There are no firm rules when it comes to establishing a cult. Some of them are essentially drug-fueled “free love” parties that go on for years. Others are celibate ultra-conservative communes filled with people detaching from the modern world. Some teach salvation, others dread the apocalypse. Whatever the specific tenets of a cult may be, they are all exceptionally bizarre spectacles of human psychology and groupthink. In the best-case scenarios, a cult may be an odd blip on the timeline of someone’s life. In the worst-case scenarios, a cult can ruin lives and inspire mass suicide. Cults are not confined to the history books or just a quirky phenomenon of the 1960s counterculture. They are still alive and well today. These mind-bending, surreal documentaries about cults run the gamut from psychedelic adventurers prancing through a field to multi-billion dollar corporations influencing society’s most elite institutions. These are the 11 best documentaries about cults.

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Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults

As the subtitle of this HBO Max docuseries suggests, this is one of the most iconic cults in all of cultdom. The Heaven’s Gate cult preached salvation via a UFO journey up to heaven. This voyage never materialized and instead resulted in a tragic mass suicide. Heaven’s Gate has the signature hypnotizing effect of the best cult documentaries. As the series sucks the viewer deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole of bizarre personalities and New Age pseudoscience, it’s impossible not to be drawn in and repulsed at the same time. Anyone seeking a quintessential cult documentary would be wise to start here.

Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple

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Image via Firelight Media

The source of the phrase “Drinking the Kool-Aid,” the Peoples Temple cult led by Reverend Jim Jones resulted in a cataclysmic mass death event (some victims of suicide, some murder) that killed nearly 1,000 people. Preaching an ideology of Christianity mixed with extremist left-wing views, Jones (like almost all cult leaders) believed he was a sacred fountain of divine wisdom. His “wisdom” bewitched thousands of people, many of whom became his victims. This PBS documentary about the Peoples Temple is fairly conventional in terms of style but is helmed by the supremely talented Stanley Nelson.

Waco: The Rules of Engagement

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Image via Somford Entertainment

Waco, Texas, now the sleepy home of America’s favorite home renovators Chip and Joanna Gaines, was once the site of an intense standoff between the Branch Davidian cult and the ATF. This supremely engaging documentary is more about that siege than the tenets of the cult but the debate surrounding the event still provokes discussion and controversy. At what point does a cult cross the threshold from potentially dangerous to actually dangerous? And when is law enforcement justified in taking action? These questions and many other issues are explored in Waco: The Rules of Engagement, which is not just one of the best documentaries about a cult, but one of the all-time great documentaries period.

Wild Wild Country

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Image via Netflix

This stylish Netflix docuseries from Maclain and Chapman Way chronicles the beliefs and exploits of the Rajneeshpuram community/cult located in the wilds of Oregon in the 1980s. This group is a bit less threatening than the more radical cults featured on this list, but they nonetheless conspired to commit a couple of acts of domestic terrorism. The Way brothers imbued this series with a unique aesthetic and story structure that help it stand apart from more conventional documentaries with a similar subject. Wild Wild Country also does a remarkable job of conveying the appeal of the perceived spiritual enlightenment and radical freedom of the Rajneeshpuram community. Just when the audience is almost sympathetic to the group, the Way brothers pull back the curtain and expose the fraudulent puppet master pulling all the strings.

The Source Family

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Image via Drag City

This is the definitive counter-culture hippie commune cult story, with a mystical bearded leader, his psychedelic rock group, and his many wives all living together in a mansion in the Hollywood Hills. The Source Family is probably the least insidious cult on this list. Although its members are, to some extent, under the spell of the usual charismatic male leader, they are more eccentric than harmful. It doesn’t hurt that the 1960s counter-culture inspired some new and odd ways of living, some of which were adopted into mainstream culture. Whatever one might think of their tenets, it cannot be denied that the Ya Ho Wha 13 band had a few genuine bangers. The Source Family may very well be the most underrated cult documentary and deserves to be seen by a much wider audience.

