Ryan Murphy, the creator of American Horror Story, teased the theme of the anthology series' tenth season with a mysterious new poster.
In the image, posted to Murphy's Instagram, two hands grasp at straws, with a cloudy sky and dark ocean visible in the background. Murphy added the caption, "Things are beginning to wash up on shore..." underneath the picture, adding to the mystery.
These words, combined with the image, could reference at least three classic horror tropes. The first is Lovecraftian lore, which is full of sea-people descended from or enslaved by Cthulhu, the Deep One, an otherworldly, apocalyptic deity sleeping under the ocean. H.P. Lovecraft, whose specialty was cosmic horror, has not yet been tackled by the anthology series and is becoming increasingly popular with filmmakers.
However, it could be a much more mundane reference—sea zombies, as seen in 2019's Zombie Tidal Wave or Pirates of the Caribbean. Zombies appeared briefly in Season 3 of American Horror Story, Coven, where Marie Laveau used them to track down and kill the lynchers of a family friend, and then again to besiege the Academy.
Finally, there's the possibility that Murphy has chosen traditional but no less terrifying folk sea creatures, like the cannibalistic Greek mermaids or the Scottish Blue Men of the Minch or the Russian rusalki, who are the vengeful ghosts of women that died violently. And talking about European folk, there are also the tales of those taken by the fairies to Avalon, Tir-nan-Ogg or some other mythical island where time flows differently, who then return to find that entire eras have passed.
American Horror Story Season 10 stars Kathy Bates, Macaulay Culkin, Leslie Grossman, Billie Lourd, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Adina Porter, Lily Rabe, Angelica Ross, and Finn Wittrock. A release date has not been revealed.