Cults
List activity
347 views
• 1 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
69 titles
- DirectorJohn SchlesingerStarsMartin SheenHelen ShaverHarley CrossCal Jamison, a police psychologist, is forced to deal with a series of ritualistic murders and a malevolent cult.
- DirectorBlake ReigleStarsChrista B. AllenDerek SmithCarly SchroederA young journalist goes deep undercover within a mountain commune and becomes manipulated by a duplicitous cult leader.
- DirectorAmy BergStarsNick CaveElaine AndersonSam BrowerWhen Warren Jeffs rose to Prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, he took control of a religion with a history of polygamous and underage marriage. In a short time, Warren managed to expand these practices and the power of his position in unprecedented ways. He bridged the gap between sister wives and ecclesiastical rape, befuddling the moral compass of his entire congregation. The film examines Warren Jeffs' life and shows how he became a worshiped and adored Prophet. Warren has a devout following numbering in the tens of thousands, many of whom would give their life at any moment with just one word from the Prophet. Despite a trail of abuse and ruined lives, Warren has maintained his grip on power.
- DirectorTyler MeasomJennilyn MertenStarsBruce BarlowDeloy BatemanMichelle BenwardAn inside look at former FLDS teens who have become religious refugees in mainstream America.
- DirectorRiley StearnsStarsLeland OrserMary Elizabeth WinsteadChris EllisA cult deprogrammer is hired to help a couple whose daughter is under the influence of a mysterious cult.
- DirectorSally HowellStarsBrent JeffsWarren JeffsRebekah SchmiererI Escaped a Cult talks to survivors of a polygamist breakaway Mormon sect (Warren Jeffs's FLDS) and a fundamentalist Christian community (Aggressive Christianity Missionary Training Corps). They talk about the abuse they suffered at the hands of the cult and the problems they had in leaving it.
- DirectorBen AnthonyStarsAlex HannafordDanielle SayerEsther SayerMichael Travesser says he's the Messiah and that God has told him the world will end with an apocalyptic event at midnight on 31 October 2007. As leader of a cult in a remote corner of New Mexico called Strong City, this 66-year-old former sailor, previously called Wayne Bent, has spent nearly 20 years preparing his 56 unquestioning and devoted followers for Doomsday. They say they are all preparing for death, to go to a better place. As the programme delves into the world of Strong City, the program find out whether Michael Travesser is about to lead his cult to suicide. Will this be another tragedy like Jonestown or Waco? Or is Travesser just a skilful manipulator, who undermines his subjects before convincing them that he is the route to all wisdom? Our world did not come to an end on 31 October 2007 - but did theirs?
- DirectorJane CampionStarsKate WinsletHarvey KeitelJulie HamiltonRuth's been brainwashed by a guru in Delhi, India. Her parents in Sydney hire a specialist in reversing this. Ruth is tricked to return to Australia and is isolated in an outback cabin with the specialist. It gets messy.
- DirectorKevin GreutertStarsDeborah Kara UngerBen SullivanChelsea RickettsSet in the 1980s, an estranged family hires a cult deprogrammer to take back their teenage son from a murderous cult, but find themselves under siege when the cultists surround their cabin, demanding the boy back.
- DirectorEvangeline GriegoStarsAnna FlowersDaniel GarciaMarcyThe film examines the modern-day phenomenon of religious "intentional communities," or as they are often called, "cults." It takes as its focus "The Church," also known as "The Brotherhood," the 35-year-old ministry of shadowy messianic figure Jim Roberts. Since 1971, this secretive organization has recruited (hundreds) of adherents who live together in austere, separatist, communal groups, preaching salvation and damnation, and turning their backs on the outside world except when proselytizing for new members. They observe strict ascetic values and rigid standards of dress, presentation and gendered behavior, and live off of discarded food and other refuse. And they mutually reinforce the belief systems that brought them into the fold, including a focus on the narrow path to salvation, and obedience to the will of spiritual leader Roberts. The film examines this microcosmic society, and by implication, the "cult" phenomenon itself, with a rare insider's view. Featuring interviews with former group members, it implicitly reveals the sorts of stresses and spiritual longings that make outwardly average young people "ripe for the picking" by opportunistic outsiders. It also reveals the anguish of parents and loved ones left stunned and confused by the defection of their children and siblings, some of whom have been members of the Church for decades. We are present as parents groups, utter strangers brought together by a shared trauma, map the movements of the group from town to town, and compare notes about the lives their children lead, and about their own feelings of helplessness and despair. The film also brings us along as certain family members set out to find their loved ones through detective work and determination, leading to surprise confrontations and just as often to the group's immediate flight to new, secret quarters. In this way, the film traces the tenuous balance that families must strike between attempting to rescue their loved ones, with the psychological, emotional and tactical impediments that so often get in the way of reconciliation. The experience of the families, so close and yet so far, is poignantly and powerfully evoked by extensive surveillance footage and photography, showing Brothers and Sisters in their daily comings-and-goings, moving through the everyday world without seeming to be involved in it. Rare, candid footage of one parents' successful but brief rendezvous with her daughter, provides searingly painful evidence of the seeming hopelessness many of these bewildered families feel. Testimonials from ex-group members detail the tortuous processes by which some adherents regain their psychological independence, only then to have to face the world again, with all its strains - but sometimes, with greater strength than before.
