JOHN MURDY:We pay a lot of attention to what our fans want to see.
And over the years, theres been this groundswell of, We want to seeAmerican Horror Story.
MICHAEL AIELLO:Absolutely.
Credit: FX; Courtesy of Universal Studios
What was the pitch to Ryan Murphy?
It was a very great back and forth conversation and thats sometimes rare.
And luckily throughout the years, the answer is usually yes.
Courtesy of Universal Studios
And was Ryan a fan?
MURDY:Oh, yeah.
I was very happy to find that out.
Courtesy of Universal Studios
How did you land on these three seasons?
MURDY:When you think about it from a guest perspective, two of the choices were really obvious.
You want to start at the beginning Murder House,thats where everything starts.
Courtesy of Universal Studios
And you want to end with the most recent season, which isHotel.
What was the merit ofFreak Show?
I mean, its convenient that ten percent of the American population has a phobia of clowns.
In my opinion, I think Twistys one of the scariest clowns Ive ever seen.
What are some of the key figures and scenes you knew fans needed to see?
MURDY:The basement inMurder House thats a must.
AIELLO:Doctor Charles Montgomery, being able to feature him and his experiments.
The Infantata is another really dynamic and terrifying character fromMurder House.
MURDY:Im not even sure what it is, but it scares the heck out of me.
Guests are going to walk into that key art and encounter the Rubber Man.
MURDY:The Red Room is unique to Orlando.
Just an example: I was watchingFreak Showand I just kept looking at that crazy monkey with the cymbals.
I thought, thats really creepy.
I want to see that thing when I go through our attraction.
What elements fromHotelwill we see?
MURDY:Theres obviously the Countess.
Another thing that works inHotelbut also goes across the seasons, too, is theres a paranormal quality.
I like the specific rooms inHotel.
Theres Room 64, which is the first room where things started to go wrong.
Theres the creepy nursery where the Countess baby is.
AIELLO:The bed reveal of the individual that was sewn into the bed.
Were creating that as a scare.
MURDY:Mattress Man!
What defines the overall aesthetic that links all these installments together?
MURDY:I kind of grasped onto the idea that every installment ofAHShas a Halloween episode.
Its kind of a big deal.
So that was one thematic overlay that we laid across all three installments lets ground it on Halloween.
So when you go intoMurder House, it looks like when theyre trick-or-treating.
When you go intoFreak Show, its the night Mordrake appears with his green fog.
And when you go into theHotel, its Devils Night.
AIELLO:One main thing when we began our creative was the phrase fever dream.
The shows music must also be a pretty helpful guide for you as well.
And he tells the brief history of why this house is notorious.
Thats a little something I can latch onto right before you go into that section of the attraction.
MURDY:[Laughs.]
Ive had this conversation with filmmakers for years.
