After six seasons filled with ghosts, demons, witches, mutants, aliens and vampires, “American Horror Story” is going in a different direction. Season 6, subtitled “Cult,” has no supernatural elements.
“We don’t have any of that this year,” said Ryan Murphy, the show‘s executive producer. “It really is about the cultive personality, and the scares come from that.”
The horror centers on Kai Anderson (Evan Peters), a big supporter of Donald Trump who celebrates the 2016 election by launching a murderous reign of terror as he tries to emulate his hero by gaining political power.
The primary focus of the scares (at least in the first three episodes) are liberal lesbians Ally (Sarah Paulson) and Ivy (Allison Pill), who are distraught about Trump’s election. (Although it turns out that one of them voted for — gasp! — Jill Stein.)
Murphy insists that, while “Cult” opens with most of its characters recoiling in horror at Trump’s election, it is not actually anti-Trump.
“I think that people have the wrong idea already about what it’s going to be,” said Murphy, whose credits include “Glee,” “Feud,” “American Crime Story” and the HBO movie “The Normal Heart.” “And I think a lot of that is because of people knowing my politics.”
On TV <br>“American Horror Story: Cult” premieres Tuesday, Sept. 5, on FX — 8 p.m. on DirecTV and Dish; 11 p.m. on Comcast.
He is an “out, gay man” who has “always campaigned on the Democratic side.” But while the “jumping-off point is the election night, and the characters have very strong views about Trump and Hillary Clinton,” this season “really is not about them. It really is about the cultive personality that can rise in a divisive society.
“And I hope that people can figure that out, but. …”
Murphy said that by about Sept. 1 last year, he came up with the idea of mixing the election with his long-held desire to do some kind of take on cult leader/murderer Charles Manson and create a character “who rises like that within a sort-of disenfranchised community.” The idea was “nailed down by Oct. 1,” almost six weeks before the election.
“At that point, everybody thought Hillary Clinton was going to win in a landslide. So the opening was a little different” than originally planned.
Dyed-in-the-wool Trump supporters may not stick around to see where “Cult” is going. The opening segment focuses on not just apparently sympathetic characters in the depths of depression because Trump wins; blue-haired Kai rubs Cheetos all over his face and taunts a Clinton supporter.
As has been the case in past seasons, “Cult” is filled with horrific violence — stabbings, slashings, shootings — and deeply disturbing plotlines and images. And … it wants to be funny.
“We’re trying to make a point, but not take it too seriously,” Murphy said. “And I think that’s evident in the first episode where Sarah Paulson chases clowns with rosé. I mean, I think that we’ve all turned to rosé a lot in the past year.”
And that, he said, was the thinking behind “Cult.”
“Our feeling is that everybody lost their [expletive] after the election — Republican [and] Democrat — and everybody’s still losing their [expletive],” Murphy said. “And nobody’s really figured out from either side where to put those feelings.”
It’s unlikely that everyone will see this new season of “AHS” as bipartisan. Murphy said he’s aware of “conservatives and people in the Rust Belt who have loved the show” who have tweeted “I’m out. I can’t believe that you are tackling this.” But he argues it’s not one-sided or anti-Trump; it also satirizes the “white privilege” of Ally and Ivy.
He has a point. But “Cult” has already been painted as anti-Trump, and it’s hard to believe that it won’t be attacked by Breitbart and Fox News for being just that. Because, of course, facts are less interesting than partisan attacks.
On the other hand, Murphy clearly sees Trump as not dissimilar from a cult leader.
“We’re trying to understand how someone who was very charismatic can rise up in the culture and become a leader. What are they tapping into?” he said. “And now, the question is, well, how did Trump get elected? What did he tap into as a candidate?
“We don’t have to say that we love or hate Trump, but we were interested in his rise.”