'AHS: Hotel': What We Know So Far

It will be months before anyone knows if the Hotel Cortez, the establishment at the center of the fifth season of American Horror Story, will earn its place among pop culture’s legendary fictional lodgings like the Bates Motel or The Overlook. But because obsessing over the new season began long before the last one had even concluded — tip of the top hat to Ryan Murphy — we figured we’d bide our time by compiling a cheat sheet of everything we already know about Hotel, starring Lady Gaga. Be forewarned: If you prefer to start your stay at AHS: Hotel spoiler-free, check out now.

Pattern Recognition
Sticking with their proven formula, the story will be set in modern day as have all odd-numbered seasons. After two years shooting in Louisiana, production has returned to the City of Angels. Given that Murphy confirmed that all of the stories are connected last year, AHS acolytes are sure to be praying for location and character crossover from Murder House. Murphy answered their prayers with confirmation in the Sept. 4 issue of Entertainment Weekly, where he teased that at least one episode will visit the macabre mansion, and that the new titular property shares a realtor (Marcy, played by Christine Estabrook) with the Victorian. Here’s hoping that leaves room for a Constance Langdon cameo.

Hotel Horror
Inspiration came in the form of a real-life mystery. In 2013, Canadian student Elisa Lam was found drowned in a water tank on the roof of the Hotel Cecil in downtown LA. Surveillance video from the building’s elevator, allegedly taken just before her death, showed her acting erratically. Viewing the disturbing clip set Team Murphy’s minds in motion and the Hotel Cortez. “A lot of the tone is inspired by that, but whether or not we riff on that exact event I don’t want to get into,” exec producer Tim Minear told Yahoo TV. “It is more about the strange things that can happen in a place of public accommodation.” The Cecil’s past guests also reportedly include serial killers Richard Ramirez in 1985 and Jack Unterweger in 1991 as well as Beth Short/Black Dahlia, a true crime victim (played by Mena Suvari) who factored into the Murder House storyline.

Location, Location, Location
Most of the action will take place within the Cortez’ art deco walls. It was built in 1930 with features like secret rooms and dangerous shafts to aid the proprietor, a wealthy and charming madman named James March (Evan Peters), with his murderous hobbies. “The hotel is old, but imbued with the glamour of a previous age and there is something quite hypnotic and beautiful about it,” says Minear. “But evil also lives there.” The present owner is a glamorous and wicked socialite known as the Countess (Gaga) who enjoys the Hollywood high life, art openings, fashion shows and bisexual bloodsucking shenanigans with her beau of 20 years, Donovan (Matt Bomer). In fact, the first scene Gaga and Bomer filmed together was apparently a foursome-turned-double homicide. (See EW’s first-look photos of Gaga here.)

Blood Lust
Murphy told EW that Hotel is not just another vampire story: “I prefer the term ‘ancient blood virus.’ It’s a rare form of hemophilia, in a way. There are no capes and fangs.” Gaga and Bomer’s thirsty lovers are experiencing relationship troubles, as he wants to be her only boy toy, but her limitless bloodlust keeps her from committing 100 percent — especially when temptation shows up in leather pants on the hotel’s doorstep in the form of a model named Tristan (Finn Wittrock). The ensuing love triangle is sure to get dicey (possibly literally) and will likely expand to other shapes as potential partners lurk around every corner.

Murphy confirmed at the August FX TCA panel that the Countess also has a relationship with actress Ramona Royale (Angela Basset); Bassett told Yahoo TV that Ramona is a “former flame” who “falls into a relationship with [the Countess], which is beneficial until it’s not.”

Children Are The Future
Despite her agelessness, The Countess is apparently not immune to the ticking biological clock. To feed that need, she has adopted by way of kidnapping a gaggle of blond moppets whose sippy cups are also filled with plasma and platelets. Murphy told EW, “There’s nothing scarier than a platinum blond baby running around doing evil deeds.”

Guest Relations
Also roaming the Cortez’s haunted halls are Donovan’s clingy mom Iris (Kathy Bates), who runs reception; a crossdresser inspired by Liz Taylor who works in the bar (Denis O’Hare); hardcore addict Hypodermic Sally (Sarah Paulson); and fellow junkie Gabriel (New Girl’s Max Greenfield with what looks like peroxide highlights). Minear tells Yahoo TV, “Sarah’s character is sympathetic in a lot of ways, but she’s easily the darkest character Sarah has ever played on our show.”

