Entertainment

'AHS' Hotel Cortez & 7 Of TV's Scariest Hotels

by Caroline Gerdes

If you have been watching American Horror Story: Hotel , you know that it is proving to be disturbing in a way that only Ryan Murphy could deliver. With its vampire children, allusions to real murders and serial killers, and demon rapist, the Hotel Cortez may be the creepiest in television history. The star-studded installment of the Gothic anthology is shocking AHS viewers like never before.

Only one episode has aired and the Internet is abuzz with theories, like why all the AHS men look the same, and what could have happened to Max Greenfield’s character — I'm still scared, guys. From blood orgies to vampire offspring (wow, this sounds like a setup for SNL character Stefon), no other television hotel has brought us so much terror before. But, the Cortez certainly isn't the first hotel to terrify us. There have been plenty of fictional residences, where people check in and don’t seem to check out — well, not in the traditional sense.

With Halloween approaching and American Horror Story: Hotel on the brain, let’s take a look back at seven of television’s scariest hotels — where characters go to rest their heads, at the risk of losing them.

1. The Bates Motel, Bates Motel

A prequel to Hitchcock’s Psycho … Need I explain more?

2. The Great Northern Hotel, Twin Peaks

Come for the investigation, and stay for the pie at the Double R Diner. Murder has never been so charming.

3. Schrute Farms, The Office

Pam aptly nicknames it the Beets Motel. If the squeaking outhouse door and guttural moaning won’t keep you awake, cousin Mose will.

4. Hyperion Hotel, Angel

Angel used this dilapidated hotel as his home base. In its heyday, the fictional California hotel was claimed by a demon that fed on guests. Just where you want to vacation.

5. Sleep Eazy, The Simpsons

This motel is a home away from home for Springfield's seediest residents. And, the aptly outed neon letters perfectly sum up its activities.

6. Gran Hotel, Gran Hotel

The mysterious disappearance of a maid unleashes a series of scandalous events that prove the beautiful Gran Hotel is not what it appears in this addictive Spanish language answer to Downton Abbey.

7. The Marbella, Jane the Virgin

OK, this show may be a comedy, but from a criminal plastic surgery ring to murders with concrete, you couldn't pay me to stay in The Marbella.

Actually, you couldn't pay me to stay in any of these hotels.

Images: Suzanne Tenner/FX, Giphy (3), DunderMifflinScranton, BooshManic, Ms-Jully/Tumblr