- DirectorOndi TimonerStarsRaymund MelzDeborah MelzJoaquin SullivanAward winning filmmaker, Ondi Timoner, follows four families as they leave an abusive church in South Carolina and realize they have been in a cult. The film documents them as they enter Wellspring, the only accredited, live-in cult treatment facility in the world, where they learn the true extent of the brainwashing they have all experienced. Eventually they return home to bring the Pastor and his wife to justice and try to begin to rebuild their damaged lives.
- DirectorSpencer McCallStarsArye BenderBoston BlakeJeff HullA documentary on the Jejune Institute, a mind-bending San Francisco phenomenon where 10,000 people became "inducted" without ever quite realizing what they'd signed up for.
- DirectorTatsuya MoriStarsHiroshi ArakiAum Shinrikyo, the Buddhist sect led by Shoko Asahara and responsible for the 1995 Sarin gas attack on a Tokyo subway, becomes the subject of this documentary.
- DirectorBritt PoultonDan Madison SavageStarsOlivia ColmanKaitlyn DeverAlice EnglertSet deep in the wilds of Appalachia, where believers handle death-dealing snakes to prove themselves before God, a pastor's daughter holds a secret that threatens to tear apart her community.
- DirectorPenny LaneStarsJex BlackmoreChalice BlytheNicholas CroweA look at the quick rise and influence of the controversial religious group known as The Satanic Temple.
- DirectorChristian E. ChristiansenStarsRufus SewellAlycia Debnam-CareyAdelaide KaneWhen young girls start to go missing within a religious cult, older followers fear a long-told prophecy while the younger members suspect abusive elders are killing them off.
- CreatorRobert FunkeMatt LutskyStarsKirsten DunstThéodore PellerinMel RodriguezIn 1992 Central Florida, a minimum-wage water park employee lies, schemes, and cons her way up the ranks of the cultish, multibillion-dollar pyramid scheme that drove her family to ruin.
- DirectorPhilip GelattStarsRebecca HendersonWilliam Jackson HarperTwo scientists who share a romantic history are tasked with investigating unnatural animal behaviour on the site of a Manson Family-style cult's compound.
- DirectorMaria DemopoulosJodi WilleStarsAhom AquarianIsis AquarianDon BollesA charismatic leader founds a commune in Los Angeles in the early '70s based on natural food, spiritual practices and psychedelic rock. This short-lived era is recreated with archival material and the memories of participants.
- DirectorChristopher MacBrideStarsAaron PooleJames GilbertIan AndersonA documentary about conspiracy theories takes a horrific turn after the filmmakers uncover an ancient and dangerous secret society.
- DirectorMalgorzata SzumowskaStarsRaffey CassidyMichiel HuismanDenise GoughA girl born into an all-female cult led by a man in their compound begins to question his teachings and her own reality.
- DirectorJenny CarchmanStarsJames Arthur RayENLIGHTEN US: THE RISE AND FALL OF JAMES ARTHUR RAY is the story of the motivational rock star's meteoric rise, fall and return to the $11 billion self-help industry after his negligent homicide conviction in the death of three clients at a sweat lodge at one of his events. As this story unfolds, we learn from Ray, his followers and his accusers, about how their methods of self-improvement ultimately caused so much suffering. ENLIGHTEN US asks the important questions, "What are we looking for" and "Who has the answers" and even the simple question "Why?"
- DirectorKevin SmithStarsMichael ParksMelissa LeoJohn GoodmanSet in Middle America, a group of teens receive an online invitation for sex, though they soon encounter fundamentalists with a much more sinister agenda.
