Why Twisty the Clown Returns in American Horror Story: Cult 

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A familiar face is coming to American Horror Story: Cult, and it’s one that’ll surely inspire nightmares. Twisty the Clown (John Carroll Lynch) -- the prosthetic-wearing serial killer that brought the terror to AHS: Freak Show -- will be returning to the FX series for another murderous go-round.

Coulrophobia, the fear of clowns, is just one of many phobias being explored this season -- putting Sarah Paulson’s Ally Mayfair Richards on the receiving end of the psychological terror. “She has a fear of blood; she has a fear of coffins that we will explore; she has a fear of holes which people have,” Ryan Murphy explained during a Q&A session. “A lot of times, phobias can die down and then ignite when something else is happening in your life.”

Every IGN American Horror Story Season Review

Reviewed by Matt Fowler -- If the intent here was for American Horror Story to go for broke, and provide us with a flurry of bats*** "WTF?" moments, then mission accomplished. Yes, intertwined within the madness were moments of warmth and honest emotion, but they were often on the losing end of cannibal mutant men, face-biting Santas and mint dishes made of skulls. It was a fun ride, though not a wholly satisfying one.

While the main focus of AHS: Cult will be surrounding the cultural and psychological fallout brought on by the 2016 presidential campaign, it’s pretty evident the Ryan Murphy/Brad Falchuk series will be operating on many layers. The killer clown first came to life in Freak Show but it feels apropos to keep his legacy alive as the circus-like tone in our nation’s capital unleashes a heaping helping of paranoia on these suburban Michigan streets.

While election night can be viewed as the event that brings Ally’s debilitating fears out from hiding, it’s the discovery of a Tales From the Crypt-style comic book in her son’s bedroom that sends her down an emotionally erratic road. “It\'s sort of meta [...] that Twisty has his own comic book and that could be one of Sarah Paulson\'s phobias,” Murphy continued. “A lot of people do have a fear of clowns, which I\'ve always been so curious about and interested about.”

Was it always in the cards to bring Twisty back, though? Monsters are as monsters do in the overall canon of American Horror Story, and the clown’s return was a long-time coming. “Twisty was always one of our mythological monsters, along with Bloody Face and Rubber Man, and Piggy Man,” Murphy stated. “All of those characters come and go within the cycle of the show.”

Twisty’s comic book-style appearance provides fans the story connectivity they’ve grown to expect from American Horror Story. At the same time, confining Twisty to the over-active imagination of a child -- and the phobia-riddled mind of his mother -- gives the story a dream-like quality which adds some delightfully frightening layers to the grounded story taking place.

American Horror Story: Cult will premiere Tuesday, September 5, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FX.

Aaron Pruner is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @AaronFlux.

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