Let's Talk About The Scary Clowns On 'AHS: Cult'

Fans knew that Season 7 of American Horror Story was going to be clown heavy, but nothing really prepared anyone for the amount of terrifying clowns in the season premiere alone. But since it’s still unclear what was real and what were figments of certain characters' imaginations, one has to start wondering: are the clowns real on AHS: Cult? In the season premiere, they were everywhere, from Twisty in the comic book to the grocery store and then again outside of Ally and Ivy’s home. Honestly, there are a couple of solutions to whether or not the clowns on AHS: Cult are real or imagined this season.

First, let’s remember that as Ryan Murphy said in a pre-premiere screening in Los Angeles, AHS: Cult will have no supernatural elements to it. That means the clowns are either very real or meant to be mental manifestations of Ally’s fear of clowns. Or, in a potential intriguing AHS way, they’re a combination of both. The first clown seen this season was Twisty, who fans remember from Season 4’s Freak Show story. But as viewers learned just moments after he appeared on-screen again, it was all from a comic book story that Ally’s son Oz owns. How a 10-year-old doesn’t get terrified by that kind of late night reading is beyond me.

In any case, the clowns — who are more likely to be real this season — show themselves to Ally first, but because she has an established fear of clowns (in addition to many other things, it seems), it’s at first hard to tell if they’re real or all in her head. Which is probably the point for right now. Once Oz sees clowns climb out of an ice cream truck onto their quiet suburban street, it’s the first time viewers are made to believe that the clowns everyone thinks Ally has imagined up until now were actual real and legitimately terrorizing her.

The idea is further confirmed when the clowns appear to be the exact same ones that Ally said she saw in the supermarket. But because only Oz saw them, instead of Winter as well, it became another guessing game. Were the clowns really there or did Oz just imagine seeing what he’d already heard his mom describe earlier in the episode?

The most logical answer would be that, for the most part, the clowns on AHS: Cult are real and are somehow linked to Kai who, as viewers have already seen, is big on finding out the fears of others to play on those fears and control them. There’s no doubt that some of the clowns on AHS: Cult are going to based on Ally’s hallucinations because of her own coulrophobia, but since they’re obviously a big part of this season, there’s a good chance that some are going to be very real as well.

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