Mention "horror movies about cults," and fans can list titles both new and old,
but some are far scarier than others. Whether they're about hippie devil-worshipers or
British pagans, these horror movies all feature some truly terrifying cults.
England's Hammer Films briefly stepped away from its cycle of gothic horror for this exciting 1968
adaptation of Dennis Wheatley's novel The Devil Rides Out, about a Satanic cult's pursuit of
a pair of unwilling initiates. Hammer star Christopher Lee took the heroic route here
as the suave occultist and adventurer defending two people against a diabolical devil worshiper
played by Charles Gray. The script by legendary I Am Legend author Richard Matheson
streamlines the novel into a series of thrilling set pieces,
including an all-night assault by various spirits, including the Angel of Death,
while Lee and his companions protect themselves from inside the confines of a pentacle diagram.
As depictions of cults go, the film succeeds at portraying the overpowering mind control –- the
villain needs only his velvety voice and piercing eyes to suggest tremendous psychic power -– used
to hold acolytes, as well as the extreme lengths a cult will go to in order to retain them.
The film's depiction of a Satanic ritual, complete with the appearance of a demonic
goat-headed figure, also strikes the right balance of frenzy, terror, and ecstasy.
When hippie Satanists force-feed LSD to a small-town baker, his grandson gets revenge
by selling them meat pies laced with the blood of a rabid dog. The cultists turn homicidal
and not only lay waste to the town, but they also spread the disease to the locals.
One of the first films to receive an X rating for violence, David Durston's low-budget
1970 freakout I Drink Your Blood has its share of dated dialogue and off-kilter scenes. But as the
disease claims more victims and the rabid cultists and townsfolk butcher each other, the film becomes
a surprisingly graphic and intense viewing experience that builds to a nail-biting siege.
Intentional or not, it's hard to not see the film's clash between hippies
and blue-collar workers as some kind of statement on fears about the counterculture,
which at the time of the film's release, were fully ablaze
thanks to a real-life cult leader Charles Manson, whose crimes inspired Durston's script.
While most of the cults in the films mentioned in this list are openly diabolical,
the religion practiced in 1973's The Wicker Man isn't entirely sinister. At least, at first.
The people of Summerisle, a tiny island off the coast of Scotland, follow a pagan practice
connected to many ancient traditions. We've got May Day celebrations complete with a maypole,
a spiritual connection to nature, and the belief that sacrifice will result in a fruitful harvest.
That the sacrifice in question is human isn't inherently evil in the eyes of the island's leader
and his constituents, but instead, they view it as centuries-old tradition.
However, visiting English policeman Edward Woodward, whose devout Christianity and virginal
status make him an object of keen interest among Summerisle's locals, would undoubtedly disagree,
especially in the horror film's shocking conclusion.
That split perspective — what's monstrous to some is just a part of
life to others – is what's endeared The Wicker Man to horror fans for decades,
especially among the folk horror movement, which considers the film a forerunner to major titles
in that subgenre. The Witch, The Ritual, and Midsommar all owe a debt to this movie. Oh,
and that 2006 remake with Nicolas Cage? Don't bother, even for a laugh.
"Oh no, not the bees! Not the bees!"
Satanic mayhem meets gear-grinding action in 1975's Race with the Devil,
a favorite of drive-in and grindhouse aficionados for its mix of horror and vehicular stunts.
Peter Fonda and the great Warren Oates star as motorcycle salesmen piloting an RV to a
vacation in Colorado with their wives. The trip is derailed on a lonely stretch of Texas road,
where the couples witness a ritual that culminates in human sacrifice. What follows
is the traditional paranoia plotline in many cult-based horror films, with Fonda and Oates
discovering that their efforts to bring the murder to light only reveal that the law, townspeople,
and even a bar band are in cahoots with the diabolical worshippers.
Unlike other protagonists in their position, Fonda and Oates fight back against the sinister cabal,
resulting in some high-octane action set pieces, including a ferocious highway pursuit that rivals
big-budget studio productions for sheer bravado. It's a mix of brilliant horror and
brilliant stunts that results in one of the most crowd-pleasing cult horror films of the 1970s.
At first blush, English writer-director Ben Wheatley's 2011 film Kill List plays as a dark
psychological thriller, with a troubled military veteran channeling his simmering rage into work
as a hitman. But as he and his gun-toting partner brutally work their way through a list of targets,
it slowly becomes apparent that both the intended victims and their mysterious employer are somehow
linked to a shadowy pagan cult with far-ranging influence and an appetite for sacrifice.
Shot in just 18 days and largely improvised by its cast, Kill List raises many questions but leaves
most unanswered by its devastating conclusion. In doing so, Wheatley allows our own fears about the
cult's intention and its members to run rampant, upping the paranoia and disorientation that's
a key element of the plot for most horror movies about dangerous cults. And if you want more films
like Kill List, Wheatley has continued to explore the world of secret organizations and identities
in a diverse array of films, from the dystopian High-Rise and the psychedelic folk horror of A
Field in England to the latest adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's classic thriller, Rebecca.
