Television series
Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey
A four-part Netflix docuseries built from insider footage, court testimony, and interviews with survivors who grew up inside the FLDS, tracing how Warren Jeffs turned a splinter Mormon sect into a totalitarian fiefdom. It's queasy, patient, and unglamorous — more interested in the mechanics of coercion than shock value. For anyone drawn to how belief curdles into control.
If you liked this
Wild Wild Country2018
The gold standard of cult documentaries — a sprawling, morally slippery six-part look at the Rajneeshpuram commune that refuses to hand you easy villains or easy victims.
But It's long, and its refusal to moralize can feel frustrating if you want clearer condemnation.
The Vow2020
Told largely by people who were inside NXIVM as it happened, this series is unnervingly good at showing how smart, capable adults get pulled into total submission.
But Its slow-drip structure and heavy focus on internal footage can feel repetitive before the real horror lands.
Prophet's Prey2015no page yet
A tighter, angrier companion piece focused squarely on Warren Jeffs and the private investigator who spent years trying to bring him down.
But Covers much of the same ground you've just watched, so it may feel more like a rerun than a new angle.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Elmer Gantry1960
Same core mechanism as Warren Jeffs — a man weaponizing religious spectacle to control and exploit — but shown as glossy old Hollywood morality tale instead of grim reportage.
Burt Lancaster won an Oscar playing a charismatic con-man preacher who talks his way into money, sex, and power on the strength of pure performance — the same machinery of manufactured faith, six decades earlier.
But It's melodramatic 1960s studio filmmaking, broader and more theatrical than the quiet dread of the documentary.
More like this (8)
Under the Banner of Heaven2022no page yet
A dramatized true-crime miniseries that uses a murder investigation to dig into Mormon fundamentalism's darker corners, with Andrew Garfield excellent as a detective whose faith starts cracking.
But Fictionalized dialogue and a police-procedural frame make it feel less raw and immediate than a documentary.
Shiny Happy People2023no page yet
Turns its focus on the Duggar family and the wider IBLP movement, showing how patriarchal control and public wholesomeness can mask the same abuses.
But Some episodes lean heavily on media commentary rather than firsthand testimony, thinning the emotional weight.
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief2015
A meticulous, furious dismantling of Scientology's inner workings, built on former high-ranking members finally willing to talk on camera.
But Its focus on celebrity and institutional machinery gives it a colder, more corporate feel than a family-based cult story.
Holy Hell2016
Made by a former member using two decades of his own home-video footage, this is an intimate, almost diary-like account of life inside a Los Angeles spiritual cult.
But Its personal, home-movie texture is a big shift from Keep Sweet's tighter journalistic assembly.
Waco2018
A dramatized miniseries about the Branch Davidian standoff that's as interested in the FBI's failures as David Koresh's charisma, making both sides uncomfortably human.
But The siege framing and law-enforcement perspective shift focus away from the psychological control at the story's center.
LuLaRich2021
A lighter palate cleanser — the same recruitment and financial-control tactics, just repackaged as leggings and multi-level marketing instead of religion.
But It's genuinely funny in places, which might feel like tonal whiplash right after Keep Sweet.
Martha Marcy May Marlene2011
Where Keep Sweet documents the machinery of control from outside, this fictional feature puts you inside the fractured mind of a survivor — same subject, opposite register.
Elizabeth Olsen plays a young woman who's escaped a rural cult but can't quite escape its logic, in a fictional film so quiet and disorienting it puts you inside the psychological aftermath rather than the facts.
But Nothing is explained; it's impressionistic and ambiguous where the docuseries is systematic and clear.
The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley2019
Strip out the theology and you get the exact same engine — charismatic control, isolated believers, whistleblowers risking everything — just wearing a Silicon Valley turtleneck instead of a prairie dress.
Elizabeth Holmes built a fake blood-testing empire on charisma, isolation tactics, and total loyalty from insiders — a corporate cult with no religion attached, told with the same insider-testimony structure.
But There's no violence or physical abuse here, just financial and reputational ruin, so the stakes feel lower on the surface.
Recommended by
The Vow, Holy Hell, Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief