This new season of American Horror Story is aptly called Cult. The characters confront the violence of the repercussions of the election of Donald Trump.
Cult follows the evolution of the political movement created by Kai Anderson, a young American. The season takes place at the time of the election of Donald J Trump. Violent reactions have occurred in the country and this brings back bad memories for Ally, a young mother married to a woman.
The 7th season of the horror series consists of 11 episodes of 45 min. This is the usual format of the anthology series. Here again, we find actors who have participated in previous seasons. Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson, the two heroes of Cult have been elders for several seasons.
However, there are new actors like Billie Lourd who participated in other projects of the producer of the series Ryan Murphy. Indeed, she appears in the series Scream Queens.
In Cult, Evan Peters gives credibility to Kai, this impoverished young man who will become a charismatic and formidable tyrant. He blends into his character of Kai, obsessed with cult gurus to the point of becoming one himself. However, Kai sometimes resembles other characters from American Horror Story that he may have played. In addition, he sometimes seems very Manichean in his way of acting. He is a villain character and is most often considered as such, which makes his character lose flavor.
The evolution of Ally's character, meanwhile, is done in two stages. Once again, her character seems to be a mix of characters that Sarah Paulson has already been able to play in previous seasons. It is difficult to attach oneself to this woman at first very fearful who becomes excessively violent later. The explanations of the series are clear even if once again a little Manichean.
Cult has an aesthetic as licked as ever. The specifications are clearly legible. As usual, this new season of American Horror Story has a very beautiful image and cinematic shots. The sound work is worthy once again of horror movies.
In terms of the script, he is clearly trying to convey an anti-Trump message. Ryan Murphy welcomes many feminist revolts. One episode even focuses on a radical feminist played by Lena Dunham. The series takes sides in a very Manichean way once again, there are the pro-Trump on one side (the bad guys) and the anti-Trump on the other (the good guys). Even if both sides can express themselves and make good arguments, the embodiment of the characters makes judgment a little too easy.
The series is long to set up. Some sequences seem to slow down despite some interesting characters.
As in some seasons, one of the characters from previous seasons reappears. It's not a crossover strictly speaking but the killer clown of the season Freakshow makes an appearance. It's hard to understand why they took over this character. One might think that it is to explain the clown disguises of Kai's movement but it is explained in another way afterwards thanks to another character.
There are winks about different sects already existing. Evan Peters plays all these famous gurus. This highlights the megalomania of the character. The resemblance is especially striking with Charles Manson who is Kai's mentor.
Cult seems to be an accumulation of ideas that have already been dealt with in previous seasons. Horror is always aestheticized. However, it feels like the series is going around in circles.
