The folks behind American Horror Story: Freakshow released the first teaser trailer for the season on Sunday, kicking the new installment of the FX anthology series off on an incredibly creepy note.
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The clip appears relatively innocuous at first, though a little eerie: White feathered wings unfold to reveal a blonde woman, dressed in white. The angelic winged woman stands up and appears to spread her wings as sweet music plays until we get a glimpse of a menacing little man behind her. The camera pans around and we see the man operating the wings with a crude lever system bloodily impaled into the womans back.
As American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy revealed in March, the new story will be set around a carnival sideshow in early-1950s Florida. Jessica Lange will return for her fourth season on the show to play a German ex-pat who runs the sideshow. Sarah Paulson, Angela Basset, Kathy Bates, Evan Peters, Frances Conroy and Michael Chiklis all have roles in the new season as well.
The previous season of the show, American Horror Story: Coven, racked up 17 Emmy nominations earlier this week, making it this years third-most nominated series. In response to the bounty, Murphy told the Los Angeles Times that he believes anthology-style TV is on the rise. I think that people like that format, he said. I think people like a beginning, middle and end. I think its a fun way to watch. With binge-viewing really taking off in our society, I think its the perfect sort of storytelling for the culture we live in now. We see that reflected on all those nominations, people like it. And I think well be seeing more of it.