Cults have always been a source of fascination, intrigue, and horror. There’s just something so shocking and frightening about knowing that throughout the years so many people have been manipulated and coerced into leaving their lives behind to join these groups… all while being convinced it’s been of their own free will.
In recent years, tons of fantastic docuseries have been made about cults, which have given viewers a more in-depth look at these groups than ever before. Even more shocking is that, as the world has seen with NXIVM, cults aren’t something from the past, they’re still around… sometimes just down the street.
Wild Wild Country (Netflix)
Netflix’s Wild Wild Country chronicles the “free love” commune of Rajneeshpuram, which was located in rural Oregon. Founded by the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the group claimed to be about living a better life. However, in the mid-80s the cult became dangerous, going so far as infecting members of the surrounding community with salmonella, and even plotting the assassination of Oregon’s United States Attorney.
Wild Wild Country is an incredibly fascinating look at the lengths to which the group went in order to grow larger and seek revenge against its perceived enemies.
Tiger King / Tiger King: The Doc Antle Story (Netflix)
While Tiger King mainly focused on Carole Baskin and Joe Exotic, another character ended up stealing the spotlight in numerous scenes: Doc Antle, the owner of Myrtle Beach Safari. Tiger King revealed that Antle surrounds himself with young women, all of whom live on the property with him.
Many of the girls are allegedly sexually active with Antle and partake in a modified form of polygamy. On top of that, these young women are forced to work endless hours for next to nothing, stay within an “ideal” body weight, and be vegetarian. Antle’s story was so perplexing and captivating that he received his own docuseries, The Doc Antle Story, in 2021.
Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath (Netflix, Hulu)
Scientology is one of the most notable cults in modern times, as it’s still extremely powerful and wields influence over Hollywood and even cities, like Clearwater, Florida. However, the group also attacks and defames those who speak out against it, has bizarre initiation rituals and ceremonies, forces members to spend exuberant amounts of money, and is even involved in a missing person case.
In Scientology and the Aftermath, actress Leah Remini discusses her time in the group, her decision to leave, and the radical lengths Scientology took to destroy her career afterward.
The Vow (HBO Max)
One of the more recent cult stories to hit the news has been that of NXIVM. Most people first became aware of the cult in 2018 when news broke that former Smallville actress, Allison Mack, has been arrested in connection to the sect. In the years since, the full story has been revealed, and testimonies of unpaid labor, sexual manipulation, blackmail, and branding have shown the true depths of the group’s horror.
HBO’s The Vow took a wide-angle lens look at the cult and sought to reveal its origins, its rise to power, and its eventual collapse thanks to a group of ex-members who were determined to bring it down.
Seduced (Starz)
Also focusing on NXIVM, Starz’s Seduced took the opposite route to tell the cult’s story, focusing solely on the testimony of one member: India Oxenberg. India was a member of the DOS cult that existed within NXIVM. She was branded, forced to partake in obscene obedience rituals, and ultimately became a sexual partner of the cult’s leader, Keith Raniere.
Seduced is an incredibly intimate and heartbreaking look into India’s experience with the cult and somehow manages to tell a completely different side of the story than HBO’s The Vow.
Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle (Sundance Now, AMC+)
Jonestown was a commune of Americans living in the jungles of Guyana. The community was established by followers of the People’s Temple, a religious and political cult that was against America’s history of discrimination and its capitalist ideals. However, in 1978 the cult was decimated in a mass murder/suicide event that led to the deaths of 909 people.
Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle dives into the story of the People’s Temple and its devolution from a progressive Christian sect to a murderous cult. The series is notable for its interviews with Jonestown survivors and the use of previously unreleased recordings.
Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults (HBO Max)
In 1997, 39 people died by ritualistic suicide in a home outside of San Diego. The group was known as Heaven’s Gate, a religious cult that believed a spaceship was trailing behind the Halle-Bopp comet and would transport them to an elevated state of being. The group became instantly famous because they were all found under purple blankets wearing brand new Nike shoes.
Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults reviews the ample amount of video evidence the group left behind and speaks to the family members of those who died to create a fuller picture of who the group was and what led them down this path.
Pray, Obey, Kill (HBO Max)
Pray, Obey, Kill follows the bizarre story of a murder within a Christian cult led by Asa Waldau, who claimed she was the “Bride of Christ” and would soon take her rightful religious throne. One of her pastors (and the supposed real leader of the cult), Helge Fossmo, was apparently sleeping with numerous women within the group and somehow managed to convince his nanny (whom he was also sleeping with) to murder his wife.
The docuseries sets out to build a clearer image of this puzzling murder, the motives behind it, and how a woman was somehow convinced to kill an innocent wife.
The Keepers (Netflix)
Though not a cult in a traditional sense, 2017’s The Keepers reveals how tight-knit religious groups can coerce, manipulate, and threaten their followers into submission and silence. In 1969, Catherine Cesnik, a nun at a Catholic all-girls school in Baltimore, was murdered.
It was later discovered that the school’s priest had been sexually abusing students… and that others may have been aware but remained silent. The Keepers compiles evidence from the murder and sexual abuse claims to try and put together the pieces behind a story that still remains unresolved to this day.
Waco: Madman or Messiah (Tubi)
In 1993, the Branch Davidians, a Christian cult, were in a 51-day standoff with the FBI until a fire ultimately burned the building to the ground, killing around 80 members. Waco: Madman or Messiah interviews various Branch Davidian members to find out if the group’s leader, David Koresh, was a sinister madman… or a religious leader killed by the US government.
With the number of conspiracy theories that surround the Waco siege, the show is a fascinating look into how surviving members remember their time with the group and their ultimate thoughts on what happened.
