American Horror Story: Coven Teaser Takes The Stairs

"There is a house in New Orleans…"

American Horror Story has always been maddeningly vague and teasy with their pre-series promos, which hint at the dark and creepy that awaits when the series returns for a new season and a brand new story. They're torturous in their bizarreness and lack of direct clues to the plot of the new season. But the American Horror Story: Coven teasers take that torture a step further by ear-worming "House of the Rising Sun" into our brains with one slowly sung line.

The song actually hints at setting for the series, with New Orleans expected to be featured prominently in American Horror Story: Coven. But the latest teaser, above, may be the most bizarre and confusing yet. We see a woman hovering above a staircase and nothing more. Am I missing something? I do like her witchy looking shoes. I guess we're meant to assume the upside-down hovering woman is a witch?

One of the previously released teasers shows a number of women pressed against the walls and hovering above the floor of a house. I'd guess that one is a nod to the titular Coven. And the other one shows a woman who's pierced with pins, which seems like a nod to the voodoo side of this story.

Actual AHS: Coven spoilery details ahead! As I said, the teasers don't offer us a whole lot to go on, but if nothing more, they're cool to look at and they remind us of how unique and exciting American Horror Story is as a dark TV drama. In the meantime, we have plenty to go on from the character details this year, including word that series newcomer Kathy Bates will play a Louisiana socialite and serial killer named Marie Delphine LaLaurie, who's notorious for kidnapping and torturing a number of slaves in the first half of the 19th century. She sounds awful. But let's face it, a scary Bates is an amazing Bates, right? Returner Jessica Lange will play a witch named Fiona, who's the mother of Cordelia, played by Lange's fellow AHS vet Sarah Paulson. Like Bates, Angela Basset is set to play a character based on a real-life person. She'll portray Marie Laveau, a known New Orleans voodoo practitioner.

As for the plot, Ryan Murphy has been quoted as saying the story is about the witches of Salem going up against voodoo witches in a centuries-long feud. Lange and Bassett's characters are the ones who could mend the fence. Sounds exciting!

Not to do what I have done

Spend your lives in sin and misery

In the house of the rising sun