From seemingly innocent self-help teams to full-blown doomsday cults, listed below are 10 jaw-dropping documentaries that’ll go away you questioning simply how skinny the road between devotion and destruction actually is.
Most of us suppose we’d by no means fall for a cult, however listed below are 10 documentaries that expose simply how simply even the neatest folks can get twisted up in one thing harmful after they’re feeling susceptible. Whether or not it’s celebrities or school college students, these people had been simply looking for some connection or that means. As an alternative, they discovered manipulative leaders who twisted their good intentions into one thing dangerous. These documentaries remind us simply how simple it’s for the road between in search of one thing higher and shedding your self utterly to blur.
This HBO collection dives into the utterly wild story of how a so-called “self-help group” known as NVIXM ended up turning into an precise intercourse cult proper underneath everybody’s noses. Probably the most jaw-dropping half is seeing footage of Hollywood stars and executives shopping for into Keith Raniere’s pseudoscientific nonsense about “private development.” The documentary workforce obtained wonderful entry, together with members’ video diaries as they began to appreciate how deep they had been in. It’s particularly heartbreaking watching Mark Vicente and Sarah Edmondson get up to the truth that they not solely fell for it but additionally led others into it for years.
The collection takes its time exhibiting how good folks obtained sucked in by seemingly harmless “government success applications” earlier than issues went utterly off the rails with the branding-women-like-cattle nightmare. The true hook is seeing how manipulation works from the within out. Should you suppose you’d by no means fall for one thing like this, you would possibly need to suppose once more after watching. Watch The Vow on Max.
Simply while you suppose cult documentaries can’t get any crazier, there’s Amy Carlson, a former McDonald’s supervisor who satisfied her followers she was actually God in a human physique. This doc traces her weird journey to changing into “Mom God” and constructing her cult by YouTube and social media. Amy’s day by day “religious updates” are sort of humorous till you understand how tragic the implications had been.
What makes this doc particularly highly effective is the stark distinction between the group’s sparkly, constructive social media presence and the disturbing actuality behind the scenes. Former members sharing the second they realized ‘Mom God’ was only a troubled individual is each heartbreaking and revealing. When Amy’s story wraps up together with her dying and the weird mummification makes an attempt, it feels surreal to suppose this occurred within the TikTok period. Watch Love Has Gained: The Cult of Mom God on Max.
Buckle up for the completely wild story of Lori Vallow, a mother who remodeled into somebody who was satisfied her children had been zombies, all due to twisted doomsday beliefs. The documentary takes us by Lori’s stunning transformation, pieced collectively by interviews with household and information footage.It’s fairly eerie watching Lori’s outdated residence movies, the place the whole lot seems picture-perfect, and figuring out what was really happening beneath the floor. Chad Daybell, this doomsday writer who mentioned he might see folks’s ‘mild or darkish spirits,’ ended up main Lori down a very darkish path.
The doc doesn’t shrink back from exhibiting how these excessive beliefs led to real-life murders, together with her personal kids. By the tip, it’s unattainable to not marvel how religion obtained twisted up to now that it led to such devastating actions. Watch Sins of Our Mom on Netflix.