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American Horror Story (AHS) has covered everything from haunted houses to covens of witches, cults, vampires, extraterrestrials, and the end of the world. But arguably the most terrifying subject Ryan Murphy’s acclaimed TV series has covered came in its twelfth season – pregnancy.
Based on Danielle Valentine’s book Delicate Condition, American Horror Story: Delicate follows the story of Hollywood actress Anna Alcott (Emma Roberts), who is desperate to have a baby with her husband Dex Harding Jr (Matt Czuchry). She begins to suspect that someone is going to great lengths to stop her dreams from becoming reality, but her husband, her publicist Siobhan Corbyn (Kim Kardashian), and even her medical team put a series of unusual occurrences down to medication side effects from her fertility treatment. Anna finally becomes pregnant, but her fears don’t subside as she finds herself stalked by a strange cult that she believes has a hand in her conception.
The star-studded cast saw the return of Roberts as well as AHS mainstays Denis O’Hare, Dominic Burgess, Zachary Quinto, Billie Lourd, Grace Gummer, and Leslie Grossman as well as newcomers Czuchry and Kardashian alongside Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Cara Delevingne, Julie White, Juliana Canfield, and Maaz Ali. Horror has explored pregnancy and parenthood in abundance, from demons on screens in sonography appointments to wriggling bumps and horrifying births that give the drama of One Born Every Minute a run for its money.
If the joy of American Horror Story: Delicate has left you yearning for round two in the world of pregnancy horror, we have seven spine-chilling recommendations that will make you think twice about the joy of bringing new life into the world.
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False Positive (2021)
AHS: Delicate begins with Anna undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) after struggling to conceive. The process involves plenty of medications and procedures that take a huge emotional and physical toll, the brutality of which is thought to be the cause of her apparent hallucinations when stalked by the Delicates.
Directed by John Lee and starring the likes of Pierce Brosnan, Sophia Bush, and Ilana Glazer, False Positive casts a similar light on the IVF process through a thoroughly unsettling horror film. The 2021 flick follows Lucy (Glazer) and Adrian Martin (Justin Theroux), who seek the help of fertility specialist Dr Hindle (Brosnan) after struggling to conceive.
Despite initially feeling like they’ve hit the jackpot as they discover they’re pregnant with triplets, Lucy becomes suspicious of Dr. Hindle’s motives and sets out to uncover what lies beneath his sinister charm.
If the horrifying notion of not trusting what you perceive to be reality was what chilled you in the latest season of AHS, the visions and body horror elements centered around Lucy in False Positive are sure to give you nightmares. And if they don’t, the hauntingly brutal final scenes might just do the trick.
Immaculate (2024)
Despite being told she has miscarried her unborn child, Anna miraculously discovers she is still pregnant after a terrifying ritual where the Delicates violate Anna in the basement of Talia’s house. The shock pregnancy sets in motion a terrifying chain of events for the new mother, which was chillingly part of a plan that predates her own birth.
Sound familiar? That’s because it shares many similarities with Sydney Sweeney’s terrifying religious horror, Immaculate. In it, the Euphoria star takes on the role of Sister Cecilia, a devout novitiate who travels to a remote convent in the Italian countryside where she is tasked to care for elderly nuns in their dying days.
As she prepares to take her vows, Cecilia discovers she is pregnant by immaculate conception, and her idyllic home soon turns into a nightmare as she discovers the chilling secrets hidden by her fellow sisters and Father Sal Tedeschi (Álvaro Morte).
This virginal birth is far from the second coming as those around Cecilia play God with disastrous consequences, ending in a showdown that left many audience members shocked to their core when it came to cinemas in March.
Huesera: The Bone Woman (2022)
It’s no secret that pregnancy is the ultimate body horror. No, seriously. Feeling a baby move inside your body is beautiful…But it’s also gross. And that’s without taking into consideration the aches, pains, vomit, and everything in between before the baby even arrives.
Despite Anna’s elation over carrying the child she has longed for, she suffers multiple fainting spells, bleeds, and vomits on stage at the Gotham Awards.
Back in 2022, Michelle Garza Cervera perfectly encapsulated the physical horrors of pregnancies as well as the crippling fear of losing your identity to motherhood in Huesera: The Bone Woman. Valeria (Natalia Solián) appears to have it all – a beautiful home, a doting husband, and a baby on the way as the couple celebrate becoming parents for the first time.