The search for the Ten Commandments Killer, who slays with scriptural zeal, leads LAPD detective John Lowe (Wes Bentley) to the premises. Assuming the holy roller is hiding out at the hotel, Lowe moves into room 64 which — dun dun dun — used to be March’s old office and it isn’t long before he starts seeing the mustachioed maniac. It isn’t clear if he’s a ghost or a figment of Lowe’s imagination. Peters told EW, “It’s like The Shining almost. You don’t know if he’s interacting with them or they’re crazy.” Either way, he drags his pediatrician wife Alex (Chloe Sevigny) and their 10-year-old daughter into the dark world with him. It should also be mentioned that the family is still reeling from the disappearance of their 6-year-old son. (Is it just us or does everybody suspect the littlest Lowe might have become one of the Countess’s “children”?)

And because these are the same folks that birthed Rubber Man, Twisty the clown, and Bloody Face, there’s also a demon, which is “a representation of what people go through when fighting addiction,” according to Murphy. Paulson’s Sally and Greenfield’s Gabriel experience a horrifying encounter with the creature — which boasts wax-covered eyes and mouth and conical drill-bit dildo — in what Murphy called “the most disturbing scene we’ve ever done.”

Fresh Meat
Besides Gaga and the aforementioned Greenfield, several other actors are joining the AHS troupe. Cheyenne Jackson plays NYC fashion designer Will Drake, who sets up shop in the hotel with his young son (Lyric Lennon) and flouncy neckwear in toe. The move attracts fashionistas like Vogue editor Claudia, played by Naomi Campbell. Madchen Amick, who knows a thing or two about genre shows thanks to her time on Twin Peaks, plays a mother whose ill son becomes Alex’s patient. A photo of her trailer door on the actress’ Instagram feed two weeks ago seems to indicate that her character is named Mrs. Ellison. Richard T. Jones has an eight-episode arc as a member of the LAPD.

Miscellaneous Tricks and Treats
And that’s not all that’s out there floating in the online ether, which is weird given Murphy’s usual need-to-know m.o. Culled from every source we could think of from social media feeds and articles and interviews, here’s a hit list of odds (naturally!) and ends upcoming on AHS:

• The signature two-part Halloween special will be called “Devil’s Night” and will be directed by Murphy himself. It will reunite the cast with Lily Rabe, who only appeared in one Freak Show episode because she was busy headlining ABC’s summer thriller The Whispers. She’s playing Aileen Wuornos, the real-life man murderer Charlize Theron won an Oscar for portraying in Monster. Guessing her bit will involve a flashback as Wuornos was executed in 2002. In a Sept. 8 interview with Shine On Media at the premiere of Pawn Sacrifice, Rabe told the reporter that she had been on set that day since 5 am and that it was weird to be in lipstick and a dress “because I was looking quite different a few hours ago.” She added, “There’s an incredible amount of amazing material to dive into. American Horror Story is such a specific world so it really is Aileen in that world, which is inevitably going to be different than her in any other context because there really is no other world out there like American Horror Story. Bringing the two together has been the most exciting challenge. It’s insane.”

• Glee’s Darren Criss is in talks to join in the holiday fun as a Silver Lake hipster named Justin who books a room with his girlfriend to escape kids looking for candy. But too many room service demands puts him on Iris’ s–t list.

• Once Emma Roberts’s Scream Queens duties are concluded at Fox, she may return to AHS in an unknown part near the end of the 13-episode run.

• The Countess “scares the crap out of Iris” according to an Aug. 11 tweet by Misery’s meanie.

In a more recent post, she compared Gaga descending a staircase in a shimmering silver gown to Norma Desmond, Jean Harlow and Marilyn Monroe.

• Murphy tweeted this photo on Aug.29 and it has since invaded our R.E.M. sleep. He coyly asks: “Who is this AHS all star behind the mask?”

Hard to tell thanks to the mask, glasses and hat, but our vote is Peters as March.

American Horror Story: Hotel premieres Oct. 7 on FX