So much to choose from
Every season of American Horror Story is messed up in its own, special way, but Cult--the show's Season 7--might take the bloody cake. AHS Cult reached its psychotic finale this week, and some of those scenes are going to haunt our dreams for a long time.
It wasn't always outright scary, but Cult touched on some really deep fears that most of us have. And when it went there, it really went there. Some of those torture and murder scenes were legitimately hard to watch.
Here are the 23 most f***ed up things that happened in American Horror Story: Cult, starting from the very first episode.
Beward of spoilers!
23. Evan Peters Smearing Cheetos On His Face
Episode: 1
This wasn't exactly scary--except it weirdly was?--but either way, it was definitely the biggest WTF moment of the first episode. I think it was a Trump joke about his orange skin, but all I could think about was poor Evan Peters' pores.
22. The Piss Take
Episode: 1
Cult was just getting started when Evan Peters filled a condom with piss and chucked it at some immigrants to fake a hate crime on social media.
21. Ally Randomly Shot a Guy
Episode: 2
It was easy to forget as the season got crazier and crazier, but in Episode 2 Ally shot her own employee in the chest--killing him and leaving his family fatherless--in a state of heightened fear and paranoia. It wasn't the worst thing that happened all season, but it was extremely messed up when you think about it.
20. The Coffin
Episode: 3
Watching this random woman express her greatest fear in agonizing detail--only to be forced to endure said fear moments later--was absolutely chilling.
19. Emma Roberts Getting Hella Stabbed
Episode: 4
As an Emma Roberts fan, I'm glad she got a guest spot this season (she was great in past versions of American Horror Story, especially Coven). It's just too bad it had to go down like this.
The really scary thing about this scene was how it echoed the real life murders of Alison Parker and Adam Ward by a disgruntled former co-worker in 2015.
18. Gary Sawing His Hand Off
Episode: 4
This was the best demonstration yet of Kai's persuasive power: He undid his sister and Ivy's work with nothing more than his own charisma, convincing Gary to saw his arm off just to get to the polls. It was horrifying and gross to watch, of course, but what it foreshadowed about Kai was even worse.
17. The Gimp
Episode: 5
This was just straight messed up. It seemed inevitable that the cult would go after Beverly's boss, but him having a gimp hanging from hooks in his attic was gratuitous beyond belief. We never even found out who was under the mask, since they shanked the dude with barely a moment's hesitation.
16. Beverly Getting Even
Episode: 5
You probably guessed what was going to happen to Bob Thompson as soon as we found out that Beverly Hope was in the cult. That didn't make it any less screwed up to watch Bev unmask herself and really savor the moment.
15. Ivy Gaslighting Ally
Episode: 5
There were a lot of questions early in the season: Was Ally going nuts? Were there really murderous clowns after her, or was she hallucinating? Who cut her power? Was there really a clown in bed next to her? Why did the neighbors randomly have beehives in the backyard? Turned out they all had the same answer: Ivy. Props to Alison Pill for making this betrayal so raw.
14. Nails in the Head
Episode: 5
This may have been the most brutal, difficult-to-watch scene in the entire season. Our favorite cult driving nail after nail into Beverly's camera man's head, keeping him alive the whole time, was just awful. He didn't even do anything! It was just a power play for Kai. Ugh.
13. Kai's Parents
Episode: 5
Episode 5 was when we finally got to learn something about Kai: His dead, decomposed parents are still in the house. That's some real basic serial killer s***, Kai--although it made it extra weird that all three siblings were in on it.
12. The Shooting
Episode: 6
Even though Ally wasn't the shooter, like the episode's cold open made us think, it was still severely chilling to watch this shooting play out. Given what the world is like right now, it was just too real.
11. Lena Dunham's Accent
Episode: 7
This fun diversion back to the '60s was, luckily, only partially ruined by Lena Dunham's terrible accent.
10. This Weird Torture House
Episode: 8
Kai and Winter's trip to the preacher's rural torture house was, presumably, where the future cult leader learned that he likes to hurt people. For our purposes, it was just a really f***ed up scene.
9. The Bad Kind Of Incest
Episode: 8
Game of Thrones, this is not, and Kai's attempted threesome with Winter and Detective Jack Samuels--a very gay man, whether or not he wants to admit it--was the bad kind of incest.
8. Kai Murdering His Own Brother
Episode: 8
We already knew Kai was capable of some really evil stuff, but up to this point his immediate family members seemed relatively safe. All it took was one small, well-meaning betrayal, though, for Kai to go full Cain and Abel.
7. Bye Bye Ivy
Episode: 9
One of the actual most amazing things about this scene was how long it took Ivy to cotton on to the fact that she'd been poisoned. It was excruciating to watch the blood spurt from her mouth, and it effectively reinforced one of Cult's depressing themes: You really can't trust anyone.
6. The Manson Murder
Episode: 10
Watching real world cult events like the Jonestown mass suicide and the Branch Davidians raid unfold through American Horror Story's cynical lens comes with a morbid fascination. But nothing in that vein was worse than the recreation of the Manson family's murder of pregnant actress Sharon Tate.
5. Killing Gary
Episode: 10
Gary was Kai's most loyal disciple. Why did he die like this, besides that Kai is insane? Gary was a major douche, but it was still messed up.
4. That Close Shave
Episode: 10
This may just be a pet peeve of mine, but Winter's intimate moment with Kai must have been one of the worst shaving scenes ever burned into my consciousness. She went against the grain the entire time, the SCRRRAAAAPE sound effect was completely overdone, and at one point she hit his earlobe so hard he would have become even more lopsided, had the razor actually been sharp. I'm sure it's hard to act and shave at the same time, but my god, this was disturbing.
3. Kai Murdering His Own Sister
Episode: 10
Maybe he did it because of how bad that shave was.
2. Ally Straight Up Killing This Poor Guy In Cold Blood
Episode: 11
Ally had to kill Speedwagon--a police informant--in her mind, so that his small fry handlers wouldn't interfere with the FBI bust she was arranging. At the same time, she seemed way too into it. Ally got pretty cold-blooded by the end, huh?
1. Kai's Anatomy Lesson
Episode: 11
"Welcome to Anatomy With Kai, an introductory course. Thank you for joining me. Today's lesson: how to make sure you stab the fetus, too, when shanking innocent pregnant women to death."
Well played, American Horror Story. Not going to forget that one any time soon.
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