Ryan Murphy: ‘It’s not vampires. There’s no capes and fangs.’

Each season of American Horror Story tackles a different horror genre and this year’s iteration, Hotel, focuses on vampirism… well, kind of.


I prefer the term ancient blood virus. It’s not vampires. It’s really a form of hemophilia in a way. There’s no capes and fangs.

Lady Gaga’s character, The Countess, is afflicted with this virus as are her lovers, Donovan (Matt Bomer) and Tristan (Finn Wittrock), which causes the infected to crave human blood.


Around the middle of the season, we sort of explore the origins of all that and her character and where [the virus] comes from.

Since they don’t have fangs, The Countess and Donovan kill with their chainmail gloves as seen in the above photo; the nails are razor sharp and handy when slitting throats. “Ryan wanted the glove to look like armor,” explains costume designer Lou Eyrich.


So we started there, kind of Daphne Guinness-esque. But we wanted to make it our own and again timeless – Is it an old glove? Is it a new glove? We wanted it to look both rock ‘n’ roll but old at the same time. But then the nail that pops out with diamonds on the edge to slice you.