‘ American Horror Story’ clowns around with reality
‘ Cult’ hits with the satire, but its scares sometimes fall flat
American Horror Story: Cult has a phobia for everyone.
The classics are represented in the seventh edition of the popular FX horror anthology ( Tuesday, 10 ET/ PT, out of four). Clowns? Check. Bees? Check. The confining space of a coffin? Check.
But the latest effort from cocreators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk also trafficks in more modern- day fears, depending on where you sit on the political spectrum: that President Obama was going to take away your guns; that you might be called a racist even though you’re a card- carrying liberal; that people will find out you voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein instead of Hillary Clinton.
Such primal and political fears are the blessing and the curse of Cult, a horror- political-comedy with its sights set ambitiously on so many targets — including cult leaders who gain power by playing off the public’s fears — that its satire sometimes cuts into the scare factor.
Viewers see Trump and Clinton in news clips as the season opens on election night 2016 in small- town Michigan. A Clinton viewing party and a lone Trump supporter watch cable news channels announcing Trump’s victory, a real- life horror for his antagonists suffering
from a political PTSD ( President Trump Stress Disorder).
Ally ( Sarah Paulson) and Ivy ( Alison Pill), a married couple who run a tony restaurant while raising a school- age son, represent the anti- Trump audience. Ally, the embodiment of a liberal “snowflake,” rejects the result until she can hear it from MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and crumbles under a recurrence of her many phobias, including a disabling fear of clowns.
The Trump side doesn’t get off easy. Blue- haired Kai ( Evan Peters) exults at Fox News’ declaration of Trump’s victory, tries to mount his flat- screen TV and blends cheese puffs into an orange powder — get it? — that he applies to his face. He’s volatile, feeding off societal fears and plans his own run for office, complete with false immigrant statistics.
As Kai’s single- minded craziness is documented, so are his skills of persuasion. He’s a budding demagogue who already wields power over followers, including emotionally opaque Wednesday Addams doppelganger Winter ( Billie Lourd). She connects these political opposites when she’s hired by Ally and Ivy after their immigrant nanny flees post- election.
Did we mention clowns? They’re everywhere.
Twisty ( John Carroll Lynch), the sadistic killer from AHS: Freak Show, makes a frightening return, as do a slew of newcomers with creatively bizarre visages and activities, including clown sex.
Ally sees them everywhere, including a supermarket where she fends off a murderous clown with a bottle of rosé. The tweaking of affluent progressives cuts deepest — perhaps because that side’s dirty laundry is more familiar to Hollywood— but Cult tries for equal opportunity, having fun with the now- familiar sight of an angry young white man raging against perceived humiliation.
The question of whether the clowns are real is smart social commentary. But it can dampen the scare factor, and at one point in the second episode ( of three made available for preview), Ally’s allconsuming fears become tiresome. In contrast to last season’s AHS: Roanoke, which conveyed an otherworldly eeriness, Cult is set in the real world of presidential politics and fears regarding child care, online harassment and the environment.
That makes it harder to accept the show’s departures into heightened reality.
Billy Eichner and Leslie Grossman, playing bizarre neighbors who move into a murder house where they keep bees and a giant weapons cache, are hilarious but hard to take seriously.
Give Cult credit for trying to connect with the current cultural mood. though it offers over- the- top stereotyping of both sides as well as spot- on insight.
And even if the constant door- banging ( what, no doorbells?) stops giving you the intended jitters, such horror- trope winks might still provide a laugh.