Summary
- Anna Alcott's traumatic story in season 12 highlights the pressures of fame.
- Madison Montgomery's blunt, self-centered personality in Coven and Apocalypse makes her a beloved character.
- Fiona Goode's reign as Supreme in Coven showcases her powerful, manipulative, and compelling character.
American Horror Story has a storied past, with each season revolving around a brand-new story featuring brand-new characters, even though the actors are used in rotation across multiple seasons. These characters breathe life into the tales they star in, all designed to have their own personalities, strengths, and flaws.
Best Seasons Of American Horror Story, Ranked
From unsettling to creepy to outright zany, American Horror Story has had quite the evolution across 12 seasons, but which season is the best?
Many of the women in AHS carry this show on their shoulders, more often than not featuring in starring roles, or being such a compelling side character that they steal the spotlight from the main. With so many phenomenal women in this show, selecting the greatest can be an almost impossible task, but these are the best among the best.
Spoiler Warning: This list will delve into major narrative spoilers for several seasons throughout American Horror Story.
7 Anna Alcott
This Flawed Character Undergoes a Deeply Traumatic Story
- Series: Season 12 ("Delicate")
- Actress: Emma Roberts
The pressure of fame is something only those who have experienced can ever hope to understand, as they always have to remain in the public eye, wearing the right dress and saying the right thing, and these pressures are definitely at the forefront of season 12, along with the added stress of relationship problems and IVF treatment. Series lead Ann Alcott, portrayed by Emma Roberts, has a very awful time in the series, her mind buckling under all of that pressure.
This makes her a more realistic character, as everyone would also worry their sanity is slipping away after all the odd experiences, and it would seem Anna is set to lose, powerless against the Delicate. But in the end, she gets to have her cake and eat it too, destroying all the cultists with a chant Adeline taught her, the ending showing her with the Oscar and her son.
6 Madison Montgomery
This Witch is a Supreme B**ch
- Series: Season 3 ("Coven"), Season 8 ("Apocalypse)
- Actress: Emma Roberts
Emma Roberts has portrayed two celebrities in American Horror Story now, with the first being that of Madison Montgomery, who first appeared in Coven as a witch in the academy, who thought she had the best shot at being the next Supreme after she was successfully revived from the dead with a clean bill of health.
Though Madison never does succeed in completing the Seven Wonders, she is still a formidable witch in terms of powers and personality. She is blunt — even outright rude — self-centered, and ultimately a queen b-word. Yet, this is part of her charm, as no one can fully outright hate Madison even when she is at her most catty. Many fans were pleased at her return in Apocalypse, especially seeing the deadly way she departed the show.
5 The Countess
A Deadly and Beautiful Vampire
- Series: Season 5 ("Hotel")
- Actress: Lady Gaga
Though American Horror Story isn't Lady Gaga's first foray into acting, it was her most successful, as she landed a concurrent role as the Countess in Season 5, Hotel. The Hotel Cortez is a place with a sordid history, as its original proprietor, Patrick James March, hasn't quite shuffled off the mortal coil, and there is a collection of other people and creatures living inside the walls.
One of these people is the beautifully enchanting woman known as the Countess, a vampire with certain maternal persuasions, kidnapping children and turning them into vampires like herself. Despite this motherly side to her, the Countess is also a highly dangerous and seductive woman who has a rather tragic past with her doomed love of Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova. It is hard not to feel for her, even when she is slicing throats open.
4 Marie Laveau
The Powerful Voodoo Queen from Legend
- Series: Season 3 ("Coven")
- Actress: Angela Bassett
As a season all about witches, Coven has no shortage of incredible female characters, and one is even based on a very significant and very real historical figure: Marie Laveau. Extending her life through magical means, Marie is still alive and practicing in the modern day, running a hair salon in New Orleans with a deep-running hatred for the witches of the academy, namely their Supreme Fiona.
But, the powerful Voodoo Queen does end up joining forces with Fiona as they face a common enemy, and seeing these two powerful and formidable women together is truly a treat, as they can wreak merry havoc, and no one can dream up torment quite like Marie.
