American Horror Story: Cult title sequence features Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton

For a while, we wondered just how much American Horror Story: Cult was actually going to reference Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. The 2016 election was an inspiration for part of the season, but for the most part there hasn’t been much mention of them in either the season or some of the promotional material that is out there for it.

Well, some of that changes now that we’ve officially seen the main title sequence for the show — rejoice that it’s back! After last season’s Roanoke experiment (which we actually enjoyed far more than the past season of the franchise proper), we’re getting back more to basics this time with a theme song that is weird, creepy, and features a wide array of different fears in a short period of time. (With all of the tiny holes that we’re seeing in various stuff this season, you may as well call this American Horror Story: Trypophobia.) You can see briefly in here masks for both of the recent Presidential candidates.

One other thing that is actually rather interesting about the title sequence this year is how few cast members are actually featured in it: You’ve got Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Cheyenne Jackson, Billie Lourd, and Alison Pill, but that’s really it. You’ve got no mention of Billy Eichner, Lena Dunham, or any of the rumored people taking part in this season, even though we know there are many other people who are going to be a part of this in some shape or form.

The big takeaway here is that American Horror Story is going to try and creep you out, but the precise mechanism that they are going to use for their own political narrative remains to be seen and we’re super-interested in checking it out. Our sentiment on this subject remains that the concept of a cult is so interesting and applies to almost everything from politics to the workplace. There are people who thrive on control, and then also those who thrive on being controlled. There is nothing inherently wrong with either of these things, but when you have someone using control for the wrong reason or people so intent on being controlled that they are impervious to actual truth, then you start to feel things become a little more complicated. Then you’ve got a cult leader and blind followers, and you can make of that whatever you want — you can even say that the politics exist in one way or another on both sides of the aisle.

Remember that new episodes of Cult will be starting early next month, and that we’re effectively just two weeks away from the madness being upon us in the biggest way that it’s been. Suffice it to say we’re excited to see what executive producers Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk have cooked up; we just hope it sustains itself, given that this is something that we’ve seen the show struggle to do over the course of its past seasons.

Want some other coverage of American Horror Story: Cult?

If you head over here, you can see more of what we’ve had to say on some other teaser promos for the show, as released recently by FX. (Photo: FX.)