Using the 2016 US election as a starting point, Cult focuses on two opposing characters enslaved to fears real and imagined.

Our seventh season of American Horror Story begins, as Ryan Murphy promised, on election night 2016. Michigan; Two households are glued to their flat screen TVs. In one, Kai Anderson (Evan Peters) sits alone in a den watching Fox News and realizing that the election of Donald J. Trump is inevitable. In another home, Ally (Sarah Paulson) and her wife Ivy (Allison Pill) are watching the election with a decidedly different tone of impending doom. Their house is more populated as their young son, Ozzy, sits on a bar stool in the kitchen tended to by the maid and neighbor and city councilman Mr. Chang and his wife, agonizing over the slow realization that Trump will soon be President of the United States. The infighting begins. As Kai is dry-humping his TV over the victory, Aly and Ivy are coming to the realization that their lives could be seriously and very negatively impacted. “The revolution has begun.” Kai declares to himself, alone in the basement.

Meanwhile upstairs, Kai’s sister is heartbroken at the loss Clinton has suffered while refreshing her browser for new results and chatting with a friend on the phone. Kai enters, his face covered in pureed Cheetos as an homage to the orange one. He holds a strange power over his twin sister, one of total control and dominance. 

With all of that exposition, characters and dynamics, that is just the opening hook. Oh shit.

American Horror Story: Cult | Main Titles | FX

As if taking pity on the all-to-real opening, we return from commercial and are treated to a tonal shift. Escapism in the form of a “Twisty The Clown” slasher pic of sorts. Twisty strikes a couple on the verge of having sex in the in the woods, and he does what he does best, slaying the two with juggling pens and a dagger.  We pull back to realize this is just a visualization of  a comic book that Ally’s son, Ozzie, is reading at bedtime. Ally walks in to put her son to bed and asks her son to hand over whatever he is reading. On sight of the cover, falls into a debilitating phobic fit over the image of a clown. But seriously though who would not lose it over seeing Twisty? Ivy rushes to her wife to comfort her and it is decided that something may be seriously wrong.

A few days later, at the local city council meeting headed by Ally’s neighbor, Tom, we see the group considering a measure to protect a minority. Kai Anderson (Evan Peters) speaks to his local city council argues that they are choosing fear over freedom “We need less cops and more freedom!” Kai and Chang get into a heated debate that becomes a philosophical battle about the use of fear in society. Tom tells Kai not to be so emboldened over the election. Kai somberly declares that there is “Nothing more dangerous than a humiliated man.” and exits the meeting.

 

Ally’s phobic attacks have blossomed since election night. Her paranoia and fear have permeated every facet of her life and she has become enslaved. During a visit to therapist (Cheyenne Jackson) she explains her clown phobia “since election night everything is so much worse”. On top of her fear of clowns her Trypophobia (fear of clusters of holes) has been triggered. He dismisses her panic by offering her medication and sending her on her way.

Everything is fine until during a nighttime visit to the grocery store, Ally is pursued by a posse of clowns. It begins subtly at first with the scene climaxing in the psychotic merrymakers humping in the produce section, and flying by her on razor scooters. She flees to her car calling her wife in hysterics before, spoiler, seeing a clown in her back seat. She hits the gas and wrecks her car on a light pole. Ally claims she was targeted and that everything was 100% real.

It is here we begin to see the tricks this season will play on real and imagined fears. We also see the direction it is headed in pointing at how some will exploit paranoia to their own advantage.

Aly and Ivy attempt to get back to trying to run their restaurant.  Their marriage is suffering along with their business and they decide to do something about it with a renewed effort. The two choose to start looking for a nanny for their son. In a touching moment outside the restaurant we learn that Ivy and Ally have been together for 10 years and are still very much in love. Still, Ivy berates Ally for throwing away her vote on Jill Stein. Tension and blame remain. Suddenly, Kai then walks by and throws a latte on them. “Enjoy you’re latte bitch.” quips with a renewed sense of dominance.

We return to Kai and his sister, Winter (Billie Lourd). Through a densely edited montage we learn that anarchist Kai schemes to get Winter hired as Ally and Ivy’s new, seemingly perfect, nanny. The couple hires her right away and believe she will be the answer to their prayers. The hiring scene is intercut with  a chilling scene between Kai and Winter, pinkies interlocked, staring into one another’s eyes. Kai dominates leads his sister through a trance-like string of questioning, exerting his mental control over her. They are hatching their plan to incite chaos and hysteria. What do they have planned?

A few nights later Ally and Ivy are at their restaurant working while Winter is watching their at home. Winter, very insidiously begins sharing the dark web with the 7 year old kid. “It’s where all the good stuff is,” she says. At the restaurant, Ivy serves her wife a porous meal that triggers a panic attack and Ally begins to see clowns in the restaurant. They have a fight after things escalate and Ally struggles to get her fears under control.

The couple leaves the restaurant to head home and are greeted by a cluster of ambulances, police, and flashing lights on their street. Winter and Ozzie sit in the back end of an ambulance and rush to them. The neighbors who were visiting on election night are dead. Ozzie explains that he saw a van full of clowns pull up in front of their neighbors home across the street and sneak in to the neighbors home. Through flashback we see Ozzie’s story; He says that he and Winter snuck over to see what was happening and saw the neighbors getting murdered. Before Ally and Ivy have time to react, Winter explains that none of that happened, and a police officer explains that it was a murder suicide.

The episode ends with Ally in a state of mental instability and hysteria and Kai and Winter promising much more trouble.

This will be an interesting season for sure. It is a dicey endeavor to jump into such a volatile political climate with a statement. However, this is exactly what horror as a genre can and must do. It allows us to hold a funhouse mirror up to reality and see things in strange new ways, maybe even relate, connect, and conquer what pursues us.

Ally’s plight is, in actuality, minimal. yet her fears are very real to her. On the other end of the spectrum we have those using fear to their advantage to push their own agenda. Why is it that what we are afraid of exerts such a power over us? We see Ally’s descent into madness and wonder, what is real and what might be imagined. The episode continued to play on perception of reality, real or imagined fears in an interesting metaphor for what we as a nation are facing right now. This is going to be one hell of a season if they do it right. So far they are on the right track.

 

 

American Horror Story: Cult
RATING:	TV-MA	American Horror Story: Cult | Season 7: Official Trailer [HD] | FX
Directed By:	Andy Muschietti