further compounded when she looks for Tate in the basement and instead finds one of the nurses, the two home invaders, and Charles, leading to her being DrivenToSuicide.]]
** What is being done to [[spoiler: Vivien by the ghosts.]]
** Constance is after [[spoiler: she discovers that Tate raped Vivien]]. It resurfaces in her monologue near the end of "Afterbirth".
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: After being Driven To Madness, Violet intentionally overdoses. Tate, screaming and sobbing at her not to die on him, drags her to the bathroom, but is unsuccessful in saving her life.]]
** On subsequent tours of the house, Marcy says this is what happened to [[spoiler: Ben]].
* DysfunctionJunction: Every family and relationship, except the Latin family in the final episode.
* EasyAmnesia: Ben, during the third episode. Coupled with spacing out. [[spoiler: Caused by Moira spiking his coffee with laudanum, in an effort to get him to dig up her bones.]]
* TheEighties: The beginning of the third episode takes place during this time period.
* EnfantTerrible:
** [[spoiler: The baby-thing in the basement that attacks Leah, nearly attacks Violet, and is responsible for the death of the twins. If Tate can be believed, this is Thaddeus, the son of Charles and Nora Montgomery, killed in revenge for an abortion and resurrected using a ''still-beating heart'' by Charles.]]
** [[spoiler: Vivien's AntiChrist baby.]]
* EvilDetectingDog: Hallie, Vivien's dog, which leads Violet to the basement the first time they visit the house and bites Adelaide.
* EvilRedhead:
** The twins, though they were more {{Jerkass}} than outright evil.
** Moira, who appears as a young woman to Ben and seems to be trying to seduce him. Somewhat subverted in that all she really wants [[spoiler: is for someone to find her bones.]]
** Hayden, a victim of LoveMakesYouCrazy and LoveMakesYouEvil.
* FanDisservice: Young!Moira playing with herself is hot, until you remember that she's actually an old lady who appears young to Ben.
** Though considering she's a [[spoiler: ghost]], it's ambiguous which appearance is real and which is false.
*** Consider what she says in the third episode: men see what they want, whereas women see into a person's soul. Thus why Ben sees her as a young woman and Vivien as a remarkably older one. Both are the real appearance; Ben sees her as she looked before [[spoiler: she died]] whereas Vivien sees her as how she looks after the fact.
* {{Fanservice}}: This seems to be young!Moira's main purpose in the show. We also get a few shots of Ben's naked ass.
* FetusTerrible:
** What the situation is with [[spoiler: one of Vivien's twins, specifically the one Vivien and Rubber Man conceived during the pilot]].
*** [[spoiler: It started kicking ''at eight weeks'', then was revealed on the ultrasound to be much further along, and ''made the nurse faint''. The nurse later quits her job. When Vivien meets her again, she claims she saw what can be interpreted as the AntiChrist.]]
** The jars in the basement invoke this trope.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The basement incident gives subtle hints that [[spoiler: Tate already knows he's Dead All Along. He switches places with Thaddeus several times before appearing next to Violet to watch]].
** The medium's story of Roanoke Colony. [[spoiler: It's almost completely inaccurate, so it's no surprise when it turns out to be worthless.]]
** When Violet's ex-bully tells her that [[spoiler: the devil is beautiful, not ugly.]] It mainly works as a parallel to her relationship with [[spoiler: Tate, but it later applies to her beautiful baby brother - the AntiChrist.]]
** At one point, Adelaide remarks that [[spoiler:she hopes to never become a ghost as she finds the idea horrible]]. But the end of the episode, [[spoiler:Constance tries to make this happen unsuccessfully, and Adelaide later has a medium explain she's still glad to have died instead]].
** The events of episodes 5 and 6 are alluded to when [[spoiler:Tate has his first session with Ben; the sequence where Tate is shown walking through a school and a very brief shot where Tate sees himself covered in blood alludes he actually has acted on his murderous thoughts.]] Additionally, [[spoiler:Tate also being a ghost is implied when the dead cheerleader remarks that she would be 34 if he hadn't killed her; since she went to the same high-school at the same time at Tate, it's highly implied that he should be about 30 too.]]
* FrenchMaidOutfit: Moira wears a highly-eroticized version of this as her younger self, complete with garter belt.
* GenreSavvy: Marcy invokes this when she pulls a gun on Larry during the open house. Too bad she's WrongGenreSavvy.
