Charles Manson. Jim Jones. David Koresh. Cults and their egomaniacal leaders are subjects of interest for many horror directors. One person’s ability to sway hordes of followers who are hungry for acceptance is full of infinite creative potential. While some horror movies about cults rely on their own unique reimaginings of fanatics organized around a unified cause, other movies make their real-life source material obvious.
The films on this list are all inspired by real, contemporary cults and hierarchical religious or spiritual movements controlled by fiery figureheads. While some investigate what happens when people try to leave cults, others show just how far some followers will go to prove their devotion.
The Sacrament (2013)
Ti West is responsible for this found-footage horror film based on the Jonestown Massacre. In 1978, over 900 people who followed Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones to Guyana observed his order to drink cyanide poison en masse. Jones coined this revolutionary suicide, and he joined his believers with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
The scope of the violence at Jonestown, the name Jones gave his settlement, shocked the world and inspired numerous films and television series. The Sacrament tells the story of a group of VICE journalists who venture to Central America to probe into a cult that recently resettled there. After crossing paths with the leader, Father, events take a vicious turn.
Helter Skelter (2004)
This made-for-TV biographical drama delves into the horror perpetrated by Charles Manson and his family in the 1960s, culminating in the brutal murders of five people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate, at her home on Cielo Drive in 1969. Helter Skelter is a straight-forward adaptation of the nonfiction book of the same name by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry.
Manson, portrayed by Jeremy Davies, infiltrated the hippie movement surging in California at the time, using his charm and rhetoric to develop a movement. His “family” consisted of mostly women, and as it grew in numbers, Manson decided to kickstart an impending race war by orchestrating the heinous murders that would end the lives of Tate and four of her friends.
Red State (2011)
Red State was a labor of love for Kevin Smith, known for his off-kilter indie comedies. Smith took his inspiration from the Westboro Baptist Church, a religious organization known for its reliance on hate speech and inflammatory protesting.
Michael Parks plays an even more exaggerated version of Westboro’s leader, Fred Phelps, known for employing brainwashing techniques and severe punishments to keep his congregation committed. Red State takes the threats and violence implied by Westboro to their logical conclusion, and it shows what happens when groups sustained by messages of hate decide to take up arms.
The Wave (2008)
In this German film, director Dennis Gansel attempts to reconcile with his country’s fascist past. As the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler enacted their racialized campaign against anyone of Jewish ancestry, they coerced citizens to fall in line through messages of ethnic superiority. These heinous tactics exemplify cult-think.
In The Wave, a high school teacher must educate his students about autocracy and the evils of fascism. In order to create an impactful learning experience, he conducts an experiment about totalitarianism that opens doors he isn’t prepared for, showing just how easy it is for tyranny to spread.
Lords Of Chaos (2018)
Lords of Chaos is a hardcore movie based on the true story of the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem. Not only are they known for their brutal sound, but they are also known for erecting a violent cult of personality based on pre-Christian rituals and beliefs.
Rory Culkin plays the band’s central figure, Hieronymous, who compels his bandmates and their friends to start burning Christian churches around Norway in order to stir up controversy. As the flames spread, the cruelty intensifies until Mayhem becomes implicated in suicide and murder.
Holy Ghost People (2013)
This creepy feature about Pentecostal snake handlers in Georgia is based on a 1967 documentary about a West Virginia congregation. Pentecostalism is an evangelical form of Protestant Christianity, and snake handling evolved from a literal interpretation of the Bible.
In the movie, a young woman travels to a church up in the Appalachian Mountains in hopes of tracking down her sister. The charming, yet ominous, leader of the congregation executes a plan of manipulation and, eventually, torture, in order to break the woman down in hopes of appeasing his own desires.
Sound Of My Voice (2011)
The trippy, elusive cult at the center of Sound of My Voice is influenced by the innumerable fringe groups and secret societies that exist under the radar in the greater Los Angeles area. In the movie, a pair of documentary filmmakers undergo the harsh initial rituals of a particular group in order to get to its leader, a woman named Maggie.
Maggie’s cult is based on space-travel theories, and she claims to be from the future, making her way to the past in order to act out an important mission.
The Devils (1971)
A controversial film by British innovator Ken Russel, The Devil is both a cautionary tale about religious witchhunts and an arthouse horror feature that examines cult mentalities. 17th Century French priest Urbain Grandier is targeted by a hunchbacked nun as the instigator of a Satanic uprising within the Catholic Church.
Claiming numerous nuns have fallen victim to his evil ways, Grandier is officially charged by church officials, at which point he is subjected to horrendous tortures until he’s burned at the stake. Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave both star.
The Endless (2018)
Indebted to doomsday cults like Heavens Gate, made infamous after 39 of its members committed mass suicide in 1997, The Endless follows two adult brothers who decide to return to the death cult they grew up in. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead both star in and direct this understated, slow-burn horror feature.
While exposing the effects group-think has on the two men and the people they grew up around, the film also, cleverly, veers from other cult movies on this list by providing an alternate narrative that asks an interesting question: what if the prophesies are true?
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)
A gripping psychological film, Martha Marcy May Marlene tells the story of a young woman trying to reclaim her life after escaping a cult in the Catskill Mountains. The unnamed cult’s leader is played by John Hawkes, a sinister sexual predator who takes advantage of vulnerable people.
Director Sean Durkin studied the personalities and choices of toxic male cult leaders like Jim Jones and David Koresh. Instead of making a movie about the politics that emboldened these men, though, Durkin focused on the relationships within a cult like the one in the film.