- DirectorNeil LaButeStarsNicolas CageEllen BurstynLeelee SobieskiA sheriff investigating the disappearance of a young girl from a small island discovers there's a larger mystery to solve among the island's secretive, neo-pagan community.
- DirectorTim MielantsBouli LannersStarsMichelle FairleyBouli LannersAndrew StillPhil, a robust middle-aged man suffers a stroke, causing him to lose his memory. Millie, who takes care of him, tells him falsely that they were secretly in love before his accident.
- DirectorDario ArgentoStarsJessica HarperStefania CasiniFlavio BucciAn American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.
- DirectorBen WheatleyStarsNeil MaskellMyAnna BuringHarry SimpsonNearly a year after a botched job, a hitman takes a new assignment with the promise of a big payoff for three killings. What starts off as an easy task soon unravels, sending the killer into the heart of darkness.
- DirectorDaniel GellerDayna GoldfineStarsCate BlanchettSebastian KochThomas KretschmannAbout a series of unsolved disappearances on the Galapagos Island of Floreana in the 1930s.
- DirectorMichael Beach NicholsChristopher K. WalkerStarsRyan SchockHeather CookLee CookWhen a noted white supremacist moves into their town, the residents of Leith, North Dakota do what they can to prevent him from taking control of the municipality.
- DirectorMia DonovanStarsBalavanta DasHridayananda Das GoswamiTed PatrickDeprogrammed chronicles Ted 'Black Lightning' Patrick's rise as the notorious 'Father of Deprogramming'.
- DirectorJon KnautzStarsAaron AshmoreCindy SampsonMeghan HeffernTwo female journalists and a photographer travel to Europe to investigate a series of mysterious disappearances, only to find themselves embroiled in a struggle against a kind of evil they never expected.
- DirectorPhil JoanouStarsJessica AlbaThomas JaneLily RabeTwenty-five years after members of a religious cult committed mass suicide, the lone survivor returns to the scene of the tragedy with a documentary crew in tow.
- DirectorNicholas MeyerStarsPierce BrosnanSaeed JaffreyShashi KapoorFact-based account of a secret society of murderers, and of the man who exposed them in British India 1825.
- DirectorMelissa MacleanLuke WalkerTo the Australian media Kenja is a 'secretive cult', their leader described in Parliament as a 'seedy conman'. Despite preparing to fight yet another court case Ken Dyers and Jan Hamilton allow a film crew unprecedented access to the 'spiritual evolvement centre' they founded in 1982. How can the view from inside Kenja be so different to the one outside? Through remarkable verite footage and candid interviews, Beyond Our Ken explores the anatomy and ambiguity of the 'cult' enigma.
- DirectorLisa RobinsonStarsAndrea RothJasper PolishSara FletcherA mother who will stop at nothing to get her daughter back exposes the intricate seductive power of Allison and Keith and the mental and physical abuse inflicted on her daughter.
- CreatorPeter CoxKathryn BurnettStarsRenato BartolomeiLatham GainesGareth ReevesA group of people try to rescue their loved ones from a mysterious cult called Two Gardens.
- StarsAnne Hamilton-ByrneLex de ManBill Hamilton-ByrneAbout the Melbourne-based cult The Family, which was led by the charming and dangerous Anne Hamilton-Byrne: a yoga teacher who claimed to be Jesus Christ reincarnated. Instead of serving wine and bread, Hamilton-Byrne fed LSD to her disciples - adopted children raised as her own throughout the 60s and 70s. She dressed them in identical clothes and haircuts; they resembled the pipsqueaks from "Village of the Damned".
- DirectorAlbert ZugsmithStarsMakee K. BlaisdellDebbie OsborneSean KenneyA monk-robed cult leader who lives in a coffin, is transported around in a black hearse. At times he gets sadistic with his girl followers.
- StarsLeah ReminiMike RinderMary KahnA series featuring stories from former members of the Church of Scientology whose lives have been affected by the Church's alleged harmful practices.
- StarsAmanda KnoxLara FoxRoger HervasDocuseries based on the life of televangelist Tony Alamo.
- CreatorJessica GoldbergStarsAaron PaulMichelle MonaghanEmma GreenwellA man who converts to a controversial following suffers from a crisis of faith.
- CreatorJason BolickiStarsTheresa CroftNathalie FrederickJess CaglePeople Magazine Investigates: Cults explores shocking stories of ordinary people who, lured by promises of eternal life, get caught up in a terrifying web of abuse, deception, and manipulation. PEOPLE journalists cover the deeply disturbing world of cults through the eyes of survivors who managed to escape.