3 Lana Winters
Neither Briarcliff nor Bloody Face Could Break Her
- Series: Season 2 ("Asylum")
- Actress: Sarah Paulson
The second season of American Horror Story is often lauded as the best for its focus on horror and strongly written characters, both antagonists and protagonists. Bloody Face is no doubt an intimidating figure who usually doesn't let any of his victims escape, but he was survived by none other than Lana Winters, who stands out as an icon in Asylum.
American Horror Story: Best Recurring Cast Members, Ranked
American Horror Story has a history of recurring actors to tie its stories together. These stellar performers are among the best returning actors.
The reporter with a go-getter attitude originally travels to Briarcliff under the guise that she wants to interview them about their new bakery, but there is only one scoop on her mind: the serial killer Bloody Face. Her tenacity is one of her core strengths, but it also lands her a residency in Briarcliff, who believe she can and should be cured of her homosexuality. Both the institute and the real killer try to break her, but Lana wins in the end, leaving with an evidence tape, and ending up with a thriving career, proof of her impressive strength and resilience.
2 Liz Taylor
The Lifeblood and Glamor of Hotel Cortez
- Series: Season 5 ("Hotel")
- Actress: Denis O'Hare
Many of the Hotel Cortez's workers seem to take up permanent residency on the premises, even those that are still alive, such as the bartender known as Liz Taylor. She originally came to the hotel on a business trip but encountered the Countess, who saw through the facade and helped her become the woman she was meant to be with a makeover.
This scene was genuinely heart-felt and helped shape Liz into the confident and collected badass that she is in the show, not afraid of anyone or anything, and even putting two entitled influencers in their place in one of the most satisfying scenes of the season. As someone dedicated to her family, Liz chooses to be with them for eternity in death at the end, wanting to die at their hands, with her oldest friend the Countess dealing the killing blow. Right until the end, and even then in the afterlife, Liz Taylor is one of the most lovable women in all of American Horror Story.
1 Fiona Goode
During Her Reign of Supreme, Fiona was a Force to Be Reckoned With
- Series: Season 3 ("Coven")
- Actress: Riley Voelkel (Flashbacks), Jessica Lange (modern day)
Season 3, subtitled Coven, introduced magic and witches, as the young and gifted converge at Miss Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies, a boarding school for the magically inclined. Newly awakened witch, Zoe, finds herself at this academy after her powers cause the death of her boyfriend, where she meets fellow witches Madison, Nan, Queenie, headmistress Cordelia, and, before too long, the Supreme herself: Fiona Goode.
Powerful, selfish, and manipulative, Fiona serves as one of the main antagonists of the show, not willing to give up her position even though the time has come for a new Supreme to rise. Though she has many negative qualities, Fiona is still one of the most compelling characters to witness in American Horror Story in its entirety. Even approaching the end of her life, she's not about to go out without a fight, proving time and time again why she rose as Supreme in the first place.
- Release Date
- October 5, 2011
- Network
- FX
- Showrunner
- Ryan Murphy
- Directors
- Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, Jennifer Lynch, Michael Uppendahl, Loni Peristere, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Ryan Murphy, David Semel, Howard Deutch, Michael Lehmann, Angela Bassett, Jeremy Podeswa, Max Winkler, Michael Rymer, Paris Barclay, Axelle Carolyn, Anthony Hemingway, Craig Zisk, Elodie Keene, Jennifer Arnold, Jessica Yu, John Scott, Laura Belsey, Liz Friedlander, Maggie Kiley
- Writers
- Halley Feiffer, Ned Martel, Crystal Liu, Charlie Carver, Kristen Reidel, Adam Penn, Douglas Petrie, Todd Kubrak, Reilly Smith, Jay Beattie, Dan Dworkin, Joshua A. Green, Akela Cooper, Asha Michelle Wilson
- Franchise(s)
- American Horror Story
Cast
-
Evan PetersKyle Spencer -
Sarah PaulsonTuberculosis Karen / Mamie Eisenhower
WHERE TO WATCH
- Seasons
- 12
- Story By
- brad falchuk
- Streaming Service(s)
- Hulu, Disney+
