Following the delightfully fun How To Become A Tyrant, Peter Dinklage returns to guide us step by step through the process of becoming a cult leader. The series profiles 6 major cult figures, like Charles Manson and Marshall Applewhite, to deduce the elements that go into convincing an ever-growing number of people that you are worth abandoning everything else in their lives for.
In-depth conversations with talking head experts and former cult members are woven together with funky, wry animations that expose the wolves who preyed on people at their most vulnerable.
So, if you’re looking for a How-To on forming your own cult, this won’t really do it. It’s stridently anti-cult leader. But it will have a lot to teach us about the human condition and the lengths we go to so we can belong, create social structure, and find an answer to the big questions.
As one of the speakers says in the trailer, “If these groups were advertising what they’re really about, nobody would join.”
It’s an interesting moment for cults. Documentaries like Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence are growing in popularity and award notice, while a slew of podcasts about cult leaders continues to maintain a stranglehold on popularity. Maybe we’re all thinking a lot about who we put our faith in and whether we’d be susceptible to some charismatic weirdo who wants to control our souls.
Or we’re just really into lurid stuff.
How To Become A Cult Leader hits Netflix July 27th.
