CULT Docs & films to watch

Keep Sweet, Pray, Obey (DOCU-SERIES)

This four-part documentary follows a splinter sect from the Mormons known as Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (FLDS) The group based themselves in Colorado City, Arizona, and were led by a man called Warren James also known as ‘the prophet’. Members of the organisation still believed in polygamy and it was believed that the more wives a man had the closer to God he would become. The women all dressed the same with long dresses and hair tied in a bun and had to pray every hour, members were forbidden from knowing anything about the outside world and if rules were broken people could be cast out. Through mind control Warren James married 78 women in total, a quarter of whom were underage. He was arrested in 2011 and sentenced to life imprisonment but unbelievably still manages to maintain leadership from the prison grounds.

Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator (DOCUMENTARY)

This true crime documentary follows Indian born Bikram Choudhury and his rise to success with hot yoga studios around the world. Bikram arrives in the states mid-seventies, equipped with his yoga asanas (poses) from Kolkata. He soon attains celebrity status after setting up his basement studio in Beverly Hills and cranking up the heat to mimic the temperature of his motherland. His rigorous classes were a strange combination of yoga exercise and sweat lodge, coupled alongside cosmic wisdom and eccentric behaviour. He made most of his money from selling his intensive 9-week yoga training sessions where people would pay £10,000 to become certified Bikram yoga teachers. Bikram fled the USA back to India in 2016 to avoid abuse allegations and a court settlement of 7 million dollars.

Wild, Wild Country (DOCU-SERIES)

A six-part docu-series following Indian guru Osho (Bagwan Shree Ragneesh) as he builds a commune in the desert town of Antelope, Oregon. The self-governing ranch is administered by Sanyasi Sheela who manages the groups millions allowing the commune to issue their own building and law enforcement regulations. The FBI soon start to investigate as a mistrust starts to form from the local residents as the new town of Rajneeshpuram is constructed. Evidence is found which highlights group sex, sham marriages, and relocating homeless people to aid country elections in the commune’s favour. Sheelah starts to act aggressively to people she regards as obstacles and a conspiracy is born within the commune that she is attempting to kill people, Osho included. As Sheelah and her allies flee to Germany, Osho denounces her and the religion she has tried to indoctrinate into the community. As the FBI and SWAT teams descend on the commune, Osho tries to leave America on a plane to avoid extradition which is intercepted by federal agents. Both Sheela and Osho accept the charges against them.

Midsommar (FICTION FILM)

An American couple in a failing relationship travel to a Swedish midsummer festival with a group of student friends. It’s the ancestral home of Pelle who’s invited them to the ritual that is only performed once every ninety years. As the group walk through the woods to a clearing they are welcomed by a community who on first appearances seem to be loving and peaceful as if living in a utopian dream. Things soon turn sour however as this sinister cult introduce their Scandinavian pagan practises to the outsiders which result in a number of human sacrifices.

BY ZOE ROTHWELL