On Thursday, the latest installment of “American Horror Story” came to life in an eerie and uncomfortable way. The acting was superb, as to be expected when the cast includes Sarah Paulson, Taissa Farmiga, Evan Peters, Emma Roberts, Kathy Bates and Jessica Lange, and the plot is perfectly gruesome and exciting.

The season opener explored the main theme of the season: witchcraft. Early in the episode, we are given a hint as to what special power Zoe (Farmiga) has: when the teen sleeps with her boyfriend for the first time, he dies by bleeding out, more so than any doctor has ever seen. But before Zoe can catch her breath, her mom arranges for her to be whisked away by men in all black and sent to a boarding school in New Orleans for young witches. Led by Cordelia (Paulson), Zoe is introduced to the other young witches at the school, Madison (Roberts), Nan (Jamie Brewer) and Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious”).

As she settles in, nothing is quite settling, since each girl has a fiery personality and unique witch ability. Soon, supreme witch Fiona (Lange), who happens to be Cordelia’s mother, arrives and demands to be the educator of the girls instead. The girls’ attendance at a college fraternity party shakes things up, as the famous Madison Montgomery becomes the center of unwanted attention.

Meanwhile, Kathy Bates returns to her horror roots, channeling her breakout role in 1990’s “Misery.” Playing Delphine LaLaurie, Bates is exceptionally creepy; for instance, she rubs human pancreatic blood on her face daily. LaLaurie is based upon a historical figure of the same name, known for her cruel treatment of slaves in the 1830s. Some of Bates’ scenes are truly disturbing—she plays her evil role so convincingly and the special effects make everything feel all too real. Bates’ delivery of lines is haunting and bone chilling to the point of making my skin crawl and unsettling my stomach.

Still, the balance of the two stories from the 1830s and the present is difficult to understand at this point. In typical “AHS” fashion, the stories intercut each other throughout the episode. However, one of the keys to the connection between the stories is that LaLaurie isn’t exactly dead. To avoid an early spoiler, I’ll leave it at that, although the storyline in question does leave many questions to be answered throughout the season.

The premiere was too action-packed for me to address everything that happened, but the acting was chilling and captured the essence of each character very well. Again, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk (the show’s writers, directors and producers) delivered an exciting start to the season, full of new topics to be explored and leaving some big-name actors yet to be introduced (including Lily Rabe, Patti LuPone and Danny Huston). Nothing in the premiere was a disappointment, except perhaps having to wait another week for the next episode.

The third season gained the highest premiere ratings of the three seasons of “American Horror Story.” The show airs on Wednesdays at 9 pm on FX.