American Horror Story

American Horror Story, The sophomore season of the drama — which Murphy revealed would reboot itself every season with a new central plot and different characters and cast members — will feature Golden Globe and SAG Award winner Jessica Lange, Zachary Quinto, Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson and Lily Rabe but as new characters that are the complete opposite of their initial roles.

“It’s very fun to take a group of actors that you love and say, ‘come play again,’ ” co-creator Murphy said after announcing Peters, Paulson and Rabe’s return. “Every year in the series is about a different haunting, so everybody will be playing the opposite of what they played, which is fun.”

Murphy joked that the Harmons — played by Dylan McDermott, Connie Britton and Taissa Farmiga — would not be featured in Season 2 and were exhausted after the intense year that culminated with their sad deaths and yet poetic reunion as a happy family trapped inside the bizarre abode.

While Friday’s lively and often funny session didn’t flush out exact details beyond the “horror institution” setting on the East Coast, Paulson hinted to The Hollywood Reporter beforehand on the red carpet that a big clue exists in the “Birth” episode.

“It is something I said,” she told THR of the “Birth” teaser. Paulson played medium Billie Dean, who in the episode in question explained to Violet (Taissa Farmiga) that the house had a paramagnetic grip — like a battery, with negative energy that feeds on trauma and draws things to it. Pressed if the scene in question involves the energy that’s often found in prisons or asylums, Paulson added: “I can’t say the answer to that but I think you’re warm.”

As for the “rules” of the second year drama, co-creators Murphy and Brad Falchuk noted that the supernatural would likely be a component but that the ghost trope wherein if you died in the house, you remained trapped there, would not likely be further explored.

“There are so many great genre subsets of horror. Our only rule on the show is no werewolves and no vampires,” he said to applause from the packed Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. “I feel that a supernatural element will always be a part of the show but I don’t think we’re interested in that the same way. We’re trying to do something much more historically accurate.”

“From where we are now, I’d say that [we’re going for] a very equally terrified but very different vibe,” he said. “I loved the ghosts … but the fun part of the show, the gift of the show, is reinventing it every year. So I don’t think we’ll go back to a trope that we did.”

Also set for a reinvention in Season 2, Murphy noted that the opening credits — which were inspired by David Fincher’s 1995 thriller Se7en — will also get a makeover while still offering clues as to what’s ahead.

American Horror Story Season 2

American Horror Story Season 2, Think back to the last big night out you were planning. The supposedly epic rager, likely scheduled for a Friday night, where you’re lone objective was to have a fair number of drinks and enjoy some exciting company.

The whole week leading up to it is a drag, an obstacle preventing you from your first beer and your first conversation with that friend you haven’t seen in a while. But once you reach your tavern of choice, everything has upside.

The night goes on. Maybe you meet a girl (or guy, adjusting for gender and preference). Maybe you make a new friend. The energy in the room turns up. You lose track of time. You lose track of how many cocktails, shots, etc., you’ve put away.

The night goes on further. You realize you’ve stayed too long, but you don’t leave. The drinks keep flowing, but now you’re putting them away because somebody else is buying them and you feel obligated. Things get hazy. You’re not exactly sure what time you leave the bar (and of course, you take a cab or train home, because if you get behind the wheel, you should probably turn of your computer, pick it up, and bash it into your own skull).

You wake up the next morning completely certain that you’re not at all certain what happened. You call one of your partners in crime and ask for the Reader’s Digest version. He tells you.

At this point, you realize maybe that last drink wasn’t such a good idea.