Evan Peters Dressed Up as a Ton of Cult Leaders on AHS, and It Was Deeply Unsettling

In the episode "Valerie Solanas Died For Your Sins: Scumbag," Peters plays the iconic artist. No, Warhol wasn't technically a cult leader, but his sway over his loyal followers definitely gave off some cult-like vibes. On AHS: Cult, Warhol is depicted as a condescending, pompous man whose belittlement of struggling artist Valerie Solanas (Lena Dunham) results in a near-fatal bullet wound to the stomach when Solanas decides she can't take it anymore. He eventually died in real life from other causes, but Peters' portrayal of this chunk of his life is startlingly accurate.

In "Drink the Kool-Aid," the show intersperses real footage from these cults along with staged reenactments featuring Peters. The makeup artists who transformed him into Heaven's Gate leader Marshall Applewhite proved why they earned that outstanding prosthetics Emmy, and the convincing way Peters nails the man's mannerisms is wild to watch.

For the noncult experts out there, Applewhite believed he was Jesus reincarnate and that he had to leave Earth and contact extraterrestrials to ascend to the next level of existence. In 1997, after amassing a large group of followers, he convinced his cult that they needed to board a spacecraft hiding in the tail of the Hale-Bopp Comet.

He, along with 38 followers, then committed suicide by eating poisoned applesauce and asphyxiating themselves by tying plastic bags around their heads.

With his long curly hair and big glasses, Peters looks nearly identical to the real-life David Koresh. The man led an extremist religious group called the Branch Davidians in a compound in Waco, TX, which was eventually raided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in 1993 on suspicions of polygamy, child sexual abuse, and illegal weapons violations.

The standoff between the cult and law enforcement lasted for a staggering 51 days with casualties on both sides, ending with a massive fire, and at least 20 Branch Davidians were shot (including children). Koresh is believed to have been shot by his right-hand man Steve Schneider, who "probably realized he was dealing with a fraud."

Wearing significant prosthetics to add weight to both his face and stomach, Peters gives a scary turn as crazed cult leader Jim Jones, who pulled off one of the biggest mass murders in history. The ordained pastor was the founder of The People's Temple and initially gained followers by spreading messages of social change and racial equality, eventually gaining nearly 5,000 followers and the support of public figures like California Governor Jerry Brown, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, and even First Lady Rosalynn Carter.

He later moved his group to a sprawling property in Guyana, where they developed a community later dubbed "Jonestown" with over 900 residents. In 1978 San Francisco Congressman Leo Ryan visited Jonestown in order to investigate claims of child abuse, and Jones ordered him killed by Jonestown "security guards" (he died, along with three journalists and one cult member). After that Jones had his followers drink grape Kool-Aid laced with cyanide. He was found later on with a single bullet wound to the head, adding to the other 917 people (including 276 children) who died.

Yep, even Jesus Christ makes an appearance in episode nine. He descends from the heavens on wires flanked by two angels as Kai tells a fictional version of the Jonestown Massacre, trying to convince his followers that the biblical figure resurrected Jim Jones to help him save his dead followers.