SF Chronicle Datebook - San Francisco Chronicle
G. Allen Johnson July 26, 2023
The snarky and slim Netflix documentary series “How to Become a Cult Leader” should have been titled “Cult Leaders for Dummies.”
Narrated by actor Peter Dinklage, its six half-hour episodes offer thumbnail sketches of six wacko cult leaders, none beyond the depth of your average Wikipedia page, but packages them in a unique way: It assumes you, the viewer, want to be a cult leader, so this series serves as your “playbook” with helpful strategies, and, with the examples given, some pitfalls to avoid.
The cult leaders profiled are Charles Manson, Jim Jones — both of whom used San Francisco as a part-time base for attracting followers — Buddhafield founder Jaime Gomez, Heaven’s Gate founder Marshall Applewhite, Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara and Unification Church founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
Anyone familiar, even in a sketchy sense, with history since 1970 likely will be familiar with all of these cult leaders and what they did; those who are somehow not aware of these figures might find the series frustratingly shallow.
“How to Become a Cult Leader” is the latest installment of Netflix’s “How to Become” series — “How to Become a Tyrant” (2021) preceded it; “How to Become a Mob Boss” is due in 2024. Each is produced by Citizen Jones & Estuary Films, headed by Jonah Bekhor and Jonas Bell Pasht.
Although there is ample historical footage of all of these insane people, “How to Become a Cult Leader” repeatedly uses the tired cliché of using stock footage to underline its points. For example, in discussing Applewhite, who believed his human followers could ascend to join extraterrestrials, the filmmakers cut to cheesy scenes from low-budget 1950s science fiction films. Ha ha.
More successful is the creative animation that allows us to drop in on the private decision-making of the cult leaders that the video archives could not capture.
Experts — former cult member and podcaster Lola Blanc, ex-FBI agent Asha Rangappa among them — weigh in, but explain things in such a basic way, without much specific detail. “If you’re feeling vulnerable or insecure, cult leaders can exploit that.” Duh.
The overall sarcastic nature of the series seems at odds with the horrors these men unleashed. Somehow, providing helpful “tactics” via bite-size tips — “tend your flock,” “get your dogma down,” “expand your territory” — just seems weird.
“How to Become a Cult Leader” instead becomes a playbook of an unintended sort: How not to make a docuseries.
Reach G. Allen Johnson: ajohnson@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @BRFilmsAllen
More Information
“How to Become a Cult Leader”: True crime documentary series. (TV-MA. Six 30-minute episodes.) Streams on Netflix starting Friday, July 28.
· G. Allen Johnson
G. Allen Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.
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