The Most Controversial Moment In American Horror Story: Hotel

There are many menacing and vicious characters in "Hotel," but the Addiction Demon (Alexander Ward) is the worst. This figure appears randomly at the hotel, and when it does, it brings immense pain to anyone it sets its sights on. The ghostly hotel owner James March (Evan Peters) explains that Sally McKenna (Sarah Paulson) brought the Addiction Demon into existence with other drug addicts in the hotel. The creature's most controversial moment involves a particular scene. 

In the first episode, titled "Checking In," a heroin addict named Gabriel (Max Greenfield) rents a room. Not long after, a figure appears in front of him, and at first, Gabriel assumes it's a hallucination. It's not. The Addiction Demon is horrifying, but it's the drill-shaped apparatus he's wearing around his waist that causes the most damage. Simply put, the demon uses this device to assault Gabriel, and at Sally's command, it stops torturing Gabriel and disappears. 

During a TCA panel, Ryan Murphy explained that the Addiction Demon's assault on Gabriel represents the hold drugs can have on a person (via Refinery29). That's understandable, but it doesn't take away from the fact that the scene is highly uncomfortable to watch. As Cosmopolitan's Danielle Henderson put it, "To say this scene was disturbing is an understatement."