Kai Anderson went from an average resident of a Michigan town to an influential cult leader in American Horror Story: Cult, and his transformation was subtle but striking. To achieve this, AHS pulled traits from two of the most infamous cult leaders in history to make that complicated character arc happen.
The seventh season of the Ryan Murphy show took inspiration from real-life people and events on a number of levels. Cult took place immediately after the 2016 U.S. election and chronicled the fear anxiety that came for many after. More specifically, the season focused on two very different individuals on opposite sides of the aisle. There was the liberal Ally, who was afraid for what the results of the election meant for herself, her family and others, and there was the conservative Kai, who finally felt seen and optimistic after the results came in. With that optimism, Kai was able to recruit others who shared his beliefs, and that eventually turned into a fully-fledged cult.
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Kai started off charming and friendly to those he recruited and quickly pivoted to become intimidating and downright dangerous, which are common characteristics displayed by cult leaders. As seen in the show, Kai is inspired by two of the most famous cult leaders of all time — Charles Manson and Jim Jones, and Evan Peters portrayed both briefly in Cult.
Manson was known for being the head of the Manson Family cult, who committed a number of infamous murders in the 1960s. Among his victims was actress Sharon Tate. Meanwhile, Jones is most well-known for the mass murder-suicide he led of his fanatic religious group, the Peoples Temple.
While he was alive, Manson was diagnosed as a sociopath, which allowed him to easily manipulate those around him. Jones, on the other hand, was known to be incredibly charismatic and narcissistic, and the two cult leaders appeared to have incredibly different personalities from one another. AHS blended the appealing nature of both of these figures to create its own cult leader, Kai Anderson.
Before Kai had recruited a cult of his very own, he took more after Manson. He didn’t care about acting appropriately around his sister’s friends, even striking one of them at a point. However, the results of the presidential election gave him more confidence. He got elected to local government, easily befriended people within the community and swayed them to join his cause.
Before those around him realized it, Kai became a truly terrifying cult leader. People were willing to lie and kill in his name because they were afraid of what would happen if they didn’t bend to Kai’s will, and Cult pulled off an astounding character arc with Kai’s story. His plotline would not have been nearly as convincing or engrossing as it ended up being if AHS hadn’t pulled inspiration from real-life cult leaders like Manson and Jones. Their influence is what gave American Horror Story one of its most subtly terrifying villains in the show’s run thus far.
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