With the release of Season 6 of American Horror Story, the Internet has been buzzing with theories, connections, and reactions to the premiere episode. It has been tantalizingly said by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk (creators of American Horror Story) that the seasons of American Horror Story are all intertwined and related. Upon watching the premiere of season six of American Horror Story, I began to notice some connections between Season 6 and Murder House, Season 1. I also began to notice some connections to one of the most successful independent psychological horror films ever created: The Blair Witch Project.
A short recap for those who have never seen or heard of The Blair Witch Project: Created by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, the basic plot is that three students begin hiking through the woods of Burkitsville, Maryland in the hopes of making a film documentary about the fabled Blair Witch, who supposedly haunts those woods. The film opens by revealing that the three students disappeared and were never found again; only their footage and sound equipment were recovered, which is what the audience watches as the film.
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Now that that's out of the way, back to the connections to American Horror Story. First and foremost, the build up to and style of Season 6 was and is very similar to the promotion and style of The Blair Witch Project in 1999: both were shrouded in mystery and confusion and both are fillmed in a mockumentary type style. Unlike other seasons, Murphy and Falchuk took every precaution necessary to keep not only the theme of Season 6 under wraps, but also the actors featured in the season. They only released 12 short trailers, each more confusing and seemingly unrelated to the last. When The Blair Witch Project was released in 1999, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez attempted to make the fictional documentary as real as possible by handing out fake missing-persons flyers and hosting mocked-up interviews with investigators and police officers. Both were a very nice touch.
Now, to the content of these masterpieces. One of the big similarities that stuck out to me during the first episode of Season 6 was the found-footage that mysteriously appeared and started playing in the basement of Shelby and Matt's house. The almost sickeningly shaky footage features a man's voice yelling in the woods in response to swine-like grunts and cries coming from a nearby bush. Shortly afterward, a hairy, half-human, half-pig monstrosity emerges from the brush and the videographer falls dead after an assumed altercation. This image of the half- swine, half-human bears a resemblence to descriptions of the Blair Witch given to the students by Burkitsville townspeople before the students embark on their journey into the woods. One particularly neurotic resident described the Witch as a hairy, half-animal, half-human creature. Maybe the witch didn't have a pig's head, but two strange creatures inhabiting the woods and terrorizing humans are still pretty similar if you ask me.
This next connection is a little loose, but bear with me. In The Blair Witch Project, Heather discovers teeth, hair, a pink object, and bloody scraps of Josh's shirt after Josh (another student) goes missing. So, remember that hailstorm of teeth in American Horror Story? Unnerving and disgusting to say the least, but could this, amongst other odd occurrences, also be related to The Blair Witch Project? Shelby, while she's alone on separate occasions, experiences a hailstorm of teeth and her knife is mysteriously moved from her cutting board directly into the pink cut of meat she has in the pan. Maybe not a direct correlation, but it could be something; we'll just have to see.
Lastly, those damn, creepy dolls. When Shelby and Matt's house is invaded, they go upstairs to find hundreds of creepy dolls suspended from their stairs and their ceiling. Although the "dolls" are designed a little differently, if this wasn't directly inspired by The Blair Witch Project, I don't know what was. During the travels of the three students, they discover a portion of the woods with suspended, human-esque dolls made of sticks. In American Horror Story, the dolls were such an unnerving sight that Shelby leaves her house; I guess she took note of the unwillingness of the film students to end their documentary in response to seeing the dolls.
With that, it's very possible that Season 6 of American Horror Story is largely inspired by The Blair Witch Project. We'll just have to wait and see if the Blair Witch herself makes an appearance.
