Editorials
9 Actual People that Inspired “American Horror Story”
When thinking of things that scare you, real life is often the more horrifying than anything ever put on film. When the fictional world incorporates elements of the real world, it can be incredibly unsettling. FX’s American Horror Story is particularly good at this. While not the most even of shows, it does have its moments and excels at its choices in casting. The nine people below have all inspired (or been adapted into) various characters in the series.
The Black Dahlia (Season 1: Murder House)
Mena Suvari had a brief stint in season 1 as actress Elizabeth Short, otherwise known as The Black Dahlia. Short, whose body was found sliced in half with lacerations on her face, is one of the oldest unsolved murder cases in Los Angeles history. American Horror Story changed the circumstances of her death a bit, but Suvari was a dead ringer for Short. You should also check out James Ellroy’s fictionalized account of the murder in his 1987 novel The Black Dahlia. Just don’t watch Brian De Palma’s 2006 adaptation of said novel. It’s pretty bad.
Barney and Betty Hill (Season 2: Asylum)
Kit and Alma Walker, while arguably the weakest part of the otherwise strong “Asylum” (adding aliens into the mix was just one thing too many in an admittedly cluttered season), were based on real-life interracial couple Barney and Betty Hill. They just switched the genders. The Hills claimed to have been abducted by extraterrestrials in a rural New Hampshire town in September of 1961. Their story was the subject of the 1966 book they wrote, titled The Interrupted Journey, which was made into the 1975 television movie The UFO Incident.
Delphine LaLaurie (Season 3: Coven)
Believe it or not, the incredibly racist and cruel LaLaurie was a real person, notorious for torturing and allegedly murdering her household slaves. Her house, located in the French Quarter in New Orleans, caught fire one night which is how the townsfolk found the slaves in her attic. A mob chased her and her family out of the city and they fled to France.
Schlitze Surtees (Season 2: Asylum & Season 4: Freak Show)
Pepper (Naomi Grossman), the microcephalic woman who was framed for murder, is based on real life “freak” Schlitze Surtees, an American sideshow performer most widely known for his performance in the 1932 film Freaks. He was a top performer and went on to participate in several top traveling circuses, including Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.
John Wayne Gacy (Season 4: Freak Show & Season 5: Hotel)
Ryan Murphy dabbled into serial killer and rapist Gacy with Twisty the Clown (who was sadly underused) in “Freak Show” before just straight up giving him a role in “Hotel”. He even cast the same actor in both roles: the incredibly creepy John Carroll Lynch (Zodiac, The Invitation). Gacy was executed in 1994 via lethal injection.
Aileen Wuornos (Season 5: Hotel)
It’s hard to see anyone else portraying famed serial killer Aileen Wuornos other than Charlize Theron (though many forget that Jean Smart also portrayed her in a 1992 TV movie), but Lily Rabe did a decent job with the limited material she was given. Wuornos murdered 6 men between the years of 1989 and 1990 and was executed via lethal injection in 2002, just one year before Monster was released.
Richard Ramirez (Season 5: Hotel)
Ramirez was a serial killer, rapist and burglar who plagued Los Angeles and San Francisco during 1984 and 1985. He was given the nickname “The Night Stalker” because he would break into homes at night and murder people. He had raped and tortured more than 25 victims and murdered at least 13 during his two-year crime spree. Ramirez died in prison in 2013 due to complications from B-cell lymphoma.
Jeffrey Dahmer (Season 5: Hotel)
Actor Seth Gabel is a dead ringer for Jeffrey Dahmer (at least with that hair), who raped, murdered and dismembered 17 young boys and men between the years of 1978 and 1991. He eventually turned to necrophilia and cannibalism during the latter half of his crime spree. Shockingly, he was found to be legally sane in his trial, despite having been diagnosed with schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder and a psychotic disorder. Dahmer was sentenced to 16 life terms in 1992, only to be murdered by a fellow inmate in 1994.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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