American Horror Story Cult: The True Story That Inspired Season 7

American Horror Story: Cult, instead of looking completely at history, focused on the present and took a more political bend than other seasons by targeting real-life fears which affected some people after the 2016 US Presidential election.

In previous seasons, show-runner Ryan Murphy has relied on more supernatural haunts than real-life drama. For example, season 1 is set in a manor known as the “Murder House,” which is crawling with ghosts who became the focus of that season. Cult also resurrects Twisty the Clown, a fan-favorite, which is part of how all the seasons are connected, as Ryan Murphy confirmed in 2014.

The horrors of this season are caused by humans and done to other humans with an emphasis on hate-based crimes. It also possesses more of a political undertone than previous seasons, as it begins on the night Donald Trump was elected President, which is part of the real-life events that inspired season 7’s overall theme. As horror is often political, it’s no surprise Murphy took this route for one of his seasons, especially during such a charged climate.

AHS: Cult Explored Paranoia And Fear After The 2016 Election

AHS: Cult was inspired by rhetoric that’s been part of many mainstream news outlets’ coverage since Trump took office, and along with it, the paranoia and fear certain groups felt after the election.

Murphy also elected to set the season in the infamous battleground state of Michigan. He gave Sarah Paulson’s character severe anxiety and phobias, which were likely meant to reflect some of the same fears those who opposed Trump’s views and other marginalized groups may experience. While the show does specifically name Donald Trump and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, it digs deeper into how people in power maintain their status by leveraging the fears of others. Cult has Evan Peters’ extremist character, Kai Anderson, admitting he gets all his information about crimes committed by illegal immigrants from Facebook, which highlights the issue of propaganda and fake news.

Murphy is known for drawing ideas and influences from other filmmakers as well as history. In fact, during the most recent season, American Horror Story: 1984, one can clearly see the influences of hit horror flicks, such as Friday the 13th.  He strays away from that in season 7, and instead gave audiences a more streamlined, direct focus on a singular event and touched on relevant historical figures who expressed similar values to his overall theme.

Real-Life Cult Leaders Were Portrayed In AHS: Cult

Murphy also used AHS: Cult to offer flashbacks and insights into cult leaders over the past century. Evan Peters portrayed all of the infamous cult leaders throughout the season. The most well-known in the bunch was Charles Manson, who notoriously led the Manson Family to commit a series of 9 murders at four different locations in the Los Angeles area in 1969. Manson was convicted of first-degree murder in 1971, and ended up on death row.

Peters also played Jim Jones, the leader who convinced 900 followers of Jonestown to commit suicide by drinking kool-aid containing cyanide. In AHS: Cult, Peters’s character recounts the story of the Jonestown commune by hailing Jones as the “Kayne of cult leaders.”

Murphy also had Peters portray the leader of the Heaven’s Gate cult, Marshall Applewhite. Applewhite convinced 39 of his followers that they could escape Earth by taking their own lives and meeting a spaceship on the back of the Hale-Bopp comet. Peters portrays Applewhite in a video similar to footage uploaded to the Internet after their mass suicide in 1997.

American Horror Story: Cult was a satire about the current state of events with an underlying message of inclusivity. Murphy can’t please everyone, and some may have not have preferred Season 7 simply because it’s too closely aligned with reality or because they felt it reflected bias toward a certain political party. In short, it’s just too real, and some viewers argue that Cult was the weakest season yet.

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