But her apparent joy soon turns to terror when she is cursed by a sinister entity, forcing her to turn to the world of dark magic to combat it as well as address her inner turmoil surrounding motherhood. On top of some seriously stomach-turning visuals, Huesera offers a heart-breaking, poignant look at some of the most isolating aspects of becoming a parent, and a refreshing representation of LGBTQ+ parenthood unlike any other film.
Birth/Rebirth (2023)
As Anna begins to uncover the truth behind the Delicates, AHS jumps back to 42 AD where Ivy (Delevingne) gives birth to twins Sonia and Adeline (both Dexter-Jones) in a barn. They die but are brought back to life by a mysterious witch and thus become fully indoctrinated into the cult.
It goes without saying birth is central to many pregnancy horror films, but rebirth is something explored in the heartbreakingly haunting Birth/Rebirth, directed by Laura Moss. The 2023 film tells the story of Celie (Judy Reyes), a no-nonsense midwife and doting single mother to her daughter Lila.
Her word is crushed when Lila suddenly dies, and her path collides with mortician Rose (Marin Ireland) who has discovered the secret to rebirth and reanimates Lila. While Birth/Rebirth doesn’t exactly deal with pregnancy in the same way that AHS: Delicate does, it offers a heartwarming, tear-jerking, and often comedic look at parenthood and the complications that arise when a child throws a family unit into chaos.
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Of course, you can’t have any TV series (or online listicle) about pregnancy horror without mentioning the landmark film Rosemary’s Baby. In fact, AHS: Delicate pays homage to the iconic 1968 film in its penultimate episode, in which we see a fictionalized Frank Sinatra (Tom O’Keefe) threaten to divorce Mia Farrow (Gaby Slape) if she does not stop working on Rosemary’s Baby.
Directed by Roman Polanski, the film follows young couple Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and Guy Woodhouse (John Cassavetes) as they move into a New York apartment building together with a sinister reputation and equally sinister neighbors.
Soon after, Rosemary becomes pregnant and becomes increasingly isolated, even from Guy. Soon, she starts to suspect something is amiss with her pregnancy and the motives of the people in their building. The blueprint for AHS: Delicate is right here – basically every element of the TV series is covered in a cool 137 minutes – and its scares still live up to this day as audiences are transported to a paranoid hellscape during the most vulnerable time in the titular Rosemary’s life.
Mother! (2017)
Anna slowly descends into madness due to the actions of those around her and constantly being gaslit into believing her pregnancy hormones are causing her delusions. When she needs them the most, those closest to her betray her in the most selfish of ways, leaving her to cope with the perils of pregnancy and birth alone.
No film captures that isolation, the invasive thoughts, and the utter despair of having your baby snatched from your grasp better than Darren Aronofsky’s surreal 2017 hit Mother! In it, a nameless young woman (Jennifer Lawrence) spends her time renovating the isolated, dilapidated mansion she lives in with her husband (Javier Bardem) in the countryside.
One night, a man (Ed Harris) knocks on their door and becomes an unexpected guest in their home, with his wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) and sons (Brian and Domhnall Gleeson) following soon after. As the woman tries to work out why they’re there, she finds out she is pregnant as more people begin to make themselves at home at the mansion.
Aronofsky’s masterful tension-building skills are at their best in this anxiety-laden feast for the eyes as the woman’s physical and emotional stability is tested in a series of utterly horrifying scenarios that never let the audience up for air.
The First Omen (2024)
In the final episode of American Horror Story: Delicate, we see Anna give birth, and the baby is nothing short of monstrous as it bites Dex’s hand off. And when you so much as mention a devil child, there’s surely only one person your mind will conjure – the satanic Damien from The Omen franchise.
This year has seen us treated to yet another installment in the iconic horror series, with The First Omen taking us back to where Damien’s reign of terror began. In what would be a perfect double bill with Immaculate, The First Omen tells the story of American novitiate Margaret Daino (Nell Tiger Free), who travels to Rome to take her vows in the Vizzardeli Orphanage.
As she meets Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy), Father Gabriel (Tawfeek Barhom), and Abess Sister Silva (Sônia Braga), as well as her roommate Luz (María Caballero), she strikes up a friendship with orphan Carlita (Nicole Sorace) who struggles with visions and is ostracized from her peers.
Following a horrifying death at the orphanage, Margaret is warned by defected priest Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson) that radicals within the church are trying to bring about the birth of the Antichrist. Religious horror has experienced a boom in the past decade, and The First Omen is the perfect blend of heavenly visuals and hellish horror.
American Horror Story: Delicate is streaming on Hulu.