Charles Manson and his followers, also known as the Family, have been the focus of countless films
and television projects, including two adaptations of Helter Skelter, Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a
Time in Hollywood, the Netflix series Mindhunter, and even a bizarre stop-motion animated film
called Live Freaky! Die Freaky! But one of the most grueling depictions of life on the Spahn
Ranch, where Manson and his followers lived, is the 1997 feature titled simply The Manson Family.
The independent feature, which took more than a decade to complete, gives no quarter in depicting
the horrific mind games and physical abuse that were a requirement to living under Manson's
command, as well as the ghastly killings of actress Sharon Tate and her companions
in August 1969. But even more harrowing is the film's wraparound story, which follows
a modern-day television news reporter's efforts to compile a documentary segment on the deaths.
In these scenes, the film masterfully cuts between interviews with aging Family members,
long behind bars but still clearly damaged,
and glimpses of a drug-addicted punk-goth gang inching closer to forming their own Family,
showing just how long and destructive the shadow of the cult mindset can be.
The individual stories in the three films that comprise the V/H/S trilogy of found-footage horror
can be hit or miss, but nearly every fan of the franchise agrees that the most full-tilt crazy,
gore-soaked entry is "Safe Haven," from 2013's V/H/S/2. The story begins with a news
crew conducting an investigation into an obscure Indonesian cult. But as they probe deeper into the
group's activities, it becomes apparent that the cult is preparing for a "reckoning," which entails
mass suicide, zombies, gallons of blood, and ultimately, a monstrous supernatural entity.
The film unleashes these horrors at a breakneck pace that barely allows the viewer to comprehend
what they're seeing before the next nightmare makes its presence known.
That's intense and overpowering, but equally unsettling is the cult members' mindless
self-destruction as the "reckoning" takes root, which echoes the terrible
real-life events at Jonestown, the Waco siege, and Heaven's Gate.
Before you dive into the mind-expanding cosmic terror of 2017's The Endless, you may
want to consider checking out Resolution, a 2012 prequel of sorts by writers-producers-directors
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. It's not necessary, but it does offer a dive into the
core ideas in The Endless, which begins with two brothers returning to an encounter group
they belonged to as young men ... and which may or may not have been an apocalyptic UFO cult.
The true nature of what happened at the camp eventually becomes secondary to the dawning
realization that time and reality there may be under the control of an unseen but ever-present
being. Over time, the brothers and their fellow campers – all of whom appear to have remained
exactly the same, despite the passage of several years – are subjected to nightmarish
temporal loops with no hope of escape. Though the true nature of what happens in The Endless
may appear to touch on science fiction, the filmmakers' decision to filter the
action through a cult scenario is spot on, as issues of depersonalization,
separation from the outside world, and salvation by unseen entities based on degrees of faith
are also some of the most frightening elements of a cult experience.
Paranoia is, of course, a key ingredient in horror movies about cults, and the
notion that seemingly "normal" people can embrace dangerous or destructive ideas as the gospel truth
is one of the key reasons why genre directors continue to return to these groups for fresh
and frightening material. One of the best indie films to dive deeply into the secret
beliefs of cults is Karyn Kusama's 2015 feature The Invitation. It begins in
territory that anyone would find unsettling – a dinner party thrown by a former significant
other – and from there, it quietly drifts into even more unpleasant waters
with the realization that the hosts are going to use the event to showcase a recent experience.
"The last thing I want you guys to think is that I'm trying to force my ideas on you."
But what the hosts are selling to their guests, including a former spouse and several friends,
is a New Age-styled grief support system. Unfortunately, it's one that helps members
overcome trauma by passing it along to others in the most literal way — by killing them. The
realization of the cult's intention and the guests' attempts to escape are terrifying,
and it all culminates with one of the greatest final shots in horror history.
Though there are Satanists behind the harrowing events in writer-director Ari Aster's feature
debut, Hereditary, the worshipers of the demon king Paimon are more a coven than a cult.
But his sophomore film, 2019's Midsommar, is firmly based around a cult –- specifically,
a Scandinavian pagan cult that offers a traumatized outsider
a chance at redemption and unpleasant ends for her skeptical companions.
As with The Wicker Man, Midsommar asks the viewer to question if the cult's rites are inherently
evil or holdovers from an older and more brutal way of life. That debate comes into sharp focus
with Florence Pugh's character Dani, who's been emotionally steamrolled by a family tragedy
and her non-committal boyfriend. The cult's rites are focused on renewal, rebirth,
and transformation, and if anyone seems like an ideal candidate for those gifts, it's Dani,
whose feelings grow more complicated as the film wears on. Of course, that transformation doesn't
come without a little pain, and therein lies the real terror at the heart of cult horror movies.
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