* GirlOnGirlIsHot: Elizabeth and young!Moira attempt to invoke this on Ben. It doesn't work.
* GhostShipping: [[spoiler: Violet and Tate.]]
* GlasgowSmile: Given to both Elizabeth Short and [[spoiler: Travis']] corpses by [[spoiler: Charles Montgomory.]]
* GoingInCircles: [[spoiler: Violet flees the house but keeps ending back inside no matter how many times she tries because she died and is now a ghost trapped in the house]].
* GoryDiscretionShot[=/=]TakeOurWordForIt: [[spoiler:Charles is shown a box of jars containing their dead baby by two officers; not only are their contents hidden, an officer then stops Nora from seeing them, and it's enough to help drive Charles insane. Subverted soon after when Charles is shown sewing appendages onto an infant arm.]]
** The horribly mangled "Dead Breakfast Club" subverts this considering how grotesque their injuries are. [[spoiler:Played straight in the next episode, as said horrible injuries are inflicted offscreen.]]
* GroinAttack: [[spoiler: Moira's part of the plan to kill the Armenian man. Under the pretense of fellatio, she ''bites his penis off''.]]
* HauntedHouse: Murders and suicides have been taking place in the house since at least the 1920's.
* HasTwoDaddies: In a way. [[spoiler: Vivian's twins were fathered by Tate ''and'' Ben.]]
* HereWeGoAgain: [[spoiler: After Ben is killed,]] another family buys the house. [[spoiler: Ben and Vivien save their lives by convincing them to leave shortly afterward, ''scaring the ever-loving hell out of them'' in the process. Marcy has to redouble her efforts to sell it.]]
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Elizabeth Short, aka The Black Dahlia, in "Spooky Little Girl". [[spoiler: She was raped and killed inside the house.]]
** Her appearance is also {{Foreshadowing}}, as [[spoiler: Travis' body is mutilated the same way hers was]].
* HopeSpot: For Moira, after [[spoiler: Larry Harvey discovers her bones while digging a hole to bury Hayden in]]. Dashed when [[spoiler: her bones are not removed, Hayden is buried with her, ''and'' Ben builds a gazebo on top of them]]!
** Invoked in Episode 3 when [[spoiler:Adelaide]] appears and tries to help. This is quickly reverted when [[spoiler:Constance misinterprets what she's saying, and locks her in a closet to keep her quiet.]]
* [[IJustWantToBeBeautiful I Just Want To Be A Pretty Girl]]: Adelaide, who obsesses over being a pretty girl at least for Halloween. [[spoiler:Assuming the medium is to be believed, she got her wish after she died.]]
* InTheBlood: [[spoiler: Tate's son apparently inherited his dad's psychotic tendencies, if the nanny he murdered at ''three years old'' is any indication.]]
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Tate to Violet. However, he has several major misconceptions about how to go about it. [[spoiler: Like trying to kill off the new owners' son, who had only displayed a passing interest in her, so she wouldn't be alone.]]
* JustAFleshWound: When [[spoiler: Ben was shot, he]] didn't go to the hospital because it was just a through and through.
** Justified, as being shot in the thigh is one of the places you can take a bullet, without sustaining a terrible injury.
* [[spoiler: KillEmAll: None of the Harmons survive. Except the dog. Really, this show killed off almost every cast member. Constance and Larry are the only major characters who are still alive.]]
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler: The entire Harmon family, Hayden, Travis, and several others are killed and return as ghosts. Adelaide is the only one who died who did not return as a ghost, as she died off-property.]]
* KissKissSlap
* LightmareFuel: Harvey [[spoiler: hitting Hayden with a shovel.]]
** And then Ben builds a gazebo in under an hour. Scary because [[spoiler: he was hiding a body]], funny because it's ridiculous.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The dozens of people who have died in the house are all still there.
* LookBothWays: [[spoiler:Addie is struck by a car while trying to join the other trick-or-treaters.]]
** The brutal irony is that the accident was caused by [[spoiler: the mask Addie's mother gave her to look like a "pretty girl", which blocked her peripheral vision.]]
* LockedIntoStrangeness: The incident in the basement causes [[AlphaBitch Leah's]] hair to start turning white.
* [[MalevolentMaskedMen Malevolent Masked People]]: The home invaders in the second episode, who are intent on reenacting one of the murders that had occurred in the house. [[spoiler: Two are lured to the basement and dispatched by the victims of said murder. The third, seriously injured by Tate, manages to get away and dies off-property.]]
