Cults are everywhere, turns out. It’s a shockingly easy business model, if you’re into that kind of thing. Not every cult is worthy of a true crime show about it, but the ones that are… phew! Go ahead and loosen up your jaw, because it will be on the floor in no time.
It’s easy to judge people who end up in cults (even though they’re the victims), but that pop of superiority isn’t always what keeps people watching. It’s often the opposite: the horror that we might’ve ended up in the same place, if propelled into the right circumstances.
But not all true crime is created the same, as we know from hours of time invested only to be disappointed, so here are 5 shows that will not disappoint or waste your time.
Heaven’s Gate (HBO)
You gotta love an alien-based cult. Shit gets weird really quick. But the wackiness of this group’s origin story is half of why it managed to form and take such a strong hold over its members. As we’ve seen in current events, the more far-fetched a claim, the more mental energy it takes to argue against it and unpack all the falsities and bullshit. Forget that there’s nothing provable about it in the first place. It makes for a great story!
Of course, as the so-called immortal leadership of this cult hits hard times (tricky to claim you’re immortal once you die), the numbers dwindle. But whoever is left after the cull is 180-proof cult ideology. That’s the only way it could end like it does…
Wild, Wild Country (Netflix)
Rajneeshpuram, like Heaven’s Gate, is a thing that could only have formed in the ‘70s. It’s New Age on steroids. But what sets this one apart is the soap opera quality of it. Backstabbing, scheming, major betrayals—so much fucking drama. Also, file this one away under “men creating sex cults in the name of spiritual teachings.” It’s a trope as old as time. Sometimes I wonder if it’s hard for narcissistic men to not create sex cults, ya know?
Beyond the twists and turns, this show is a solid artistic work. (Shout-out to the cults that film everything!) The editing is clean, and the story progresses organically. It doesn’t do that annoying thing where it holds back a big, important piece of information until the very end for the sake of it. If you’ve watched enough true crime, you know what I mean.
This is a fun one to watch not only because it’s wild, but because it’s relatively light on violence, so folks who are usually turned off from the genre for that reason can get into it.
Going Clear (HBO)
Yes, Scientology is a cult. Every cult expert classifies is this way, and when you watch this documentary, you’ll have a hard time arguing otherwise.
What this one does so well in a relatively short span of time is show you exactly how they get you. It attempts to answer the question of “How do people end up believing this absolute nonsense?” The lies start small, like most cult indoctrination. You learn some genuinely helpful psychological techniques, but with some unique language overlaid to disguise it. “Ah, maybe these people can help me!” And so they gain your trust as you descend one level deeper into the inferno. By the time the real batshit insane teachings come along, you look around, find your life is filled with people from the same cult, and think, Well, if they all believe it, maybe the problem is me. And the thought of leaving is paired with the knowledge that you’ll lose your entire social circle if you do. So you suck it up and step into the 9th circle of cognitive dissonance, and that dissonance breaks down any remaining sense you had.
Somehow, Going Clear manages to not only tackle that process of indoctrination, but expose larger systemic flaws in America, like how churches end up getting First Amendment protections through purely bureaucratic means, and the utter nonsense those protections allow them to do afterward.
I’ll end this one by saying that my L.E.O. husband watched it with me and couldn’t sleep afterward. Cop stuff? Not a big deal. Scientology? Nightmareville.
Sons of Sam (Netflix)
I love a good conspiracy that doesn’t lead to insurrection, assassination, or the unnecessary prolonging of a pandemic. This one’s got it.
We’ve all heard of the Son of Sam. If you’ve read any of John Douglas’s work, you probably know he interviewed David Berkowitz in prison and had a pretty epic conversation. But what Douglas didn’t uncover was the fact that the Son of Sam killings were very likely done by multiple people.
I dunno, y’all. After watching this one, I think I’m on board for the cult conspiracy. Too many people end up dead on the side for there not to be something going on, and as much as I loathe the whole Satanic Panic thing, sometimes people do use the concept of the devil to justify their evil impulses. Did the Devil make them do it? No. But the story might have inspired how they did it, and it might have emboldened their ego to go through with it.
Anyway, I’m ready to jump on this conspiracy theory, because it makes so much more sense than the narrative we’d been fed prior.
The Vow (HBO)
Another day, another sociopathic dude starting a sex cult. What sets this one apart is the intimate look you get into the lives of victims in the aftermath of escaping it. After all, one of them is the documentarian.
And that makes this extra interesting. A man who made the propaganda for the sex cult is now making a documentary about leaving it? How much can we trust the narrative from him? He certainly admits blame for some of the ideas he helped perpetuated in the leader’s inner circle, but I have a feeling there’s a lot left out to keep himself sympathetic. As you watch it, you’ll hear little snippets of things some of these members did to others—mentioned almost in passing—that make you shout, “the FUCK?” and then it’s never touched on again.
It’s a wild ride of sympathy and disgust, and you’ll never trust an NLP practitioner again (I don’t).
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There are a ton of cult documentaries that didn’t make the cut. If there was one you think belongs in the top five, let me know in a comment.