Holy Hell

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Image via FilmRise

Many cult documentaries are creepy, but Holy Hell might be the creepiest of all. The lingering shots of Buddhafield cult leader Jaime Gomez (another mortal man who believes he is divine) staring deep into the camera lens might give you a few nightmares, but it’s worth it. The archival footage in this film must be seen to be believed. While most of the cults on this list have either disbanded or suffered a tragic end, the Buddhafield cult still continues to this day, often recruiting new members at yoga studios. It’s a rare instance of a celebrated documentary being unable to put a stop to a cult leader’s abuse. But that may be all the more reason to watch this film and be aware of Gomez’s continued threat to vulnerable people searching for enlightenment.

Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief

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Image via HBO

Alex Gibney has made documentaries about almost every subject under the sun, but Going Clear may be his most dangerous film, as the Church of Scientology still enjoys a devoted, widespread, and notoriously vengeful following. Scientologists do not take kindly to criticism, however valid it may be, and resent being categorized as a cult. Nonetheless, it’s hard to hear the stories of psychological manipulation in this film (not to mention many instances of pseudoscientific nonsense) and not come away with the impression that Scientology is either a full-blown cult or, at the very least, very cult-ish. Gibney is a master of non-fiction storytelling, and he pulls absolutely no punches in his efforts to expose Scientology for what it really is.

The Vow

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Image via HBO

This HBO docuseries is largely told from the perspective of ex-members of NXIVM, an odd multi-level marketing company with a secret sex trafficking cult lurking inside it. Members are conditioned to become “slaves” with a “master” who controls nearly everything in their lives, including what they can and can’t eat. The “slaves” must even go so far as to literally brand themselves as if they were cattle. Unraveling the psychology behind NXIVM’s leader, currently serving a lifetime sentence in prison, reveals a disturbing pattern of psychological manipulation pretending to be motivational self-help. The ex-members of NXIVM attempt to understand how they could’ve fallen prey to some pretty obviously disturbing behavior and then use their newfound understanding to help save current members. The Vow is totally engrossing and has more of a conventional investigative approach to its subject, and with its second season further exploring the legal saga of the NXIVM, there's far more to this story than we already know.

Manson

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Image via American International Pictures

This film is not as widely available as the others on this list, but it’s worth seeking out. Released in 1973, just a few short years after the infamous and horrifying Tate-LaBianca murders, Manson is essentially a time capsule of the Manson family, featuring interviews with several of Charlie’s most prominent followers, footage of Spahn Ranch (immortalized in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood), and an original score composed by actual Manson family members. The film desperately deserves a proper release and digital restoration if for no other reason than its remarkable historical value. Until then, seek out the less-than-pristine versions of this film lingering on the internet and be transported back to one of the most notorious crimes in American history.

Prophet’s Prey

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Director Amy Berg has developed a special talent for adeptly and compassionately telling stories involving sexual misconduct and abuse. Her 2006 debut feature Deliver Us From Evil is a masterpiece and this film about Warren Jeffs, a former leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is nearly as good. While it’s always been a hotly debated issue as to what exactly separates a religion from a cult, it’s pretty much impossible to describe the actions of a convicted criminal such as Jeffs as being spiritual in any sense of the word. Berg’s unique talent for exposing criminality while also exploring the complexities of the criminality in question is certainly on display in Prophet’s Prey, a film that serves as a potent warning against trusting authority figures merely because they are authority figures.

Kumare

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Image via Kino Lorber

This is the most unorthodox film on this list and is perhaps best described as a more serious version of Borat. Director Vikram Gandhi poses as a New Age spiritual guru in an attempt to gain actual devoted followers. The ethics of this premise can certainly be debated, but it’s hard to argue that the film doesn’t make a compelling point. Literally anyone with enough charisma and knowledge of New Age jargon can become the leader of a spiritual movement and/or cult. To see this in action, unfolding before our eyes, is simultaneously amusing and alarming. Gandhi is unafraid to embark on a filmed social experiment that sheds new light on how we think about both cults and spirituality.

The Way Down

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Image via HBO Max

Following Gwen Shamblin Lara, the founder of the Christian weight loss program, The Weigh Down Workshop, and later, the founder of the Remnant Fellowship, The Way Down follows how Lara combined religion and her diet plan to amass a gigantic following. The Way Down shows Lara playing God to her congregation, as she grows her power and wealth along the way. Over the course of the series' five episodes, we hear about the horrors of the church from those who were impacted by it, the greed that helped grow the church, and the countless cases of abuse over the years.