Entertainment

Watch The ‘AHS: Cult’ Opening Credits & Prepare To Never Sleep Again

by Ashley Rey

As if you didn't already have enough to worry about on a Monday, the American Horror Story: Cult opening credits have been released — and, quite frankly, all of these images are terrifying. Between the Trump and Clinton masks, the bugs crawling out of people's skin, and the dead dog, you might need a moment to process everything. Sure, fans have gotten a lot of clues about American Horror Story: Cult and what it's about so far, but the combination of the marching band music over these horrifying images is a little much. Or maybe it's just enough? We all know what we watch the show for, after all.

The credits show the names of some of our favorite actors, from Sarah Paulson to Evan Peterson, as well as some fresh faces like Billie Lourd and Allison Pill. You also get to see someone in a Donald Trump mask, someone in a Hillary Clinton mask, many people in clown masks, and gas masks, and... there's just a lot to unpack here. So watch it twice, accept that you're not going to have nice dreams tonight, and strap in for an emotional rollercoaster from all the images on display in these opening credits.

The show's creator, Ryan Murphy, warned back in early 2017 that the seventh installment would draw inspirations from the 2016 presidential election, but no one expected the interpretation to take this eerie of a turn. And with the terrifying carnival references thrown throughout the trailer, it looks like "Cult" will help its audience make sense of a lot of the political theatrics Americans had to witness over the past year.

A disguised character trying to wash a gross amount of blood off their hands, bugs crawling in and out of festering wounds that have yet to heal, as well as images of a bloodied American flag, could all be linked to the very problems plaguing the country today. Murphy, nor co-creator Brad Falchuk, seem to be blind to America's dark past, and even darker present, and they're expertly using their art to show just how deep-rooted these issues are.

American Horror Story: Cult doesn't debut until Sept. 5, but in the meantime, fans have a lot of decoding of this preview to do to keep them occupied.