- DirectorTed KotcheffStarsMichael O'KeefeKaren AllenPeter FondaAn uprooted young man is lured into an unnamed religious sect by a beautiful girl. Every moment with the group brings him more and more under the control of the cult's leader.
- DirectorRalph L. ThomasStarsNick MancusoSaul RubinekMeg FosterDavid is a young man seduced by a religious cult that uses starvation, exhaustion, and brainwashing to mold recruits into money hustling disciples of a messiah-like leader. Chronicles David's chilling transformation into a gaunt, mindless shadow of his former self...and his ultimate salvation when friends and family launch a plan to kidnap and deprogram him.
- DirectorRobin HardyStarsEdward WoodwardChristopher LeeDiane CilentoA puritan police sergeant arrives in a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl, who the pagan locals claim never existed.
- DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsLeonardo DiCaprioBrad PittMargot RobbieA faded television actor and his stunt double strive to achieve fame and success in the final years of Hollywood's Golden Age in 1969 Los Angeles.
- DirectorPeter WeirStarsHarrison FordKelly McGillisLukas HaasWhile protecting an Amish boy - who is the sole witness to a brutal murder - and his mother, a detective is forced to seek refuge within their community when his own life is threatened.
- DirectorChuck BowmanStarsJoan Van ArkStephen MachtTom KurlanderNora McGill has great pain. Desperatly searching for help she finds Dr. Allen. He reduces her pain, but she has to pay a high price for it ...
- DirectorJohn L'EcuyerStarsKelly RowanRichard BurgiMartha MacIsaacIn a largely self-contained and secretive polygamist community where the belief is that a man marrying multiple women and having as many children as humanly possible ensures passage into heaven which in turn means that the older men with status often choose underage girls to bore those multiple children, Judith Leavitt, a third generation member, is one of the junior wives of community leader, Bishop Josiah Leavitt. They have four children of their own, plus an older, sixteen year old Charlotte Joseph, being Judith's daughter from a previous marriage. Judith was forced to divorce her first husband, who she loved and who was excommunicated for considered to be a non-believer, to marry Josiah. Judith's secret status as Josiah's favorite wife takes a turn when she tries to take an action to protect their twelve year old daughter, Alice Leavitt. Josiah temporarily banishing Judith and the kids from the house to send her a message to obey or else leads to Judith deciding to make it permanent by taking the children out of the community altogether in realizing that they have no freedom, the male community leaders who have all the power. Judith and the children have a difficult enough transition to life in the "outside" world, but it is made a little easier, in addition to social services, with the support of a compassionate supermarket clerk named Louise, and Police Officer Wayne. Beyond Josiah wanting to find Judith to deal with her in her actions threatening his possible ascension to Prophet, Judith may have an equal problem with Charlotte, who wants to marry seventeen year old Jamie Coyle, that despite the Prophet wanting her ultimately to marry someone older to provide her greater guidance. If Charlotte does try to get back into the polygamist community to marry Jamie, she may not fully realize the consequences to her, Jamie, and her mother and siblings.
- DirectorGabriel RangeStarsTony GoldwynMolly ParkerJoey KingThe true story of a Fundamentalist Mormon leader who spent more than a year on the FBI's "10 Most Wanted List" for unlawful flight on charges related to his alleged arrangement of illegal marriages involving underage girls.
- DirectorTatsuya MoriStarsShoko AsaharaFollows the dissolution of the cult in the absence of their leader, Shoko Asahara.
- DirectorDaniel KokotajloStarsMolly WrightPoppy JhakraSiobhan FinneranA faithful Jehovah's Witness is forced to shun her own sister because of a religious transgression. As the separation draws out, she starts to question the meaning of God's love.
- DirectorChuck RussellStarsKim BasingerJimmy SmitsRufus SewellCody, a little girl abandoned by her mother and raised by her aunt, a nurse, is kidnapped. The girl's guardian, aided by an F.B.I. agent, learn that Cody has supernatural abilities, and the abductees are a Satanic cult willing to do anything to gain them.
- DirectorJohn A. AlonzoStarsKristy McNicholJimmy McNicholAnne JacksonA young guy joins a cult and his parents send his sister and the help of a specialist to bring him home, but she also gets swept up in it.
- DirectorWes CravenStarsMaren JensenSharon StoneSusan BucknerAfter her husband dies under mysterious circumstances, a widow becomes increasingly paranoid of the neighboring religious community that may have diabolical plans for her.
