The 'American Horror Story: Cult' Trailer Recreates the Horror of Election Night 2016

Sarah Paulson is not coping well in Trump's America.

Remember Election Night 2016? Remember the slow, creeping sense of dread as you–along with the rest of the country–realized that the impossible was really about to happen? The trailer for American Horror Story's seventh season goes all in on the collective trauma of November 8, opening with Sarah Paulson's Ally screaming in horror as the election is officially called. Relatable.

"Since election night, it has all just been getting so much worse," Ally later tells her therapist (Cheyenne Jackson), who appears to be counseling her through coulrophobia, AKA fear of clowns. Though Ally's wife Ivy (Alison Pill) tries to reassure her, her clown hallucinations are only getting more horrifying in Trump's America.

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Billie Lourd and Evan Peters' characters, meanwhile, both seem to be part of the "cult" of the title, taking grim pleasure in the post-election chaos. "If you keep people scared enough, they will set the world on fire," Peters' Kai tells Lourd's Winter, who reveals that her greatest fear is children. Great news, then, that she's interviewing for a job as Ally and Ivy's nanny, and bringing some creepy-ass Twisty The Clown toys into their beautiful home.

The AHS: Cult opening titles, released yesterday, showed Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton masks being donned by mysterious figures–could Kai and Winter be the ones wearing them? You only have to wait until September 5 to find out.

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Emma Dibdin

Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. She loves owls, hates cilantro, and can find the queer subtext in literally anything.