Honorable Mention
Steve Railsback as Charles Manson in 'Helter Skelter' (1976 TV Movie)
Whenever anyone brings up the subject of serial killing cults the first name likely to pop up in discussion is Charles Manson. This TV mini-series relives everything from the Tate murders to the court room. The man tasked with making Manson realistic and scary as hell is Steve Railsback. He looks and plays the Manson Family patriarch with no shame, undoubtedly making the real Manson proud and a force that needs to be dealt with.
Charles Manson Monologue Clip
#5 Blanca Guerra as Concha in 'Santa Sangre' (1989)
Alejandro Jodorowsky's Mexican avant-garde horror film is basically 'Psycho' goes to the circus. But Blanca Guerra embraces her role as the leader of a religious cult that considers, as its patron saint, a little girl who was raped and had her arms cut off by two brothers. Proof that a religion can be built around just about anything. The film continues into main character Fenix's madness as Blanca leads her son down the path.
Santa Sangre Trailer
#4 Luc Picard as Roch 'Moïse' Thériault in 'Savage Messiah' (2002)
A French Canadian film based on the true story of cult leader Roch 'Moïse' Thériault who lead a small religious group based near Burnt River, Ontario, Canada from 1977-1989. Thériault punished his followers with great bodily harm, require them to prove allegiance by decapitating themselves and also "purify" them with beatings. His crimes are too numerous to mention, lets just that he was the 70's Marquis de Sade. Luc Picard took on this twised role and drove the madness and gore home. Charles Manson had nothing on this guy but the film plays out like 'Helter Skelter'.
Savage Messiah Trailer
#3 Bill Oberst Jr as Simon Leach in 'Children of Sorrow' (2012)
Desperate to discover what has become of her sister, Ellen (Hannah Levien) infiltrates Simon Leach's (Bill Oberst Jr.) cult. All she knows is that her sister was last seen joining his group in order to find herself, only to go missing after joining. Ellen is welcomed with open arms and although her initial intent is to search for her sister, she finds herself drawn to Simon's magnetic personality and message of love and acceptance. However what she soon discovers is that she, along with all of the cult's companionship-hungry members, are being manipulated to a more sinister and dark end than she could have predicted. 'Children of Sorrow' takes us behind the scenes of creating and maintaining a cult with the ever brilliant Bill Oberst Jr.
Children of Sorrow Trailer
#2 Thomas Jane as Jim Jacobs in 'The Veil' (2016)
In kind of a unique take on the modern cult film, twenty-five years after members of a religious cult committed mass suicide, the lone survivor returns to the scene of the tragedy with a documentary crew in tow. Thomas Jane dominates the film as leader Jim. Jane rewrote most of his character's dialog to convert him from a fundamentalist Christian to an occultist. This works in so many ways as Jane seems to be chanelling Jim Jones and David Koresh, with elements of the rockstar Charles Manson. Its kinda like if Jim Morrison had a cult.
The Veil Trailer
#1 Gene Jones as Father in 'The Sacrament' (2013)
Ti West's 'The Sacrament' dominates the cult worshiping film world with a modern look at the Jonestown Massacre. Based on the real recordings of witness testimonies and adding A.J. Bowen and his documentary crew to provide us with a first hand account of the inner workings that lead to drinking the Kool-Aid. 'The Sacrament' is as close to real as it gets and its scary as hell. At the forefront of it all is the unexpectedly charismatic Father (brilliantly portrayed by Gene Jones). At first he is an entirely believable and perhaps even lovable character. Later his conspiracy theories and madness lead to chaos. In the end a question still remains as to who was right and who was wrong. That's the real horror in how well Jones convinced us that not all cults are worse than society as a whole.
The Sacrament - You're Dealing With Their Lives Scene
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