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When people find out I’m interested in horror, the first question is usually, “Why?” Depending on who’s asking and how much time we have, I may give a surface-level answer (“Jump scares are fun!”), a semi-autobiographical answer (“I’ve always been interested in the creepy and macabre.”), or the real, let’s-get-into-this answer: because it’s cathartic to confront what scares you, which is why horror tends to reflect present-day society’s biggest fears. It’s why movies like The Purge: Election Year and Get Out have been so successful in Trump’s America. It’s also why American Horror Story: Cult, which premiered last night, is so fascinating.
From the start, the episode felt like a 2016-2017 time capsule that’s been dumped open far too soon. It opens with a montage of election highlights (or lowlights, depending on how you voted): Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton announcing their presidential campaigns, Trump’s rallies, the riots, talking heads on Fox News discussing “the emails,” even Trump declaring, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose voters.” By the time a title card informs us it’s election night, a feeling of dread (well, again, depending how you voted) has set in.
Then the show cuts between two very different election nights taking place in a small Michigan town. At the comfortable, upper-middle class home of life partners Ally and Ivy (played by Sarah Paulson and Allison Pill, respectively), a group of diverse friends pace the room and nervously say things like, “I won’t believe anything until I hear Rachel Maddow say it. She’s the only one I trust!” Contrast that with Kai Anderson (Evan Peters), a 20-something, greasy white dude sitting alone in a drab basement. When Trump is announced as our next President, Kai cheers, humps the TV, and yells, “The revolution has begun!”; Ally wails as if she’s physically being harmed. Meanwhile, upstairs at Kai’s, Winter Anderson (Billie Lourd) watches the news on her laptop and calls her friend to ask, “Why did CNN not give us a trigger warning!?”
It’s a cutting satirical take on progressives and the alt-right alike—Hillary voters may be emotional snowflakes, but Trump supporters are angry losers living in their mom’s basement—that might immediately turn off people who aren’t willing to look in the mirror too long. But this is American Horror Story—and a Ryan Murphy production at that—which means you’ll never have to sit too long in a moment before it’s on to the next atrocity. This time, it’s a scene in which Kai, still reveling in the glory of Trump’s win, throws a bag of Cheetos in a blender and smears the orange goop onto his face as he whispers, “it’s gonna be huuuuggeee” into the mirror. It’s campy, disgusting, and grotesque—but, hey, this show has never been described as “subtle.”
And that’s just what happens before the opening credits. The rest of the episode continues to capitalize on the fears of both the left and the right, with Ally and Kai serving as tropes of their respective parties. Post election night, Ally’s coulrophobia (fear of clowns) and trypophobia (fear of tiny holes) have flared up. Even the most basic places are no longer safe: A trip to the grocery store starts off ominously when a MAGA hat-wearing cashier declares, “We finally got a real leader in Washington.” That alone would trigger Ally, but then a group of people in clown masks wielding knives and metal music start terrorizing her. Ally defends herself by throwing bottles of Rosé (yes, really) until she makes it to her Prius, where she breaks down. Later, back at home, she’s told by the cops it was just a hallucination. Was it really? Or is she being gaslighted? We don’t know yet—but if this season really is an allegory for our current politics, I think we all know what the answer will be.
Kai, meanwhile, may seem more confident than Ally on the surface, but his actions reflect the insecurities and fears that are currently driving many Trump supporters, like the moment when he picks a fight with Mexican workers, telling them, “You wetbacks aren’t welcome here no more.” Most revealing, though, is a speech he gives at a city council meeting that ends with this line: “There’s nothing more dangerous in this world than a humiliated man.” It’s chilling—all he’s missing is a tiki torch.
By the episode’s end, I started to wonder: Is there anything both sides can agree is universally scary? North Korea making good on its threats? Trump’s Twitter feed? Clowns? Maybe clowns—but then again, given Trump’s orange hue, exaggerated facial expressions, and funny hair…maybe not. Maybe that’s what we’re supposed to discover by the season finale.
All I know is this: We’re in for a wild, fucked-up ride. And I’m ready for it.
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