American Horror Story has always been special. Ever since Murder House aired in 2011, the show has built a reputation for being creepy, shocking, and just plain unhinged in the best possible way. Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk took all the experience that helped them make Glee a hit and funneled it straight into haunted houses, killer clowns, witches, vampires, and every other nightmare they could think of.
But for all its merits, American Horror Story is also loaded with mistakes and inconsistencies. Some are tiny little goofs, while others are so strange that once you notice them, you can’t unsee them.
1. Crew and equipment accidentally show up on camera
For a show that looks this polished, American Horror Story has a surprising number of production slip-ups. One of the funniest kinds is when crew members or a random boom mic ends up visible in reflective surfaces. In Coven, a crew member’s arm is clearly visible in the mirror during a bedroom scene with Zoe, Madison, and Kyle. Then the same scene somehow manages to do it again, with another bit of someone’s body showing up in the reflection behind the characters. Sure, it’s not a coffee cup, but it’s something.
Then, later, in Asylum, Lana Winters appears in a dream sequence accepting an award, and you can clearly see the microphone pack attached to her outfit. A second later, it’s gone. They really thought no one would notice.
2. Freak Show musical time-travel shenanigans
This one is less about sloppy technical mistakes and more about the show playing very loose with history. Freak Show is set in 1952, but the soundtrack choices do not care about that at all. Jessica Lange’s Elsa Mars performs songs like David Bowie’s “Life on Mars?” and “Heroes,” which were released decades after the season’s setting. She also sings Lana Del Rey’s “Gods and Monsters,” which is even more hilariously out of place. Then the Tattler twins perform Fiona Apple’s “Criminal,” because apparently they have access to future radio.
3. Disappearing and reappearing blood
One of the most common American Horror Story mistakes is disappearing injuries. Characters get hurt, there’s blood everywhere, and then one cut later, it’s like nothing happened. A great example of this can be seen in Coven when Queenie uses her voodoo doll ability against Madison. Madison’s hand is shown looking seriously injured right after the attack, complete with plenty of blood. Then the camera cuts back, and suddenly there’s barely anything there. No blood, no obvious wound, no nothing.
4. Who needs continuity?
Continuity should be one of the easier things to keep track of, especially on a high-budget series. And yet American Horror Story loves messing up the small things. In Murder House, for example, Moira’s coffee mug magically changes position between shots. Later in the same episode, a character’s shirt gets unbuttoned and removed during a make-out scene, only to reappear all buttoned up in the following shot.
Then, in Cult, Kai starts shaving, with cream covering much of his face, including his upper lip. In the next shot, he’s applying the cream again, as if the earlier shot never happened.
5. Questionable medical logic
This show has never been super concerned with realism, but the medical mistakes can still be pretty wild. In Asylum, Dr. Arden points to the front upper part of Kit Walker’s head and says that’s where the occipital lobe is. But that is not where the occipital lobe is, so the scene gets basic anatomy entirely wrong.
Then, in Apocalypse, characters talk about killing people by injecting apples with snake venom. That sounds scary, but venom and poison are not the same thing. Swallowing venom usually does not work the same way as being bitten or injected, as the digestive system typically neutralizes the venom before it can cause harm, making the whole plan a flop if you really think about it. So the whole plan is basically a flop if you really think about it.
6. The timeline gets messy in more ways than one
American Horror Story loves jumping around in time, but sometimes it stumbles over basic details. In Murder House, there’s a school shooting scene set in 1994. However, the problem lies in a book that didn’t hit the shelves until 2004. If you’re attempting to sell the scene as taking place a decade earlier, that’s a significant issue.
Then again, people these days rarely read books. Freak Show also has some timeline weirdness beyond the music. The season includes equipment and lighting technology that didn’t exist in 1952.
7. Characters somehow know things they were never told
Sometimes the problem isn’t a random cop switching places or an inconsistent makeup. Sometimes it’s just the script casually handing a character information they should not have. In Hotel, Will Drake meets John Lowe and his daughter. The issue is that without being introduced, Drake somehow addresses the daughter by name. Call it a hunch.