* MadwomanInTheAttic: Beau, Constance's son which she kept chained up in the attic.
* MajorInjuryUnderReaction: Travis handles [[spoiler: being murdered]] rather well, only being bummed that he won't be famous now.
** He even asks if he was in the news [[spoiler: after his body is found]], then requests newspaper clippings. He plans on starting a scrapbook.
* MamaBear: Despite her obvious contempt for her daughter, Constance threatens to break Vivien's arm if she touches her again.
** Constance's reaction to [[spoiler: Adelaide being hit by a car]] is [[TearJerker heartbreaking]].
** She is this way with [[spoiler: Tate]] and [[spoiler: her second son, Beau]], as well. [[spoiler: Tate hates her.]]
** Constance will ''kill'' to keep her family together. [[spoiler: She even allies with Larry and Moira to off a possible buyer, as he was going to tear the house down.]]
* MeaningfulEcho: "You're gonna regret it", said by Adelaide to the twins, is heard again a few minutes later in the episode as Vivien confronts Ben. Considering this was the main catalyst that caused them to move to the house and everything that happened afterward, it's quite safe to say they're regretting it.
** The music that played as the twins wrecked the place is heard again, midway through "Afterbirth". [[spoiler: It plays as the new buyers flee the house.]]
** Tate's whistled theme is heard again as [[spoiler: Constance finds his son and the body of the boy's nanny, who he had killed.]]
* MercyKill: [[spoiler: Moira ends her mother's life by disconnecting her oxygen.]]
* MoeGreeneSpecial: [[spoiler: How Constance killed Moira. She's even impressed with her own marksmanship.]]
* MurderSuicide: According to the realtor, the gay couple who lived in the house before the series started died this way.
** Revealed in the first part of the Halloween two-parter to have been at least partially caused by [[spoiler: the man in the rubber suit, who first tries to drown then snaps Chad's neck. After Patrick walked into the room, he killed him as well.]].
** [[spoiler: Charles and Nora Montgomery, after Nora discovers just what their child had become. She kills him, then herself.]]
* NeverTrustATrailer:
** That scene in the trailer for episode 6 where [[spoiler: Vivien's baby's hand is clearly visible pressing against her stomach is a Dream Sequence.]]
** The trailer for episode 10 implies that Tate is going to kill Violet. [[spoiler: He does not, instead revealing that she's been Dead All Along since her overdose.]]
* NightmareFetishist:
** Violet only wants to move in the house after the real estate ladies tells the family about the murders.
** Tate, who has many macabre fantasies and interests. [[spoiler: Some of which he has acted on.]]
** The reenactment group in the second episode.
** It appears that Hayden REALLY enjoyed [[spoiler:stabbing Travis]].
* TheNineties: Episode 6 starts here in a very shocking way.
* NonHumanLoverReveal: Revealed to [[spoiler: Violet but not to Tate]].
** [[spoiler: And revealed to Violet by Tate, along with the fact that Tate knew he was dead the whole time.]]
* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Ghosts in the house are normally unseen by the living, with a few exceptions, but can make themselves be seen if they want to. They can be attacked by the living and other ghosts, but are unfazed by any damage. They in turn can kill the living and otherwise interact with the rest of the world. Sometimes they are aware they are ghosts, other times they cannot remember. Only ghosts inside the house are ever shown, and they cannot leave the house [[spoiler: except on Halloween, when they are allowed to leave for the day. Other ghosts unrelated to the house appear on Halloween too, but it is unknown how much they can interact with the rest of the world the rest of the year.]]
* ParentalAbandonment: While her parents spend all their time and energy on their shattered relationship, Violet is left to fend for herself.
** [[spoiler: They don't even notice her being DrivenToMadness, overdosing, and ''dying''. In her own words, they think she's depressed.]]
* PetTheDog: Constance doesn't have many redeeming qualities, but you feel damn sorry for her when [[spoiler: Adelaide gets hit by a car and she tries desperately to keep from losing her.]]
** [[spoiler: What she says to Adelaide's ghost.]]
** [[spoiler: Nora rescuing a young Tate from Thaddeus.]]
* [[HallOfMirrors Room Of Mirrors]]: The "Bad Girl Room".
* PoliceAreUseless: The dozens of murders and disappearances over the years certainly haven't inspired the police to do anything like thorough investigations.
