YMMV / American Horror Stories

• Complete Monster: Larry Bitterman, from "Drive In", is a horror-obsessed filmmaker who experiments with the human brain to find a way to achieve the ultimate movie experience. Taking inspiration from MK Ultra to create his own masterpiece, Rabbit Rabbit, Bitterman hides subliminal triggers within his movie that result in people slaughtering each other and themselves. After his own editor mutilated herself and six people were killed because of him, Bitterman was sentenced to 15 years in prison for assaulting Tipper Gore when she protested against his movie. Longing for his revenge, Bitterman sent his movie to the Starlite movie theater in Los Angeles to replicate and exceed the original massacre in modern day, killing over a hundred people. Bitterman's cruelty truly comes to light when it is revealed that he made a deal with Netflix to release Rabbit Rabbit on the internet, throwing everything into chaos for a chance to be remembered as one of the greatest directors of all time.
• He Really Can Act: Many fans were apprehensive of Paris Jackson’s casting, only to be pleasantly surprised by her performance in the first two episodes.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: "Rubber (Wo)man" was criticized for feeling like a condensed and lackadaisical version of American Horror Story: Murder House. We have another troubled teenager with parents who have a fallout after an affair, who romances a psychopathic ghost.
• Just Here for Godzilla: For a number of the viewers that started watching in 2023, the series only appeared on their radar when an episode of the then-upcoming Season 3 was stated to be based on The Backrooms.
• Magnificent Bastard: "The Naughty List": The mysterious Serial Killer who murders men working as mall Santas before taking their costumes. He dresses up as Santa Claus to hide in plain sight while finds those he deems naughty to kill. A group of obnoxious influencers one such example and to do so he tracks them down in their home and kills them in various fashions before uploading their deaths on YouTube for everyone to see. By the time the cops arrive, he is already gone before being last being seen stalking another mall Santa and preparing to repeat his MO.
• Nausea Fuel: "Milkmaids" treats the audience to many close ups of puss-oozing out of small pox wounds, most of which is then eaten.
• Questionable Casting: Kaia Gerber and Paris Jackson’s casting announcements for "The Rubber (Wo)man" were met with with worry that they were only cast due to nepotism (being the daughters of Cindy Crawford and Michael Jackson, respectively), and that their acting would be subpar. After the episodes aired, this criticism was only heightened towards Kaia whose acting was widely panned, whist Paris left many pleasantly surprised.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Season 2 was much more warmly received than season 1.
• The Woobie:
  • In "Ba’al," Liv is terrorized by a demon who seems to be after her baby, whilst her husband Matt patronizes her concerns until she has a mental breakdown. It turns out her husband, his mistress, and their friends had instead been gaslighting Liv into believing she was seeing and hearing the demon until she was seen as insane, all so that she would be placed in an asylum with Matt receiving her inheritance. The misery she is put through makes her triumph at the end all the more satisfying.
  • In "Feral," Jay and Addy lose their three year old son on a camping trip, and spend the next ten years searching for him whilst grappling with guilt and grief, and are repeatedly scammed by people taking advantage of their loss, with Jay in particular also being stated to be the target of harassment from people who believe he killed his son. When they finally reunited with their son— after briefly believing him to have been cannibalized years ago— he has gone fully feral, and tells the creatures to eat his parents, and they slowly realize this before they're gruesomely eaten alive.