After months of the traditional speculation over what American Horror Story’s next season will entail, AHS: Cult has finally released its first real look at its new mystery — and the words “Donald Trump” are uttered within the first 10 seconds.
American Horror Story: Cult’s first trailer isn’t about the election, but also, it totally is
The new season takes on a rich white woman’s terror after Trump won the election.
Caroline Framke wrote about culture, which usually means television. Also seen @ The A.V. Club, The Atlantic, Complex, Flavorwire, NPR, the fridge to get more seltzer.
Making good on Ryan Murphy’s promise that Cult will somehow, probably, maybe involve the 2016 presidential election, the teaser opens with a couple (played by Sarah Paulson and Allison Pill) and their son watching the election results come in from their beautiful home in Michigan. (The premiere episode, which debuts September 5, is fittingly titled “Election Night.”) As the news anchor announces that Trump will be the country’s next president, Paulson’s character screams in devastation.
From there, the teaser quickly pivots to all-out horror, with Paulson’s character experiencing what everyone else around her thinks are just hallucinations of clowns, and not the terrifying monsters themselves. But her son’s new babysitter (Billie Lourd) appears to be into dark forces, and is laying some clown traps with the kid for ... reasons.
Overall, the trailer is pretty vague, but it’s perfectly in line with the “streak of paranoia” that executive producer Alexis Martin Woodall promised will define AHS: Cult when she spoke about the season at the Television Critics Association summer press tour. But hey, at least it’s a more substantial look than the creepy glimpses we got from the opening credits for the season, or from the 25 teasers FX has already put out, which depict everything from the aforementioned evil clowns, creatures on pentagrams, and women with beehives for legs.
American Horror Story: Cult premieres September 5 on FX.