* PortmanteauCoupleName: "Violate" for Violet/Tate.
* {{Retcon}}: The first season was given the subtitle ''Murder House'' after the show's seasonal anthology format was announced.
* RoleAssociation: One of Tate's school shooting victims is played by Ashley Rickards, who was Evan Peters's love interest on ''OneTreeHill''. It makes the association kind of funny.
* RacistGrandma: YMMV on whether or not the realtor is old enough to be considered a grandma, but she is apologetically racist and a bit homophobic. As of "Birth" [[spoiler: Constance]] also counts.
* TheReveal: The opening for "Rubber Man". [[spoiler: The Rubber Suit Man who fathered one of Vivien's twins and killed Chad and Patrick is Tate.]]
* RichBitch: Billie Dean, the medium who Constance contacts after [[spoiler: Violet discovers that Tate's dead]].
* SelfInflictedHell: Some of the ghosts complain about not being able to leave (due to their bones interred on the grounds) but they seem more interested in staying to torment each other (and the new living residents) for their perceived "crimes".
** This seems to only be the case with [[spoiler: Moira]], we don't know why everyone else is stuck there and it's not possible that all of their bodies are buried on the grounds since there are records of their deaths, meaning that someone would have had to have found their bodies following said deaths (or else the records would have just said that they disappeared.) The only condition for someone becoming a ghost in the house is that they die on the grounds, not that their bodies remain there.
*** It's explained that the only reason [[spoiler: Moira]] wants her body found is so that Constance will finally be caught and face retribution for what she did. It won't get her out of the house, but it would probably make it easier on her mind frame if she didn't have her murderer mocking her at every turn.
* TheSeventies: The beginning of the pilot takes place in this time period.
* ShipSinking: [[spoiler: Tate and Violet, torpedoed near the end of the season once Violet learns that Tate killed Chad and Patrick and raped her mother.]]
* ShootTheShaggyDog: Ben's patient Derek from "Piggy Piggy" finally overcomes his fear of being alone in the bathroom [[spoiler: only to be murdered by two robbers in the bathroom]].
* ShoutOut:
** The man who has half of his face burnt has the surname of Harvey, as in [[Comicbook/TwoFace Harvey Dent]].
** Larry Harvey says that when he murdered his family under the influence of voices, he felt like an obedient child. The character played by Laurence Harvey in [[TheManchurianCandidate ''The Manchurian Candidate'']] murdered people under the influence of [[spoiler: his mother.]]
** Larry Harvey is also the name of one of the founders of Burning Man. And what happened to the show's Larry Harvey?
** The second episode uses the score from ''Psycho'' and is reminiscent of ''TheStrangers''.
** In episode five, Tate and Violet are confronted on the beach by five teenagers: [[TheBreakfastClub A jock, a cheerleader, a nerd, a goth girl, and a guy dressed in a leather jacket]].
*** Violet even calls them "The Dead Breakfast Club".
** Tate axes a serial killer groupie named Bianca. Anyone familiar with the [[UsefulNotes/CharlesManson Manson case]] will recognize those names.
** Hayden in "Halloween, Part 2" subverts a FatalAttraction shout-out.
** Tate gives a Shout-Out to ''TaxiDriver'' [[spoiler: right before he commits SuicideByCop.]]
*** Tate also gives another one prior to that when he says something similar to Bickle's "rain washing away" speech when he first meets with Ben.
** The show uses the score from ''Bram Stoker's Dracula'', particularly in the scene where Nora opens the door to see her "baby" in his room.
** The show also gives a couple of subtle shout-outs to ''Film/TheShining''. Tate's practically an homage to ''TwistedNerve'', whistling the theme tune and everything. Then there are all of the ''Rosemary's Baby'' references.
*** One of those Film/TheShining shout-outs happens with Beau's ball. He rolls it to an unsuspecting person while hidden in the shadows, like how a tennis ball is rolled unsuspectingly to Danny.
** "Twisted Nerve" plays over Tate's shoot out, the theme to the eponymous film about a psychotic boy who does crazy things for a girl he loves.
** When Ben sees Larry for the first time in the first episode, the scene itself is an homage of [[Film/{{Halloween 1978}} Laurie seeing The Shape in the Strode backyard for the second time]].
* ShovelStrike: How [[spoiler: Larry Harvey kills Hayden.]]
* TheSixties: The beginning of the second episode takes place in this time period.
