USA TODAY International Edition
Real-life fears drive ‘American Horror Story: Cult’
What began as a study of Charles Manson uses the election of Donald Trump as a starting point
FX’s American Horror Story: Cult opens on 2016’s election night and references Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, but it’s more about the volatile mood enveloping the country than the politicians themselves.
Cult, set in a small Michigan town, reflects the varying views about Trump and Clinton expressed during and after the campaign.
It shifts its focus to cult leaders who can use people’s fears and vulnerabilities to gain power, co-creator Ryan Murphy said after a screening of early episodes of the seventh edition of the anthology series, premiering Tuesday (10 ET/PT).
“The jumping-off point is the election night, and the characters have very strong views about Trump and Clinton, but it really is not about them. It’s really about the cult of personality that can rise in a divisive society,” said Murphy.
The idea for Cult, using the election as propulsion to look at a Charles Manson-like leader, came last September, he said.
Episodes were written after Trump was elected.
“I think this is probably the first full season of narrative television conceived, developed and written in response to the November election,” said FX Networks chief John Landgraf.
The cast features Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Alison Pill, Billie Lourd, Billy Eichner, Adina Porter and Cheyenne Jackson, many of whom are familiar to AHS fans.
Murphy discussed some intriguing elements that fans of the high-rated horror anthology series will want to know.
EVAN PETERS’ KAI INSPIRED BY SEVERAL CULT LEADERS
Peters’ character reflects at least six cult leaders, including Manson, David Koresh and Jim Jones. Kai decides to run for city council and eventually the U.S. Senate.
Murphy said he had been thinking for years about centering a season on Manson. This year, he decided to look at a charismatic leader who can harness people’s turbulent emotions and build a following. “How do those people rise to power, and why do people follow them?”
LENA DUNHAM WILL PLAY WOMAN WHO SHOT WARHOL
Valerie “attempted to shoot Andy Warhol because she felt denied into the cult that was Warhol and The Factory at the time,” Murphy said. The episode, the season’s seventh, “is about the female rage then and in the country now.”
TWISTY THE CLOWN AND FRIENDS ARE BACK!
Fans will be elated, scared or maybe both with the return of the murderous clown (John Carroll Lynch) from the fourth season, Freak Show. Murphy described Twisty — who now has his own collector’s doll and comic-book series — and other scary villains as repertory regulars.
“Twisty, Bloody Face, Rubber Man, Piggy Man, all of those characters come and go within the cycle of the show,” he said.
“It’s the meta idea that Twisty has his own comic book and that could be one of Sarah Paulson’s (character’s) phobias.”
‘CULT’ HAS SOMETHING IN COMMON WITH ‘NETWORK’
He tipped his hat to the 1976 film Network, saying pretty much everything predicted by the media satire came to fruition.
He said Cult filmed episodes and later saw the plot points reflected in real life.
“Things we were shooting in May have come through in the last six weeks even, Charlottesville being an example,” he said in reference to the recent turmoil in the Virginia city.
MURPHY IS PREPARED IF TRUMP TWEETS ABOUT ‘AHS’
“I would hope he would have more important things to do,” Murphy said. “I would be shocked if he (tweeted) and yet not, but I’m prepared. I’m prepared to say nothing.”