the infamous Murder House. Created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, American Horror Story has been growing strong since its debut in 2011, and it continues exploring different horror themes and settings. Although each season covers a different story and characters, as the series has progressed, these have formed an American Horror Story connected universe, with events and characters being referenced or appearing in different seasons.
It all started with American Horror Story: Murder House, which as the name says, was all about a haunted house and the horrible crimes committed there, along with all the ghosts that are now trapped there. Murder House has been followed by a variety of legends and supernatural creatures, and for its eighth season, American Horror Story brought together Murder House and Coven in Apocalypse. The events in Apocalypse made way for different theories about the universe of American Horror Story, and among them is one that suggests the portal to hell was opened many years before the events of Apocalypse, and it happened at the infamous Murder House, way before the Harmons moved in.
American Horror Story’s Murder House Explained
1120 Westchester Place, best known as “The Murder House”, is one of the most memorable locations in the universe of American Horror Story. Murder House was built in 1922 by “surgeon to the stars” Charles Montgomery (Matt Ross) for his wife Nora (Lily Rabe). Due to Nora’s expensive taste and Charles’ addiction to diethyl oxide, the couple soon found themselves struggling financially, which led them to start performing abortions in their home’s basement. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t turn out well and not all the women who came to the Montgomerys for help survived the procedure, and one day, the boyfriend of one of those women kidnapped the Montgomerys' son, Thaddeus, and dismembered him. Charles used his expertise to bring back his son, who was resurrected as a monstrous creature thirsty for blood. Unable to cope with the loss of her son and the trauma of his resurrection, Nora killed Charles and later killed herself.
In the late 1940s, Murder House became the office of dentist Dr. David Curran, the man responsible for Elizabeth Short’s (a.k.a. The Black Dahlia) murder in the universe of American Horror Story. In 1968, the house was being used as a sorority for a nursing school, but was shut down after serial killer R. Franklin drowned one of the students and stabbed another. At some point in the 1980s, Constance Langdon and her family moved into Murder House, where they went through many tragedies: the death of their daughter Rose, the murder of their maid Moira O’Hara and Constance’s husband (both killed by her as they were having an affair), the death of her son Beauregard (also ordered by her), the burning of her new partner Larry, and the killing of her son Tate after he murdered several students at his high school. In 2010, the house was restored by Patrick and Chad, who were murdered by the Rubber Man, and the following year, it was inhabited by the Harmons, who were also killed.
Theory: AHS’s Dr. Montgomery Opened The Portal To Hell At Murder House
the Antichrist himself, Michael Langdon (Cody Fern). Charles Montgomery, then, is responsible for a big part of the chaos seen in American Horror Story.
Who Else Could Have Opened The Portal To Hell in AHS?
Murder House isn’t the only gateway to hell in the universe of American Horror Story, as there are also Hotel’s Hotel Cortez, the doomed house in Roanoke, and 1984’s Camp Redwood, but if Murder House isn’t the one that opened the portal to hell, the most likely candidate would be Hotel Cortez. Although the hotel’s owner, James March (Evan Peters), didn’t put back a dismembered body and brought it back to life, he did commit various murders and he, along with those who have died inside the hotel, are now trapped in it forever, so he could have opened the portal to hell as well. The gateways to hell in American Horror Story might hint at how the series will end, as they could bring something back from hell that will bring together the most powerful beings in this universe in order to defeat it and close all the portals to hell.
