The opening credits sequence for American Horror Story: Cult went up on the show’s Facebook this week. There’s a lot to unpack in this one, so make sure you’re sitting down before hitting play.
Right off the bat we have: bees, clowns, bloody flags, and, perhaps most horrific of all, both Trump and Clinton masks. Is America split by two political cults? Should we be focusing more on the bees? Can clowns even scare us anymore, when reality has gotten more absurd by the day?
But it looks like the show has a lot more in store than just squeaky shoes.
American Horror Story: America
Monkeys Fighting Robots horror writer EJ Moreno dissected clues from early marketing for Cult. While pretty much everything we knew at that point was that clowns would be involved, this opening sequence gives us SO. MUCH. MORE. Perhaps the showrunners backed off the clowns a little once It was announced for the fall. Or maybe the clowns are more of a metaphor.
Creator Ryan Murphy confirmed earlier this year that Cult‘s plot pulls directly from the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, with both Trump and Clinton appearing during the series. Murphy told Hollywood Reporter that Cult will show both sides of the massive political divide. However, like previous seasons, most of the characters fall into marginalized categories, specifically those “ignored by the current [Trump] administration and who are afraid and feel terrorized that their lives are going to be taken away.”
American Horror Story has pulled from real-life events before. However, Cult is the first to pull directly from such current events. Season seven premieres September 5th on FX.
Created in 2011 by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck, American Horror Story is an anthology television series. Season Seven stars Sarah Paulsen, Evan Peters, Cheyenne Jackson, Billie Lourd, Billy Eichner, Alison Pill and more. The story arc begins the same night as the 2016 presidential election. Bring in the clowns.
