Rosemary’s Baby who? AHS Delicate is the modern day answer to pregnancy-horror

(Image credit: FX)

The first official trailer for American Horror Story season 12 all but confirms this season will focus on an all too familiar yet underrated genre trope: the horror of pregnancy and giving birth.

The trailer for the twelfth season of American Horror story: Delicate opens on AHS alumni Emma Roberts as beloved Hollywood starlet Anna Victoria Alcott yearning to become pregnant by any means necessary. Through invasive appointments at a dystopian looking clinic and pressures from those closest to her including her husband, Alcott receives the positive result she has been waiting for. As soon as the actors’ pregnancy is confirmed, she experiences strange delusions, hallucinations of hooded strangers and black goats, and is surrounded by strange and threatening presences. "Get away from my baby!" Roberts screams at her antagonists as they pull and claw at her. From first glance, it seems this season of AHS will tell a tale of visceral violation, pre-partum hysteria, and satanic rituals.

Sound familiar? That's because earlier this year it was confirmed that for the first time, instead of taking inspiration from historical or cultural events (such as AHS Asylum exploring the treatment patients faced in 1950’s mental health care or AHS Roanoke re-enacting tales of witchy midwestern folklore), the twelfth season of director and producer Ryan Murphy’s anthology series (AHS) is based on a book. AHS Delicate takes great inspiration from Danielle Valentine's novel 'Delicate Condition', which has been described as "a gripping thriller about an actress who becomes convinced that a sinister figure is going to great lengths to make sure her pregnancy never happens". Critics have labelled Valentine's masterpiece as the feminist update to the classic 1967 novel 'Rosemary's Baby', which later inspired a sub-genre defining movie of the same name, which tackled the living nightmare that can be pregnancy.

Bloody affair

For those who have missed out, 'Rosemary’s Baby' follows a young woman named Rosemary, played by Mia Farrow in the movie version, as she and her husband move into a new apartment and she soon falls pregnant. Soon after, Rosemary begins experiencing strange and vivid dreams and starts to suspect those around her have sinister plans for her baby. This movie arguably established what we know now as the sub-genre pregnancy-horror, or 'gynaehorror' as academic Erin Harrington coins, but what makes this trope so scary and how can AHS Delicate explore this further?

Pregnancy is supposed to be a period of happiness, excitement, and gleeful anticipation, but in the world of horror, the period leading up to birth can be a trail of terror, uncertainty, and heightened primal fear for all involved. Pregnancy and birth has been used as a source of gore and shock in the horror genre since the ‘60s, and it makes sense. Labour is a brutal and bloody affair, one that many women dread as part of their natural life. In the trailer for AHS Delicate, we see Roberts’ character wishing for a baby, but when she finally falls pregnant, her life turns upside down and becomes somewhat of a nightmare.

One reason why the pregnancy-horror trope is so effective in scaring audiences is the obvious vulnerability of the expectant protagonist, making her easy pickings for the common horror baddie. In Darren Aronofsky’s 2017 movie Mother!, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Javier Bardem, Lawrence plays a young mother-to-be who has just moved into a new house with her husband. As time goes on, uninvited guests show up at the house and start to violate her already vulnerable state. The strangers eat her food, destroy her house, and even take and murder her baby after an intense labour scene. The same fragility can be seen in the sneak peak of Roberts’ AHS character where she becomes heavily reliant on those around her who seem to have ulterior motives for her and her unborn child. Similarly in the 2007 French horror Inside, a pregnant widow played by Alysson Paradis is tormented in her home by a strange scissor-wielding woman who is adamant on stealing her unborn baby from inside of her.

A modern retelling

Not only that, but the act of birthing itself is enough to scare any filmgoer, never mind adding horrific and visceral elements. The violation of giving birth, the tearing, twisting, blood spilling body horror is a theme well explored in many movies such as David Cronenberg's 1979 classic The Brood, teen favourite Twilight Breaking Dawn Part One, and Emily Blunt's traumatic ordeal in A Quiet Place. Judging by the last ten seasons of AHS, audiences can expect Murphy will deliver the same type of brutal birth scenes.

As explored in 'Rosemary’s Baby', there is the added psychological effect of pregnancy that can make one believe they are going mad – a theme touched upon in comedy horror Prevenge written, directed and starred in by Alice Lowe, that follows Ruth, a pregnant widow who believes her baby is forcing her to exact murderous acts. In the teaser for AHS Delicate, we can already see that Roberts’ character is due to face some psychological knocks and delusions of her own. "Why won’t you believe me?" she screams as her husband gives her a worrying look.

However after a string of movies exploring the arguably underrated trope of pregnancy-horror, none have done it justice quite like 1969 movie Rosemary's Baby, but lucky for us it seems like AHS Delicate could be the modern retelling of the classic that we have been waiting for. From the trailer alone it is unclear how far Ryan Murphy will go with his protagonist's depiction of pregnancy horror, but if American Horror Story Delicate is truly a modern remake of masterpiece, we are in for a season of freaky foetuses and sacrificial scares all round.

The first episode of American Horror Story Delicate premiers on September 20 on FX and available to stream on Hulu and Disney Plus. Check out what other upcoming horror movies are on the way.

I'm the Junior Social Media Editor here at GamesRadar+, handling all of Total Film's social platforms. However, I also write, covering all things film and TV for the site's entertainment section. I joined GamesRadar+ in 2023 and have been here ever since. I previously worked in communications after graduating with an MA in journalism. In my spare time, you can find me binging horror movies or getting lost in a cosy little game on my Switch.