SUGGESTED TV SERIES & MOVIES
The following list includes movies and TV series that illustrate the dynamics at work in high-demand new religious movements and groups that practice disfellowshipping, as well as other films that may help you process the emotions of escaping from the ANTM.
Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath
This A&E series is perhaps the most important one on the list. Hosted by former Scientologist Leah Remini and former Scientology leader Mike Rinder, the series focuses on exposing the group for what it truly is. The first two seasons will create concerns for current ANTM members, especially, as they see their own church’s behaviors on display and practiced by another group that is a widely recognized cult.
The concept of, we have the truth and everyone else has an incomplete or incorrect view of reality is similar, although the Scientology idea of truth is very different. The practice of disconnection is represented in a way that mirrors the ANTM’s practice of disfellowshipping. Marking former members as dangerous suppressive persons is analogous to the ANTM concept that former members should be avoided because they “carry a spirit of deception”. This also rings familiar. The list of similarities, although varying in degree, goes on and on and on, episode by episode, including: following a charismatic leader, making a lifetime commitment, deferring your life goals to the preference of the leadership.
Personal story vignettes also demonstrate the painful struggles of leaving such a group. Those still in the ANTM will recognize the struggle and process of members seeing the problems in the group, and yet finding it hard to leave, because of fear and because they have already committed so much of their lives to the cause. Those in the ANTM will also see extreme retaliation practices in Scientology towards former members that goes beyond the practices of the ANTM, yet the principles of discounting and cutting off former members remain.
This series, now on Lifetime, demonstrates the culture of control that is common in cults. The power that is vested in the leadership is familiar in principle to the ANTM leadership, however not to the degree that is illustrated in the FLDS group. Those who have left the ANTM will find the planned escapes particularly familiar, as they relive their own escapes. ANTM survivors will identify with the struggle to reintegrate into society at large after exit, and may also come away with the feeling that although they were in a cult, it could have been much worse. One thing that you begin to realize is how similar cults are, not in doctrine, but definitely in practice. This realization serves to reinforce the fact that the ANTM was a cult (although thankfully, by comparison, a “boring” one).
The Truman Show is one of the most critically acclaimed features on this list, with several Academy Awards and Golden Globes nominations. Many ANTM survivors will experience the film as an autobiographical allegory.
They’ll see their own programming in the programming of Truman from wanting to leave his “home” by instilling in him the fear of water. They’ll recognize the distorting power of being surrounded only by people who all tell you the same story about your life, and they’ll recognize that subtle process of waking up, as Truman starts to notice those little things that don’t quite seem right and begins to put the pieces together. Healing can be found in that cathartic final scene where Truman bumps into the border of his artificial world, faces the voice that has controlled his entire life, and ascends the stairs to face the truth that lies beyond the bubble that was once his world.
The Village is another allegorical work. Explaining the story would ruin it with spoilers, but ANTM survivors may find this film helpful for processing the emotion of what has happened to them, and naming the underlying spiritual forces. Life in a closed communal society is depicted. as well as dynamics in high control authority structures. You can also see thought blocking by people living in the village that keeps them following the ways of the group.
The Chosen is a touching story of the friendship of two teenage boys in post-war Brooklyn, one a Modern Orthodox and the other a Hasidic Jew. It is a complex narrative that includes a vivid illustration of the suffering inflicted by the dividing force of legalistic ideology. Ultimately, however, the hero of the story is a father torn by the consequences of his deeply held faith who chooses love and respect for his son rather than allowing legalism to destroy his family.
Winner of the 1972 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, Marjoe tells the cynical story of one man’s career in the pentecostal evangelist business. It’s around 14:40 where the lifelong atheist first breaks out into tongues, and 20:12 where he explains the phenomenon.
One of Us documents the struggle of three individuals who escape from their Hasidic Jewish community and face the relentless psychological abuse that the community inflicts when a member attempts to leave. It’s comforting to know that the ANTM is not the only totalitarian theocracy operating right in the midst of the United States of America - or the worst.
Apostasy takes us into the life of a Jehovah's Witness family. You see a daughter going through her doubts and leaving the cult and the resultant shunning that takes place. ANTM members will recognize the mother's deference to church leaders on how, if and when she can talk to her own daughter. The vacant stares from family are eerily familiar. You also see the emptiness that comes from following a cult and needlessly losing your family.
The Path is a series set within a fictional new religious movement called Meyerism. While the movement bears very little ideological resemblance to the ANTM, the depiction of everyday family life in a tight-knit religious group will be almost eerily familiar. The first couple episodes of the series are worth watching for this alone, though the language and sexual content result in a TV-MA rating and will prevent many people from choosing to continue to watch.
Holy Hell is a documentary that tells the story of a new religious movement called the Buddhafield. The Buddhafield was on the opposite end of the religious spectrum from the ANTM in virtually every way, though the story is a horrifying illustration of how wrong things can go when you put your absolute trust in one man.
The most striking feature of the story is “The Knowing,” a phenomenon that the leader induces in those of his followers whom he deems worthy. Using an ancient Hindu technique of producing phosphenes through eye pressure, the leader gives his followers an intense experience of direct contact with divinity. It is somehow comforting to know that charismatic leaders of all types, across the world and throughout the centuries, have used various mystical phenomena as a tool to control people. Some viewers may choose to watch only through the portion of the documentary that showcases "The Knowing," due to a later sexually explicit scene.
Wild Wild Country (Adult Content)
Wild Wild Country is a six-part Netflix series that follows the rise and fall of an Indian guru’s attempt to build a utopian city in the Oregon desert. It’s only the craziest, most shocking stories that Hollywood will produce, but in this story you will find familiar echoes of many of the basic behaviors of high-demand new religious groups. When people uproot and utterly devote their lives to the ideology of a charismatic leader, the same group of results always manifest; it is only a matter of to which degree they will do so.
Ironically, it’s a quote from the craziest character of the series that most succinctly sums up the dynamic at work: “It’s time that you let people know who you are, the way I have come to know you, which is that on one hand you are a genius and a beautiful man, and on the other hand you really exploit people by using their human frailty and emotions.”
Language and nudity result in a TV-MA rating for the documentary. One scene that you may find particularly objectionable is prefaced by a warning from a newscaster, which gives you time to pause and skip.