As I may have mentioned, I love me a good cult film. My favourite take on the subject is a horror/thriller that ideally adds a supernatural slant to the cult narrative. Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene is probably the best “straight-up” cult film to date to me, but where the supernatural is concerned, I think The Endless is pretty great. The Veil (2016) had a huge potential to combine the two, I thought, but something appeared to be missing that could have made it stand out.
I do my best to watch everything that fits the bill when it comes to cult-themed stuff. Recently I watched 1BR (2019). Very “meh”, for sure, but it got me thinking about “cult films” – hence this thread. What with a theology degree and a lifelong fascination with the subject, I would argue that cults hardly ever have a mission or a “purpose”, except when it comes to exercising control over members (let’s set aside for a moment the obvious point that definitions of “cult” vary massively). Infamous historical cults, especially since the ‘70s (Heaven’s Gate, etc), constitute isolated communities with common practices, beliefs and “rituals”, whether or not grounded in spiritualism, and they are all about power.
On to the film medium, at last. Whilst I believe most groups routinely designated as “cults” don’t actually tend to have a purpose or a mission, I think that therein lies the difference between film and real life. To me, to make any fictional narrative compelling and generate suspense, any cult needs to have a clearly defined purpose. There are exceptions – I don’t remember a particular purpose to Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene cult (perhaps because it is just a “woman in trouble” story at its core) – but I would say a philosophy/purpose differentiates a well-grounded cult from a random bunch of “creepy” people used to advance the plot.
When I think of films with good, well-written cults, Rosemary’s Baby comes to mind (the Antichrist baby angle may have grown stale by now, but it’s hard to deny that this is a pretty specific cult mission that is portrayed in a comprehensive manner). The Endless’
. Conversely, 1BR, which sparked this thread, seems to completely neglect to explain the cult philosophy, which really annoyed me. Sure, I get that
. To me, the fact that these people don’t want to leave the house doesn’t make them a cult any more than the Synecdoche, New York actors’ troupe is a cult. Sure, there’s the torture and intimidation and the trying to force her to ‘want’ to be part of the community, but there comes the crux of the issue: I don’t know if that really makes them a cult. I mean,
The Devil Wears Prada protagonist also has to follow a bunch of perhaps bizarre rules, so there’s a similarity there, but we don’t make that into a cult narrative.
Whilst I have acknowledged that the sociological/theological definition of “cult” is a tough nut to crack and is understandably ambiguous, I think when it comes to scriptwriting it is important to actually portray the dynamics of the cult in films dealing with the subject, otherwise, it feels a bit lazy. As such, I thought the Hereditary cult was quite well-written. Sure, there was still the criticism that it’s all very vague, which I agree with, but we are shown in no uncertain terms that King Paimon gives the cult members what they want, including “knowledge of all secret things… honour, wealth and o familiars” plenty as long as they keep up the ritualistic practice. So whatever the shortcomings of the film may be, the cult part is fine by me.
Anyone know of any films where there is actually a coherent, well-grounded, comprehensive philosophy to the cult that we as viewers get to see?
I do my best to watch everything that fits the bill when it comes to cult-themed stuff. Recently I watched 1BR (2019). Very “meh”, for sure, but it got me thinking about “cult films” – hence this thread. What with a theology degree and a lifelong fascination with the subject, I would argue that cults hardly ever have a mission or a “purpose”, except when it comes to exercising control over members (let’s set aside for a moment the obvious point that definitions of “cult” vary massively). Infamous historical cults, especially since the ‘70s (Heaven’s Gate, etc), constitute isolated communities with common practices, beliefs and “rituals”, whether or not grounded in spiritualism, and they are all about power.
On to the film medium, at last. Whilst I believe most groups routinely designated as “cults” don’t actually tend to have a purpose or a mission, I think that therein lies the difference between film and real life. To me, to make any fictional narrative compelling and generate suspense, any cult needs to have a clearly defined purpose. There are exceptions – I don’t remember a particular purpose to Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene cult (perhaps because it is just a “woman in trouble” story at its core) – but I would say a philosophy/purpose differentiates a well-grounded cult from a random bunch of “creepy” people used to advance the plot.
When I think of films with good, well-written cults, Rosemary’s Baby comes to mind (the Antichrist baby angle may have grown stale by now, but it’s hard to deny that this is a pretty specific cult mission that is portrayed in a comprehensive manner). The Endless’
WARNING: spoilers below
cult is rooted in rebirth and “dying over and over again” and, therefore, as some of the members see it, being immortal. The same broadly applies to The Veil – the cult members believed they would be reborn one day and they were
WARNING: spoilers below
members of the “Community” preferred to remain insulated from the outside world and aimed to create a self-sufficient ecosystem, but that’s more akin to agoraphobia to me and reminiscent of Columbus Circle
The Devil Wears Prada protagonist also has to follow a bunch of perhaps bizarre rules, so there’s a similarity there, but we don’t make that into a cult narrative.
Whilst I have acknowledged that the sociological/theological definition of “cult” is a tough nut to crack and is understandably ambiguous, I think when it comes to scriptwriting it is important to actually portray the dynamics of the cult in films dealing with the subject, otherwise, it feels a bit lazy. As such, I thought the Hereditary cult was quite well-written. Sure, there was still the criticism that it’s all very vague, which I agree with, but we are shown in no uncertain terms that King Paimon gives the cult members what they want, including “knowledge of all secret things… honour, wealth and o familiars” plenty as long as they keep up the ritualistic practice. So whatever the shortcomings of the film may be, the cult part is fine by me.
Anyone know of any films where there is actually a coherent, well-grounded, comprehensive philosophy to the cult that we as viewers get to see?
Last edited by AgrippinaX; 06-12-21 at 09:40 AM.