Production Designer Eve McCarney On How She Created That Many Worlds for ‘American Horror Stories’

A lot of design elements for horror don’t get the recognition that they deserve. When awards season rolls around, a lot of modern stories get the shaft when it comes to being awarded for costumes and production design. Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story franchise has had its fair share of Emmy love, but production design has never taken home a trophy–iconic seasons like Murder House and Hotel were lauded for their designs with nominations. With the spin-off, American Horror Stories, production designer Eve McCarney takes us back to Murder House and beyond with incredible designs that bring this series to entirely new level.

Not only was McCarney–a big AHS fan–able to harken back to the show’s first season, but she got to make changes as a new family moved in. The show acknowledges how hardcore the fanbase is, and she rises to the occasion by elevating Murder House for its newest residents.

With every episode, McCarney tapped into a completely new aesthetic to match the unique tone of the writing and the strength of the characters. “Naughty List” is set during Christmas time in Los Angeles with the worst online douchebags you can think of (imagine the Try Guys were complete tools). “Feral” is set primarily outdoors in the woods, but McCarney was able to create a throne that not even the Lannisters or the Starks would have the balls to sit on. “Ba’al” takes the perfection of Instagram but plunges it into a Rosemary’s Baby beige hell.

The scope of every episode is mind-blowing and McCarney’s designs are key for the horror to work. With horror, atmosphere is everything, and she makes us look over our shoulder with every door we walk through.

Awards Daily: Everyone who watches American Horror Story has a favorite season. Even though this is a different series, I was curious what your favorite seasons are?

Eve McCarney: I love Coven. It’s so campy and fun. Apocalypse had stunning design and I liked the storyline and that they brought actors back. Freak Show is up there too.

AD: Freak Show is one of the ones that I haven’t started yet, but I remember being totally freaked out about the clown even though I don’t have a fear of clowns.

EM: If you ask me my favorite design, my answer would probably be different.

AD: Well, now I want to know…

EM: It would be Hotel.

AD: That production design is insane.

EM: I remember reading about the art deco chandeliers and they said they were forty-five thousand dollars each. Warner Brothers made them for fifteen grand, so they basically got three for the price of one. I love how they knew exactly what they wanted and they were able to design it and build it. Mark Worthington is a genius.

AD: Those sets are so incredible.

EM: They really are.

AD: A lot of American Horror Stories takes place in the world of Murder House. Did you have to rebuild any of it? Matt Bomer and Gavin Creel’s characters are also essentially planning on retooling the space.

EM: The first two episodes are back at Murder House and they wanted to pull in the old fanbase and add new fans. In essence, the house hadn’t been touched after the Harmons were killed. My aim was to lean into that nostalgia while adding a new aesthetic that lent to the new family’s new style. That was the fun part. For the first episode, it’s their furniture and they are moving in and with trappings of the Harmons around. I even put the nightmare mural behind some of the cloth panels so you get to see it when the guys are doing some demolition work. It’s the same thing that Connie Britton did in season one. She revealed the mural and thought it was cool so I wanted that same tie-in.

AD: I love that.

EM: I thought it was a cool parallel to draw. As far as the guys’ aesthetic, I looked a lot of high-profile gay couples specifically Nate Berkus and his husband. Him and his husband have great style. I also looked at Ryan Murphy’s houses because he has excellent taste. It was important to cultivate a style for these characters that is elegant and elevated but also relatable. We did a lot of that with a controlled color palette with burnt orange and a lot of tan and a lot of mid-century pieces. Things that felt collected over time and a lot of metal art and sculptures with hard edges. All that came together to show how it was different from the Harmons.

AD: What about Scarlett’s room? I’m very curious about the darkness in there.

EM: I used a lot of design to tie into her budding psychopathic tendencies. She’s becoming this killer and she has this bondage fantasy so there is this black, textured wallpaper with silver circles and faces. It felt so right for her. We did a butterfly motif to emphasize metamorphosis and transformation. A lot of the furniture was black and shiny or reflective. It tied in the shininess of the suit. So the first episode is very much in line with the first series, but by episode two I got to play more with the Halloween carnival and the house got to evolve. The sconces changed to something more elegant after the guys have been there to put their own stamp on the house.

AD: Scarlett’s room has a lot to unpack because we never see the lights fully on in there. Or there might be a lamp with something tossed on top of it, so there is a lot of things that are being hidden in that space.

EM: Very much so. We had a lot of fun layering character elements into the set decoration, props and as mentioned before even the wallpaper. The pilot episode of American Horror Story was shot in the Rosenheim mansion but the rest of the season was shot on stage in a replica set. None of the original sets still existed after ten years so we had to build the kitchen and Violet’s room (now Scarlett’s) which were essential for when we see Rubber Man.

AD: I wanted to talk about Bro House.

EM: Sure.

AD: I loved when we moved outside to see the sculptures. Their house is really big and there is a lot of light. What was it like to tap into the space of four stupid, arrogant, rich guys?