* {{Sleepwalking}}: Starts happening to Ben after they move in, coupled with a disturbing fascination with fire. [[spoiler: Later, Larry Harvey, former owner of the house, confirms that this happened to him as well. In his case, he claims it led to him killing his family and horribly burning himself, but later reveals that he'd lied about killing his family.]]
** It's also mentioned in the Rubber Man episode that [[spoiler: Patrick]] started sleepwalking after he moved in, suggesting the house tends to have this effect on its residents.
** [[spoiler: And the new owner of the house, Miguel, does as well. He doesn't stick around long enough for anything to develop from it.]]
** In "Afterbirth" we learn why, [[spoiler: It's Loraine waking them up and leading them down to the stove. She wants them to burn themselves and feel her pain. Pretty creepy. It was one of the examples of how the ghosts in the house work, trying to get others to feel their pain. She's been the one doing it.]]
* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler: Hallie, the dog. Adopted by Marcy after Ben is killed.]]
* StalkerWithACrush:
** Tate, towards Violet. Likes to stare at her while she sleeps. [[spoiler: He's not breaking in, though.]]
** Larry is a platonic version of this to Ben. He keeps appearing out of nowhere and talking to him. Though Ben is repulsed by him, he apparently just wants to be buds. In episode three, he even helps Ben out by [[spoiler: killing Hayden.]]
*** Took a turn for the worst in episode 4. [[spoiler: He really wants his thousand dollars. In episode 5, he willingly teams with [[PsychoExGirlfriend Hayden]] to get revenge on Ben.]]
**** [[spoiler: Larry claims the whole reason he wanted the Harmons out of the house was so he could stay close to Constance. When she discovers this, Constance is fairly disgusted.]]
* StarCrossedLovers: Tate and Violet, [[spoiler: due to Tate being Dead All Along]].
** [[spoiler: Resolved now that Violet is also Dead All Along.]]
*** [[spoiler: And promptly sunk, when Violet finds out Tate killed Chad and Patrick, and raped her mother.]]
* StockUnsolvedMysteries: Elizabeth Short, AKA The Black Dahlia, [[spoiler: was accidentally killed during an operation, and her body was dismembered by a ghost for easier transport. She is now one of the ghosts haunting the house.]]
* StrawMisogynist: The Armenian man who plans on buying the house displays this behavior, especially towards Constance and Moira. [[spoiler: However, this isn't the reason why Constance, Moira, and Larry team up to do away with him. He planned on tearing the house down.]]
* SuicideByCop: [[spoiler: Tate.]]
* SurrealHorror: Bondage monster. That is all.
* SwissCheeseSecurity: Even discounting the ghosts, it seems there is always at least one person in the house who shouldn't be there. The only thing missing is the [[TheCallsAreComingFromInsideTheHouse creepy phone calls]], which show up in the Halloween episode.
* TangledFamilyTree: [[spoiler: Tate causes all sorts of tangles when it's revealed that he is the Rubber Man and the one who had sex with Vivien]].
* TeacherStudentRomance: One of the reasons for the tension between Ben and Vivien.
* TeensAreMonsters:
** Her first day at school, Violet is confronted by a group of girls who give her an insane rant for smoking on campus. [[AlphaBitch Leah]] tries to make her ''eat'' her cigarette and promptly screams "YOU ARE SO DEAD!" in a high-pitched wail once Violet manages to get away.
*** Minor subversion in the fact that even Leah's friends thought she was going too far in trying to make Violet eat the cigarette.
** Tate, who [[spoiler: may very well be a literal monster. His backstory has not been revealed, but he just appears at times, has a history with Constance, and from what he said at the end of "Home Invasion," he seems to have an ulterior motive at the house other than receiving therapy.]]
*** [[spoiler: Some of his backstory is revealed in episode 5: he's Constance's son. Episode 6 reveals that he did shoot several of his fellow students, including the ones who had hunted him down in the episode before, to the point where a full-on ''SWAT team'' was sent to apprehend him. This led to a SuicideByCop.]]
** Violet, as well. She can be exceptionally cruel to her parents, and was willing to go along with Tate's basement plan without asking too many questions.
*** Though to be fair, she was horrified when she found out what he was doing and never thought he'd go that far.
*** She also lied to her father and the police about what she and her mother saw, allowing them to conclude that her mother is insane and lock her up.
*** Considering that her parents are almost never shown interacting with her, it's hard to feel bad for them.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted, as Ben ''is'' one. It doesn't help a whole lot.
