More Terrifying Details on American Horror Story: Freak Show

Show creator Ryan Murphy dished to Entertainment Weekly about the new season of “American Horror Story” recently. He talked about where the idea for the show came from — Jessica Lange’s interest in the lost and forgotten carny world — the plot as being a version of civil rights for performers, John Carroll Lynch as Twisty the Clown and the lack of a supernatural element. Let’s face it, clowns are terrifying enough.

Murphy told BuzzFeed that Twisty was created to be the most terrifying clown of all time and admits he’s a bit scared of Twisty/Lynch himself. “I’m worried about people being too afraid of our clown,” he said. “It’s heart-stopping what he does. I’m worried that people are going to have cardiac arrests … The clown’s intro in the first episode is … It’s brutal.”

EW also has a slideshow of 21 new photos from Freak Show, and you can hear Jessica Lange’s German accent as Elsa in the clip below.

Stay tuned for more updates, live tweeting with @AynW when the show airs October 8 and the return of our location guide.