- DirectorSean DurkinStarsElizabeth OlsenSarah PaulsonJohn HawkesHaunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, a damaged woman struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing an abusive cult.
- CreatorTony AyresCate BlanchettElise McCredieStarsYvonne StrahovskiJai CourtneyAsher KeddieInspired by true events; a woman escaping a cult, a refugee fleeing with his family, a father trapped in a dead-end job and a bureaucrat on the verge of a national scandal find their lives intertwined in an immigration detention center.
- DirectorJoe MartinStarsPete GoldMarty RathbunTom CruiseMeet Scientology's highest-level defector, Marty Rathbun. As the former Inspector General of Ethics in the organisation, Rathbun worked closely with its leader, David Miscavige, and celebrity follower Tom Cruise. Now he lives in small town America, a man under siege. "The squirrel himself, how you doing Mr Squirrel?" A woman in a blue poncho cackles at the top of her voice, her wild eyed-face jammed into the camera lens. She's one of the Squirrel Busters who have for months besieged Marty Rathbun's house. They're sent to harass and torment members who leave and then make public their Scientology experiences. It's an incredible turnaround for Marty who had been David Miscavige's number two in the Church and was a master of these 'dirty tricks': "I didn't think twice about silencing critics or punishing someone". The Church may contest Marty's status now, but in 1993 Miscavige describes taking on the head of the IRS, side by side with Marty, as they prevailed in Scientology's greatest victory to date, becoming tax exempt in the US and dodging a billion dollar tax bill. Not only that - but Marty was the man charged with finding a poster boy for Scientology and attracting none other than Tom Cruise. "I helped them on his divorce with Nicole and then I was auditing him and helping him get Penelope audited". But his close relationship with Cruise was also his downfall, "Miscavige had to start undermining me in front of Cruise". Out of favour, Marty eventually escaped, going on the run to start up his own independent Scientology movement. Now his blog presents the greatest direct threat to Scientology. In return, they've turned Marty's daily life into a bitter battle. Marty's story offers an unparalleled insight into the inner workings of Scientology's upper echelons and the full array of the weapons it resorts to when it feels a need to protect its own interests. Truly fascinating - and more than a little frightening. Orwell would have loved it!
- StarsStefanie ScottSofia BryantMisha OsherovichSet in the Pacific Northwest, follows Carrie's escape from her mysterious, cult-like colony that guards the world from monsters hidden behind a secret door within the woods.
- DirectorFritz KierschStarsPeter HortonLinda HamiltonR.G. ArmstrongA young couple is trapped in a remote town where a dangerous religious cult of children believes that everyone over age 18 must be killed.
- CreatorMark HeymanStarsJack ReynorBella HeathcotePeter Mark KendallA rocket scientist in 1940s Los Angeles is secretly the disciple of occultist Aleister Crowley.
- CreatorKevin WilliamsonStarsKevin BaconJames PurefoyShawn AshmoreA brilliant, charismatic, and psychotic serial killer communicates with other active serial killers and activates a cult of believers who follow his every command.
- StarsAlba AugustAliette OpheimAmy DeasismontDepicts the events of the christian cult of Knutby in the early 2000's, taking place in a rural small town in Sweden.
- StarsTeal SwanMolly MonahanAn arresting and provocative exploration inside the world of one of today's most controversial spiritual teachers and her dedicated followers.
- CreatorDustin Lance BlackStarsAndrew GarfieldSam WorthingtonDaisy Edgar-JonesA devout detective's faith is tested as he investigates a brutal murder seemingly connected to an esteemed Utah family's spiral into LDS fundamentalism and their distrust in the government.
- CreatorDaria PolatinStarsEmily DeschanelSam JaegerGerardo CelascoWhen a psychiatrist shelters a mysterious cult escapee, her world is turned upside down as the girl's arrival threatens to tear her own family apart.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsMia FarrowJohn CassavetesRuth GordonA young couple trying for a baby moves into an aging, ornate apartment building on Central Park West, where they find themselves surrounded by peculiar neighbors.
- StarsBix KriegerChiyeko JonesIgor GrbesicBased on life of cult leader Ervil Morrell LeBaron, leader of a religious fundamentalist group who ordered the mass murders of his rivals by using the religious doctrine of blood atonement to justify the killings.
- CreatorMatt CameronElise McCredieStarsTeresa PalmerMiranda OttoGuy PearceA woman is forced to confront the nightmares of her past in order to stop a secret cult intent on gathering children to fulfil its master plan.