* TitleDrop: "Spooky Little Girl". The song of the same name plays in the background during a flashback sequence [[spoiler: where Ben and Hayden first hook up]].
* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler: Tate and Violet, at least until she finds out the truth about him.]]
** [[spoiler: Ben, Vivien, Violet, and the stillborn twin.]]
** Chad and Patrick. [[spoiler:However, this is not a happy ending for them, as they were about to split up when Tate murdered them.]]
* TomatoInTheMirror: Happens to [[spoiler: Violet]] in Smoldering Children, although subtle hints are dropped in past episodes that she is a ghost trapped in the house.
* TooDumbToLive: Probably literally. It's not like Violet can't guess that continuing to stay in that house will likely lead to the deaths of her and her family, but she really doesn't seem to want to leave.
** [[spoiler: It's not ''wanting'' to leave. She ''can't'' leave.]]
* UnintentionalBackupPlan: [[spoiler:In an attempt to prevent Chad and Pat adopting Vivien's twins, Tate and Violet follow the psychic's instructions to get rid of them, which requires burning a ghost's possession and shouting a curse. The plan doesn't do anything, but Tate fighting Pat for his wedding ring results in Pat shouting how Tate's killing him means he's spending eternity with someone he doesn't love, ''resulting in Chad hearing and breaking up with him anyway.'']]
* UnusualEuphemism: "The procedure", for abortion. Justified in that, during the timeframe Charles and Nora Montgomery lived in, one did not discuss such things openly.
* UrbanLegends: One of Ben's patients, Derek, recounts one of these, about a man with a pig's head. [[spoiler: Ben has him enact the legend. Instead of the pig man, he sees one of the nurses from the second episode. Later on, he does it again. This time, he surprises a burglar in the act and is shot.]]
* ViralMarketing: Several videos, referred to as clues to the show's content, have been released on the show's Website and YouTube channel. [[spoiler: These directly hint towards Vivien's miscarriage, her later pregnancy, and the rubber suit man's involvement, among other things.]] There was also a chance to sign up for a "house call" to come face-to-face with one of the show's characters.
* VomitIndiscretionShot: Episode 3, Ben after [[spoiler: Hayden gets whacked.]]
** Episode 6, when Tate [[spoiler: shoves his fingers down Violet's throat to try to keep her from dying.]]
* WhamEpisode: "Rubber Man". [[spoiler: The Rubber Suit Man's identity is revealed, Hayden tries to marshal the ghosts against Vivien and Ben, and Ben has Vivien committed.]]
** Less of an example, but still wham-worthy, is "Smoldering Children". [[spoiler: Larry takes the fall for Constance, who is suspected of murdering Travis, and it's revealed that Violet did not survive her overdose.]]
* WhatTheHellHero: Violet calls both of her parents out on their neglectful behavior towards her.
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: [[spoiler:Everyone who becomes a ghost typically remains in the condition they died in, so characters who died under nasty circumstances make horribly disfigured ghosts, making being stuck in eternity even worse (e.g. "The Dead Breakfast Club" and Larry's family).]]
** Taken UpToEleven with [[spoiler:Chad and Pat, and later Violet and Tate; both couples break up as one no longer loves the other, but are forced to live in the same house indefinitely.]]
* WeirdnessMagnet: Violet, eventually. [[spoiler: The rest of the house's ghosts start appearing to her, but Tate instructs her to tell them to go away when they do. They listen. Of course, by then she's actually one of them too, but doesn't know it at that time.]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: Nora was apparently this for Charles. Too bad Charles was a drug-addicted mad scientist who [[spoiler: murdered a girl to put her still beating heart into the resurrected body of his formerly dismembered child]]. Nora did say he was a genius before [[spoiler: she shot him in the head.]]
* XmeetsY: ''AmericanBeauty'' meets ''Film/TheShining''.
* {{Yandere}}:
** Hayden shows some shades of this in the second episode, but the third episode is where she ''really'' shines. [[spoiler: Thank God for that shovel...]]
*** [[spoiler: The shovel made it worse. She's now taken to tormenting the holy hell out of Vivien.]]
** Tate has shades of this.
*** [[spoiler: He turns full-on {{Yandere}} after Violet rejects him.]]
* YaoiFangirl: Violet thinks gay porn is hot. [[BiTheWay Tate agrees]], though he didn't seem sincere.
