Both American Horror Story and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are iconic, cult classic television series with a horror bend that have been scaring and entertaining audiences for decades; the two long-running series share more than thematic common ground.
Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story debuted in 2011 with its first season, known as Murder House. The show has since gone on to have eight more seasons, and will have its tenth in 2020. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was a television spin-off of Joss Whedon’s 1992 film of the same name, premiered in 1997 and ran through 2003, accumulating seven seasons in total. The series starred Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, David Boreanaz, and Nicholas Brendon. Rumors of a reboot have been circulating, with some cast members sharing their support in reinvigorating Whedon’s original vision for a modern audience.
Murphy’s series has developed a cult following as well, though his series utilizes an anthology style to keep a fresh take from season to season, which has assisted with the show’s overall longevity. The first season, Murder House, is regarded as one of the most iconic and popular series, and part of that has to do with the house itself, which is where the connection between these two popular shows lies.
American Horror Story’s Connection To Buffy The Vampire Slayer
In Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 4, episode 4, “Fear, Itself”, Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Oz are planning to attend a fraternity’s Halloween party at a stately mansion. What they don’t realize until later is that, due to the influence of a ancient fear demon named Gachnar, the plastic decorations and other manufactured frights are becoming real and dangerous. The fraternity brothers, members of Alpha Delta at UC Sunnydale, accidentally conjured Gachnar by painting his mark on the floor of one of their rooms as part of the Halloween festivities; Oz (Seth Green) accidentally activates the seal by spilling a drop of blood on it. The house where all this takes place ended up being the “Murder House” in American Horror Story’s first season 12 years later.
The “Murder House” in American Horror Story is cursed, where all who perish in the house must remain there in some sort of purgatory. Because of this, there are numerous characters of varying levels of danger that have become permanent residents over the span of years, dating back to the original owners, the Montgomery family, who built the house in 1922. The Montgomery family’s personal tragedy led to the dark origins of the house, after the murder of their infant son and Charles and Nora’s murder/suicide led them to be the first ghostly residents of the manor.
The real house is known as the Rosenheim Mansion, and is located in Country Club Park, Los Angeles. It was built in 1908 by architect Alfred Rosenheim as his own residence. The mansion is gigantic, stretching over 10,000 square feet and three stories; it has six bedrooms and five bathrooms. It is on nearly an acre of land, and has a former chapel on the property, which has been transformed into a recording studio. Some features of the home include Tiffany stained and leaded glass, Italian brickwork, and Peruvian mahogany paneling. The Rosenheim manor is currently privately owned as of 2015, when it sold for $3.2 million, but is forever a part of American Horror Story’s legacy.
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