American Horror Story: 7 Seasons of Title Design

When American Horror Story premiered in 2011 with its first season, Murder House, audiences could be forgiven for expecting a middle-of-the-road, horror-tinged series after watching creators’ Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s pulpy nighttime soap opera Nip/Tuck and their rambunctiously effusive high school musical series Glee. However, from the opening moments of Murder House, it became clear that American Horror Story would keep its predecessors’ must-see TV qualities but warp its lens – and the reality revealed to its audience – to dizzying and terrifying degrees.

Over the course of its seven seasons, American Horror Story has grown into a pillar of prestige television with each season focusing on new themes, stories, and characters and featuring a stable of actors – including Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Jessica Lange, Lady Gaga, Cuba Gooding Jr., Angela Bassett and many more – making multiple appearances as multiple characters throughout the series. From its inception, American Horror Story has sought to push the horror genre forward. That desire to create new and contemporary nightmare fuel was cemented when Ryan Murphy and Executive Producer Alexis Martin Woodall approached title designer Kyle Cooper to create a title sequence for the show.

Known for his work on title sequences for Se7en, Mimic, and The Walking Dead, among countless others, Cooper worked with the AHS team to merge the themes, imagery, and even the occasional plot point from the series to tantalize viewers. Each season of American Horror Story presents a different story arc, time period, and cast of characters, as well as a new title sequence designed to bind the anthology series together while laying the season’s thematic groundwork. The series' title sequences have become so popular that they are often among the first pieces of marketing to be released for a new season, allowing fans and critics alike – if they dare to watch – to mull over potential clues or insights into what horrors they have coming to them. 

A discussion with American Horror Story Executive Producer ALEXIS MARTIN WOODALL and Title Designer KYLE COOPER of Prologue Films.

Alexis, can you give us a bit of background on yourself and your role on the American Horror Story series?

Alexis: I’m the Executive Producer for Ryan Murphy Television and I produce all the shows we do under this banner including American Horror Story, one of my oldest and favourite children. On the show I’m the Creative Producer on the back-end, so of course I deal in prep, I read the scripts, and talk about it with the writers and Ryan…

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