In 2020, instead of โsex sells,โ pop-cultureโs newest maxim is โsects sellโ โ and weโre (guiltily) here for it. Hot on the heels of the box-office success of Quentin Tarantinoโs Manson family blockbuster Once Upon a Timeโฆ in Hollywood and Ari Asterโs terrifying depiction of a pagan commune in rural Sweden in Midsommar, stories about cults are coming out thick and fast.
Watch Below: Everything you need to know about the Nvixm cult
Prepare to be haunted by a score of new novels, movies and docudramas from Hollywood and closer to home. Some of Australiaโs finest storytellers are releasing bone-chilling โcult-fictionโ this year. First up is Stanโs The Gloaming, an eight-part crime series set against the dark and moody Tasmanian landscape. Hitting screens in January, Emma Booth and Ewen Leslie play police detectives whose shared past comes back to haunt them as they solve a horrific murder connected to a terrifying occult religious order.
Also bringing in the new year is author J.P. Pomareโs long-awaited second novel In The Clearing, set in rural Victoria and inspired by the real-life story of Anne Hamilton-Byrneโs The Family, a New Age group formed in the mid-1960s which reportedly tortured children after stealing them through adoption.
Internationally, American journalist Elizabeth Vargas will bring her trademark razor-sharp investigative skills to SBS Viceland in docuseries Cults and Extreme Beliefs, where she profiles some of historyโs most notorious cults and speaks to the brave survivors who have escaped the grasp of evil leaders.
On the silver screen, the long- awaited critically acclaimed horror film The Dark Red will see breakout star April Billingsley play a young woman who is committed to a psychiatric hospital after claiming her newborn baby was stolen by a deranged blood cult.
If you canโt help but harbor a sick fascination with cults, youโre not alone. According to Jo Thornely, author and host of podcast Zealot, the rise of sects on our screens has come off the back of a surge of interest in true crime. โItโs like a package deal,โ exclaims the self-described cult obsessive. โYou often have murder or fraud or sex scandals all bundled up into one and people are completely fascinated by it.โ The allure of gory, gruesome, gritty stories is strong.
In the words of Thornely, โI just want more and more.โ Luckily for us, you canโt spell pop culture without cult.
Famous Followers: The celebs who grew up in cults

ROSE MCGOWAN
The actor spent the first nine years of her life living in the polygamous Children of God sect, which counted more than 15,000 members worldwide. โWe left because they started advocating child-adult sex and that was too far for my father.โ
JOAQUIN PHOENIX
Phoenix and his family were part of a sect in the โ70s but left the group when they realised they were in a cult. โCults rarely advertise themselves as such, but the moment my parents realised there was something more to it, they got out.โ
KEIRA MAGUIRE
The first five years of Maguireโs life in a polygamist cult came to light after she appeared on The Bachelor in 2016. The cult was founded by her father in the โ70s and was dubbed โThe Seaside Sect.โ Maguireโs mum was one of nine โwivesโ and the cult leader reportedly had 64 children in total.
DAVID AND PATRICIA ARQUETTE
The Arquettes had an unusual start to life, living on a commune in Virginia with no electricity, bathrooms or running water. The famous siblingsโ parents started the commune with friends to build a utopian society, however drug abuse and violence turned it into hell for their children.
WINONA RYDER
During her childhood, Ryderโs family lived in a commune in Northern California with six other families. While she acknowledges that it was unconventional and might evoke cult-like images, she looks back on it fondly. โThe place we lived at was 380 acres of redwoods. It was beautiful.โ
GLENN CLOSE
At the age of seven the Hollywood legend, along with the rest of her family, moved to Switzerland to join the spiritual movement Moral Re-Armament (MRA). Close, who remained in the cult until she was 22, described it as an oppressive environment.
This article originally appeared in the March issue of marie claire.
In 2020, instead of โsex sells,โ pop-cultureโs newest maxim is โsects sellโ โ and weโre (guiltily) here for it. Hot on the heels of the box-office success of Quentin Tarantinoโs Manson family blockbuster Once Upon a Timeโฆ in Hollywood and Ari Asterโs terrifying depiction of a pagan commune in rural Sweden in Midsommar, stories about cults are coming out thick and fast.
Watch Below: Everything you need to know about the Nvixm cult
In 2020, instead of โsex sells,โ pop-cultureโs newest maxim is โsects sellโ โ and weโre (guiltily) here for it. Hot on the heels of the box-office success of Quentin Tarantinoโs Manson family blockbuster Once Upon a Timeโฆ in Hollywood and Ari Asterโs terrifying depiction of a pagan commune in rural Sweden in Midsommar, stories about cults are coming out thick and fast.
Watch Below: Everything you need to know about the Nvixm cult