Jul 14, 2023

Netflix Drops Trailer for New Docuseries How to Become a Cult Leader


Movieweb

BYJEREMY DICK

July 13, 2023

Peter Dinklage narrates the Netflix docuseries How to Become a Cult Leader

How does one rise as the leader of a cult, worshiped by devoted followers willing to do anything for their idol? That's a question that Netflix is looking to answer with the new docuseries How to Become a Cult Leader. A six-part series narrated by Game of Thrones favorite Peter Dinklage, How to Become a Cult Leader is scheduled to start streaming on July 28 on Netflix. For now, you can geta sneak peek at the docuseries by watching the new official trailer.

In the docuseries, per the synopsis, "narrator Peter Dinklage reveals the playbook to achieving unconditional love, endless devotion, and the power to control people's minds, bodies and souls."

"Unconditional love, endless devotion... by offering the right package, you can control people's minds, and close them off to everything else," Dinklage can be heard saying in the trailer. "To lead a spiritual movement, you have to show perfection in action."

Some of the most notorious cult leaders are featured in the doc, including Heaven's Gate leader Marshall Applewhite. For decades, Applewhite had been convincing dozens of followers that they could ascend to the "evolutionary level above human" by following his lead. Believing that their souls would leave their human bodies and transfer into advanced extra-terrestrial bodies on a spacecraft, Applewhite and nearly 40 followers died by mass suicide in 1997.

"We are now so programmed to so easily accept death. There are alternatives," Applewhite can be seen saying in the How to Become a Cult Leader trailer.

RELATED:Heaven's Gate: The Cult Of Cults Trailer Exposes Infamous UFO Cult On HBO Max

Learn More About How Certain People Have Become Notorious Cult Leaders

Some cult leaders have been able to gather hundreds of followers, and that's touched on in How to Become a Cult Leader. That notably includes Jim Jones, whose cult ended with more than 900 deaths at the cult leader's settlement that he called Jonestown. The incident has been referred to as a mass murder-suicide, as while many followers were willing to die by suicide to appease Jones, others were not. Armed guards were ordered to kill anyone who tried to escape while non-compliant followers were injected with poison.

"The number of followers is like money in the bank: the more you have, the more power that you have," someone says in the trailer for the docuseries.

Someone else adds, "I think about those 900 people following this evil man to the point of no return."

How to Become a Cult Leader is executive produced by Jonas Bell Pasht (Citizen Jones), Jonah Bekhor (Citizen Jones), Peter Dinklage (Estuary Films), David Ginsberg (Estuary Films), and Jake Laufer. It is co-executive produced by Brad Saunders, Paul Dektor, and Kellen Hertz.

With six episodes that dive into the history of some of the most notorious cult leaders, this could be one of the more comprehensive looks yet at real-life cults. All six episodes of How to Become a Cult Leader will start streaming on Netflix on July 28, 2023.

https://movieweb.com/how-to-become-a-cult-leader-trailer/?newsletter_popup=1

 

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