EM: I watched hours and hours of YouTube videos of all sorts. I needed to get into their heads to see how these people lived. We ended up with a Scarface chic which complemented the late 60s architecture of the house. Everything is elevated and to illustrate it, we kept it on the sparse side. The pieces we did use were retro and added some famous artwork. We didn’t fill the shelves with stuff. They don’t do that. For the pool area, we added huge candy canes and the lollipop sculpture.

AD: I love that thing. I don’t know why…but I do.

EM: We created the Kraken brand and made a ten foot blow-up can and an octopus and we wrapped a Lamborghini in the logo before it gets repossessed in the episode. We wanted to lean into the excess of these groups and what they experience at the height of their popularity. I liked it because they are unlikable. It’s the one time where you get to see those kinds of characters get what they deserve. It was fun to do something so youthful and extravagant. We had snow machines. We had all these trees and mistletoe kisses. It’s so over-the-top in the best way possible.

AD: I think my favorite set was from “Ba’al.”

EM: It’s a big, gorgeous mansion.

AD: Right? Who doesn’t love that? I love all the white but the doors are wooden and they seem kind of heavy. There was so much texture that went along with the costuming. It reminded me of purity and Instagram. Tell me all about that.

EM: Early on there was a time where we looked at Hummingbird Ranch as an option. Kind of Rosemary’s Baby. It’s classic, hardwood, and terracotta floors, and that lends another creepy element to it. You don’t expect the horror and the nightmare in an environment as bright, shiny, and pretty. We sculpted the episode of a limited palette and tone on tone and we used only beiges, creams and blush accents. Given that limited palette, we used texture to enhance the environments and we did that with textiles and tone on tone in the nursery. Anything we could do to add some dimension. That palette bled into the design of the costumes and even into every set. The visitors’ room in the prison was all cream–his jumpsuit, the laminate we used, her dress.

AD: Probably the most stunning prison I’ve ever been in (laughs)

EM: It’s stunning. The beautiful Spanish mansion we shot in was the perfect style, in my opinion, to accent the sets. The woods were grey instead of brown and that made it feel more modern. It’s a contrast of the horror to come. When you see the totem, it stands out. When you see Ba’al, it stands out. You can’t miss him when he’s in the nursery. It was so much. I have never done anything with such a limited palette before. I went on Pinterest and Instagram looking for ideas to enhance and make it work for the characters. Billie Lourd’s character is a young heiress, but her space is hers.

AD: It’s not like it came from a family member.

EM: Exactly. A lot of times you have characters inherit a house and it’s not theirs. It’s important to show that it was hers that she made.

AD: “Feral” is my favorite, I think. Did you design the throne.

EM: I did.

AD: The last image of the episode with that kid on the throne…is so scary. It’s a piece that informs the audience so much. What was your main inspiration for that?

EM: Initially, it was scripted as a bone totem – a trophy of sorts that the ferals built of their kills. We created concept art, but it was very organized. The rib cages were in one place and leg bones were all together. It was gorgeous, but it wasn’t right for this group of inbred cannibals. If they created a trophy, it would be haphazard and messy. I contracted this fantastic effects shop and they welded this organic, metal frame structure with no right angles. After having the base, we started to layer the bones. I worked closely with them to cultivate the flow and aesthetic. After it was built, we got the note that it should now be a throne. So we designed a base for it and found a good place to line it up thus creating the throne. We mainly used leg bones for the seat and even capped the armrests with skulls.

AD: Oh god (laughs).

EM: Once we installed it in the meadow, my team added pieces of viscera and fresh blood to it. The bones at the bottom were older so they were darker. It was one of my favorite things that I designed.

AD: Going back to the beginning of the season, I wanted to ask about the Halloween carnival. I love when scary or spooky things have a trick-or-treat feel to them. And there is a lot there for you to design.

EM: The motto of the series is that things change constantly. It was scripted as a Halloween dance and up until three weeks to shoot, it changed. That was the first curveball. The biggest challenge, though, was what is the concept? We couldn’t do the standard tropes of apple bobbing, carnival games or pumpkin carving. My biggest inspiration was Freak Show, but the catch was that I couldn’t use any of the characters or likeness from the previous season.

AD: That has to be hard, especially since you love that season so much.

EM: Indeed! I spent the next several weekends pitching different freaks to the director and once we settled on what they would be, I could design the vignettes for them to perform. I love the thirty foot cage. The skull sculpture was something that I designed for the dance so when it changed, I used it for the hayride instead. At the entrance, we had these gnarled black trees, Spanish lanterns and half jack-o-lanterns that lead the girls into the event. The DP used this cool checkerboard lighting on the dance floor. A dead contortionist girl, ghoulish burlesque dancers and a sword swallower were a few of the acts. A mausoleum was brought in for the turkey vulture vignette. We had to set it all up in three days and it was down to the wire but we were very happy with it.

American Horror Stories is streaming now on Hulu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oyH8Rd6IOM