Sometimes, when you’re working your way through cult classics like The Big Lebowski and Pulp Fiction, you find yourself craving another kind of cult movie—that is, movies about actual cults. Take Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the director’s loose take on the Charles Manson murders of the 1960s, or Ari Aster’s Midsommar, about a young American couple that visits a Swedish midsummer festival. (Spoiler: It’s filled with culty locals seeking blood.)
The appetite for cult content has grown steadily in recent years, with more and more creepy offerings—both narrative and documentary—to match it. Ready to hop down a few Google rabbit holes? Here are 11 more of the best cult movies, series, and podcasts to chill and thrill you.
The Way Down: God, Greed and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin (2021)
A weight-loss empire, a Tennessee church, and a plane crash on the way to a Trump rally—these unlikely elements converge in this Max docuseries. The Way Down examines the Remnant Fellowship and its leader, Gwen Shamblin, who turned her popular diet program into a Christian church; interviews with former members reveal the Remnant’s abusive practices and cult-like requirements, including corporal punishment for members’ children and hyper-restrictive diet plans.