Flesh Phantom

The Pale
Portrayed by	Spencer Novich
Details
Occupation	Singer
Cause of death	January 2021 at The Brown House bludgeoned by Harry Gardner with a coat rack.
Relationships	The Chemist (indirect creator) Harry Gardner (killer)
Appearances	Cape Fear Blood Buffet

The Pale is are humans who have undergone significant transformations under the influence of a special pill which enhances talent in skilled individuals at the cost of bloodlust, but were untalented and instead mutated into vampire-like creatures. It is a character in Double Feature portrayed by Spencer Novich.

Background

Flesh Phantoms were created when humans took Muse, a special pill which enhances talent at the cost of having to drink human blood in order to maintain their talent. If a human takes the pill but has no talent that the pill can enhance, the human will instead devolve into a Flesh Phantom.

Personality and Appearance

Flesh Phantoms are animalistic and ravenous; chasing after and drinking the blood of any living thing they came across; whenever it is animals or other humans. They have no semblance of their humanity left, although it is possible to reason with them, since Ursula Caan convinced a group of Flesh Phantoms to take a new pill. Flesh Phantoms will not attack other humans that have taken the pill; although this changed when the Flesh Phantoms took a new pill, in which the formula was changed to where they will attack anything. Ursula uses this new pill in order to assassinate Belle Noir and Austin Sommers, who were killed when the Flesh Phantoms invaded and tore their throats out.

Story

The origins of the Flesh Phantom began when a man desperate to be a famous singer took the pill. Rather than enhance his talent in singing, the pill began to mutate him into the first Flesh Phantom. After fully mutating, he then roams the forests of Provincetown, killing any animals or humans he will come across. After news of the pill spread and more people came to Provincetown to take it, this resulted in more Flesh Phantoms being made until a large pack of them has been created, where they terrorise the inhabitants of Provincetown.

One Flesh Phantom invades the Gardner residence, but is killed by Harry. After both Harry and Alma took the pill and found their talents to be enhanced, Alma convinces Doris to take a pill so her talent in interior design is enhanced. Doris takes the pill, but then begins to slowly mutate into a Flesh Phantom, as she had no talent. Harry makes the decision to leave Doris in the forest, where she joins the pack of Flesh Phantoms.

In order to save baby Eli from Belle and Austin, Ursula lures a group of Flesh Phantoms to the house, where they attack and kill Belle and Austin as they’ve been given new pills that allows them to attack even other humans who took the pill. The group are then killed by Ursula once they have killed Belle and Austin.

After The Chemist, Ursula and Alma relocate to Los Angeles, several cases of Flesh Phantom sightings begin to be reported across the city, due to Ursula peddling the pills to wannabe authors in the city. This culminates in a Flesh Phantom that used to be a police officer attacking and killing a tourist in plain sight. Ursula then convinces a large conference of people seeking fame to take the pill. This results in a large horde of Flesh Phantoms being born, and they escape the conference and begin attacking and killing innocent people in the streets of Los Angeles, resulting in the whole city being under siege from the hordes of Flesh Phantoms.

Notes

• They are the second variation of vampires in the American Horror Story universe, the first being the Afflicted introduced in the fifth season, Hotel. Unlike the Afflicted, who have the appearance of beautiful human beings that never age, Flesh Phantoms have a more classically vampiric appearance, sporting deathly pale skin, mouths full of sharp fangs, bald hairless heads, and pointy ears like a bat, but are not immortal and can be killed by conventional means. Additionally, while the Afflicted are created by a virus that is supernatural in nature, Flesh Phantoms are the result of a science experiment gone wrong.
• The appearance of Flesh Phantoms appears to be based on Count Orlok, the antagonistic vampire from the 1922 silent film Nosferatu. The film and its director, F.W. Murnau, both exist in-universe, with Murnau himself having been revealed to be one of the aforementioned Afflicted in Hotel.