Election daze
Written after November, ‘AHS’ jumps on a lot of fears
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 Michigan, reflects the views on Trump and Clinton during and after the campaign.
It shifts its focus to cult leaders who use people’s fears and vulnerabilities to gain power, co-creator Ryan Murphy said after a screening of early episodes of Season 7 of the anthology series, premiering Tuesday (10 ET/PT).
“The characters have very strong views about Trump and Clinton, but ... it’s really about the cult of personality that can rise in a divisive society,” said Murphy.
The idea to use the election to look at a Charles Manson-like leader came a year ago, 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 elements that fans will want to know.
EVAN PETERS’ KAI INSPIRED BY MANY 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 this year, he decided to look at a 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 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.
‘CULT’ HAS SOMETHING IN COMMON WITH ‘NETWORK’
Murphy tipped his hat to the 1976 film Network, saying nearly 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.