American Horror Story's Season 8 Title Revealed

American Horror Story's new season will be named "Apocalypse," which adds a very disturbing twist to an already creepy show.

The hit FX show announced the new season's title early this morning along with a very disturbing piece of promo art (which can be seen below):

As you can see, a very demonic-looking baby (check out its clawed fingers) is being stroked by what appears to be a devilish inhuman hand.

The new season will be a crossover between two of the show's previous seasons, the "Murder House" Season 1 and the "Coven" in Season 3. Returning cast includes Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Kathy Bates, Billie Lourd and Adina Porter. Joan Collins will also join the cast for the first time as the grandmother to Peters' new character.

Oddly enough, several cast members (including Paulson and Peters) appeared in both the "Murder House" and "Coven" seasons, so it's possible that they could reprise one or both roles from those seasons. Peters will also be playing a new character, a "comedic hairdresser."

Interestingly, this season will be set in the not too distant future, so it's possible that we could actually see the Apocalypse occur on the show. The Apocalypse typically refers to the biblical end times, when an Antichrist figure will rise up and cause a "Great Tribulation" marked by war and civilization-altering destruction. The Apocalypse is usually shown as being ushered in by Four Horsemen that represent one of the four main blights that wipe out civilization.

The Apocalypse, and particularly the Four Horsemen, have been depicted in pop culture countless times. However, American Horror Story has a tendency to surprise and disturb fans, so we're sure that showrunner Ryan Murphy has something unexpectedly perverse in store for fans of the show.

It wouldn't be too much of a guess to wonder if the baby seen in the promo art above is supposed to be the Antichrist, in a scenario not dissimilar to the classic horror story Rosemary's Baby. The Antichrist is a popular figure in fictional stories, usually represented as a very charismatic person who just so happens to be purely evil.

This season of American Horror Story will have an earlier debut than previous episodes. The new season with premiere on September 12th.