The American adaptation

Show creator Ryan Murphy confirmed the real life inspiration behind American Horror Story: Hotel in an interview with EW: "There was a surveillance video that went around two years ago that showed a girl getting into an elevator in a hotel that was said to be haunted … and she was never seen again."

Whoa... creepy. But what's great is that a bunch of fans have just punched the air after being proved right about their AHS: Cecil Hotel theories (including me, I'm stoked!)
Even before Lam's death, the Cecil Hotel was cursed...

Serial K!IIer Richard Ramirez was staying at the Cecil Hotel while he killed his victims, which in turn inspired copycat killer Jack Unterweger to visit the place to commit his crimes. The hotel has numerous strange suicides to its name, which is frightening enough in itself... but here's the real kicker. The American adaptation of Japanese horror Dark Water effectively draws on the terrifying case of Elisa Lam. Dahlia (Jennifer Connelly) and her daughter Cecilia (Ariel Gade) move into a new apartment, only to find black water leaking mysteriously from the ceiling.

She investigates the leak and discovers some horrifying facts about a young girl who drowned in the water tank. These events are clearly reminiscent of Elisa Lam's story, but the names of Connelly and Gade's characters confirm the setting

While we wait anxiously for Season 5 of American Horror Story, it's been fun to speculate about what gleefully horrifying things will take place in the titular Hotel. However, you know what's even better than wildly theorizing about what AHS: Hotel is gonna be about? Finding out from the master himself!