American Horror Story: Every Horror Movie Easter Egg In Asylum

American Horror Story: Asylum features various horror movie references that serve several purposes to the plot; here are each of them explained.

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Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story: Asylum is known for having a horrific plot that was influenced by the horror movies the season references throughout its entirety. From its murderous patients and corrupt doctors all the way to the series’ most pious priests and nuns, each character was created with a specific icon in the genre in mind, as well as their storyline. The evil contained in Briarcliff Manor made season 2 one of the greatest to date and, with a wealth of horror references underlying the original elements of Murphy’s story, AHS: Asylum’s ability to evoke fear is amplified.

When the series premiered in 2011 with American Horror Story: Murder House, it became an immediate success. Murphy proved to be a talented horror creator with several references woven into season 1, which carried over to every season that followed it. He’s even taken the influence from some of his American Horror Story references, such as One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, and expanded them into an entire series like he did with Ken Kesey’s novel in 2020 with the Netflix series, Ratched.

In AHS: Asylum, Sister Jude Martin (Jessica Lange), Dr. Oliver Thredson (Zachary Quinto), Sister Mary Eunice McKee (Lily Rabe), and Monsignor Timothy Howard (Joseph Fiennes) are characterized by whichever horror movie impacted their creation. Murphy’s use of these Easter eggs and references are brilliantly woven into season 2. Here they all are explained.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

One of the most obvious horror movie references is Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Dr. Oliver Thredson is a corrupt psychiatrist who is assigned to Kit Walker (Evan Peters), a patient at Briarcliff Manor who is believed to be the serial killer, Bloody Face. As the series progresses, it is revealed that Dr. Thredson is the real Bloody Face, who takes the skin of his victims and makes various household items with it. After impregnating Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson), she surrenders the baby, who grows up to perpetrate the same crimes as his father. Bloody Face is known to don a mask made of human skin, just like Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie franchise.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

Ryan Murphy’s psychiatric facility in AHS: Asylum features corrupt attendants, nurses, and barbaric therapeutic practices that cause more harm then good. These plot devices are an obvious nod to the state hospital featured in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Jessica Lange’s Sister Jude was influenced by the villainous Nurse Mildred Ratched, who notably caused a great deal of torment to her patients. They both take place in an institute for psychiatric care that features a corrupt and twisted system that doesn’t always have the patients’ best interests at heart.

The Exorcist

The Exorcist references are plentiful in AHS: Asylum. The opening sequence notably features Reagan’s spider walk, where she went down the stairs on her hands and feet with her stomach facing the ceiling. This is the most obvious Easter egg for the iconic movie, but the exorcism scene in episode 2, “Tricks And Treats”, shares a lot of similarities with the young girl’s own exorcism.

When two parents seek the help of the staff at Briarcliff Manor to heal their son, the Monsignor and Sister Jude discover he is possessed by the devil. During his exorcism, he yells vulgar and sexual phrases at the attendees, which Reagan does to the priest in The Exorcist. Nearly every instance of demonic possession has taken some influence from one of horror’s most iconic movies.

Freaks

While American Horror Story season 4, Freak Show, was heavily influenced by the 1932 horror movie, Freaks, AHS: Asylum sparked audience’s interest in the topic with Naomi Grossman’s character, Pepper. Pepper has microcephaly, which causes infants to have irregularly small heads due to underdeveloped brain tissue. Her condition is commonly referred to by AHS: Asylum’s Sister Jude as a “pinhead”, which is often considered a slur. The horror movie Freaks released prior to Hollywood code that called for more censorship in movie productions. It was one of the most unsettling movies to come out at the time, and included an array of real-life people who were categorized as “freaks” due to their physical ailments, such as people with microcephaly.

A Clockwork Orange

When Lana Winters is forced to stay at Briarcliff, it is under the guise that she is a lesbian undergoing conversion therapy. At the time, homosexuality was considered a mental disorder, and was even part of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) until 1973. While in Briarcliff, Lana is forced to undergo similar brainwashing techniques used in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. Dr. Thredson considers the use of forced aversion therapy with visual stimuli as a viable form of conversion, which is exactly what happens to Alex (Malcolm McDowell) in the 1971 Stanley Kubrick movie shortly after he is arrested and institutionalized. The brutality of the scene is meant to capture just how barbaric and ineffective the practice is.

Silent Night, Deadly Night

In episode 8, “Unholy Night”, a murderer dressed as Santa Claus comes to Briarcliff with the intent of killing Sister Jude. In the 1984 holiday slasher Silent Night, Deadly Night, Billy Chapman suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder that leads to a killer rampage through an orphanage while he’s dressed as Santa Claus. The patient in AHS: Asylum shares a somewhat similar backstory with Chapman’s character, and also has the drive to kill dressed as the jolly man in red.

The Silence Of The Lambs

While Dr. Thredson and his son were obviously influenced by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, they also mirror some aspects of characters in The Silence Of The Lambs. The movie follows Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) as she interviews a cannibalistic psychiatrist, Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), in order to find a serial killer known as “Buffalo Bill” (Ted Levine). Similar to Buffalo Bill, Dr. Thredson and his son make use of human skin, whether by wearing it or using it to create various items. In a completely different instance in AHS: Asylum, Sister Mary Eunice walks by a patient who throws bodily fluids at her, which also occurs in the 1991 movie. Ryan Murphy captured the iconic cannibal killers in both The Silence Of The Lambs and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre by creating his own horrific, father/son duo.

Candyman

The Candyman Easter egg is so subtle that it is easily missed unless purposefully sought out. In American Horror Story: Asylum episode 11, “Spilt Milk”, Lana escapes Briarcliff while the Candyman theme plays. It’s a brief homage, but it speaks on Lana’s ability to overcome her fears and confront danger head-on amidst her escape, as Helen Lyle does in the 1992 horror movie.

The Devils

Sister Jude and the Monsignor’s storyline is framed after the 1971 horror movie, The Devils. The Devils features a story about nuns who are filled with the desire to seduce a priest. While Sister Jude is able to contain her own desires, Sister Mary Eunice takes advantage of the Monsignor after she’s possessed by the devil. It showcases the duality of the characters while framing their stories with the opposite of what nuns are taught when they go through their training.

Killer Nun

The 1979 horror movie Killer Nun inspired the relationship between Dr. Thredson and Sister Jude. In the movie, a nun has killer instincts that result in her brutally murdering innocent people. When Sister Jude first meets Dr. Thredson, he informs her that the therapy used in Briarcliff is barbaric, and far too brutal to be considered useful to helping any of her patients. When Dr. Patrick Roland encounters the nun for the first time, he expresses similar concerns. This reference is highly obscure, but it speaks volumes on how Murphy intended on structuring their dynamic, even if Sister Jude isn’t quite as murderous.

I Know What You Did Last Summer

The final horror movie reference in AHS: Asylum is a hat tip to one of the last slasher movies of the 1990s, I Know What You Did Last Summer. The 1997 movie follows a group of friends who unexpectedly hit a man while driving. They make a pact to keep their vehicular manslaughter a secret but—as they later discover—the man survived, and is now seeking revenge. Throughout American Horror Story season 2, Sister Jude’s backstory is revealed in pieces through flashbacks. In one unforgettable reveal, Jude is seen driving drunk, and hits a young girl with her car. After believing she’s killed the child, she drives off, and immediately seeks penance by becoming a nun. A possessed Sister Mary Eunice discovers this information and blackmails Sister Jude with threats that she knows what she did. Though another of American Horror Story’s more subtle references, it’s a clever nod to an underrated classic.

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