American Horror Story Season 4 Setting Revealed?

Is American Horror Story going to the carnival? According to series writer Douglas Petrie that is the plan for the upcoming fourth season of the FX drama. During a taping of the Nerdist Writers Panel podcast released earlier this month, but recorded on February 16, Petrie confirmed the carnival theme/setting when asked about the next season. “It doesn’t have a title, but that’s the idea, very roughly that’s the idea,” said the writer. It is a pretty vague description of a setting, we’ll admit, and until it comes out of Ryan Murphy's mouth, nothing is really 100% confirmed, but any information is definitely welcome and we'll take it.  Murphy had previously disclosed some interesting details on the fourth season when he hinted that it would take place primarily in the 1950’s and that Jessica Lange’s character will have a German accent.

The 1950’s and German accents immediately evoke Cold War anxiety and Red Scare, which were key historical points of the time as well as prevalent themes in popular culture, especially within the science fiction and horror genres.  And we all know how the American Horror Story writers and producers love their horror tropes and clichés. That plus a carnival theme is definitely provides a rich setting ripe with many a scary and disturbing opportunities. While we could speculate on possible themes, settings, situations, etc. of the next AHS season, we can look forward to the Paleyfest panel of the show on March 28 for some more hints on the upcoming season. It was during the panel discussion last year when Murphy revealed the title for Coven as well as Kathy Bates’ involvement in the series. Hopefully we can get some fun details to satisfy our AHS withdrawals until the new season premieres in the fall.