By Carly Gaba

The sixth season of the FX horror anthology, American Horror Story, was a mystery itself all summer. The season premiered on Sept. 14 and its viewers were taken into the dark forest of the Roanoke Nightmare.
Details about the season’s plot and cast were kept secret until the first episode, an unusual approach to publicity for the series. This secret kept the audience on edge, which seemed to work considering over 3.2 million viewers tuned in for the pilot episode.

The nightmare takes place in current day, Roanoke Island, North Carolina. This season takes a documentary style of film. Viewers are shown both reenactments of the couple’s ‘nightmare,’ Shelby (Lily Rabe) and Matt (André Holland), while they explain their point of
view. During their stay at the house, the couple finds videotapes made by the previous owner of the house. The videos begin to explain the terrifying events that happened there.

It is widely speculated that the season is incorporating the infamous 1590s Roanoke Colony disappearance, known as “The Lost Colony.”

The original story, from 1587, involves Englishman John White, who led 100 men, women and children to find a permanent English colony. The group came across Roanoke Island and settled. Later that year, White headed back to the homeland to bring more supplies, but the war with Spain postponed his return. When he finally arrived back on the Island, White found it abandoned and booted with no trace of settlers.

Only two clues remained: The word “Croatoan” had been carved on a post and the letters “CRO” scratched into a tree trunk.

Series co-creator Ryan Murphy said, “This season of the series would be more rogue and dark in contrast to its previous cycle, ‘Hotel.’”

AHS is taking its own approach to the disappearance of the colony, suggesting supernatural activity is behind this unsolved mystery. Critics are saying this season will connect with the past five seasons, tying in both plot lines from “Murder House” and “Asylum.”

American Horror Story airs every Wednesday night at 10 p.m. on FX. Tune in and see a real-life nightmare.