SPOILERS: 'American Horror Story' New Characters, Plot Revealed

American Horror Story fans have been largely baffled by the season two teaser advertisements recently released on FX, most of which portray old-fashioned nuns doing bizarre things, like dumping unidentified contents out of buckets, standing eerily in corners, and pacing spastically around a stark white room, but now — still a good six weeks away from the October 17 season premiere — a little explanation comes to light about the disturbing turn American Horror Story, which was nominated for 17 Emmys in its first season, will take, not to mention the creepy nun that will be portrayed by Jessica Lange.

Season two of American Horror Story, created by Glee‘s Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, will take place largely in 1964, departing from the storyline surrounding the L.A. Murder House in season one. Instead, viewers will be taken to Briarcliff, an institution for the criminally insane in Massachusetts, where they will meet Lange’s new character, Sister Jude, described by Entertainment Weekly as a nun who is “more sadistic than saintly.”

Other semi-new faces will include Zachary Quinto and James Cromwell, doctors in the asylum, as well as women and men of the cloth Joseph Fiennes and Lily Rabe. And what would an asylum (also the title of the season premiere) be without inmates? Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson and Chloe Sevigny will be filling those roles. Maroon 5’s and The Voice‘s Adam Levine and Jenna Dewan Tatum will be playing newlyweds who visit the institution in the modern day.

So far, however, Lange’s Sister Jude seems to be the main attraction. “If I were playing a straitlaced nun, start to finish,” she told the magazine, “I can’t say that would interest me too much. What’s great are the extremes. To go from where she was and where she’s getting to, that’s what’s going to be interesting.”

Get ready to shudder in terror when American Horror Story’s season two debuts on FX on October 17, 2012.

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