In this film, David Marmor does a great job of dramatizing the way cults work on individuals to get them to join. Of course the seduction of a new member is accelerated and made stomach churning, but it's a movie, Would you really want to watch 12 hours of "classes" or "meetings?" Would you really want to watch the slow draining of bank accounts and inane barking about "suppressive" people by Tom Cruise?
No, you can see that in "Going Clear." This isn't a documentary. This is a cautionary horror movie about how cults work.
First, the cult picks lonely and vulnerable individuals who have a reason to feel left out of the mainstream. $cientology seems to prey on high school and college drop outs with money. AA picks up people who can't stop drinking. NXIVM picks attractive women with body dysmorphia and the men who love them. LulaRich, Amway, Mary Kay and all the multi level marketing scams pick at home mothers who need money and a life away from home. The Trump Cult picks white boomers and straight, single white men who are afraid of becoming the minority and need someone to blame.
In the film, Sarah is a shy LA newcomer who is trying to make it for the first time on her own in a new city. She's lonely and has an issue with her father. The Moonies send members to college campuses to look for "depressed" students.
Second, the cult love bombs the potential new member to take care of the fears and make the person feel accepted. Love bombing is part of the cycle in the normalization of the abuse the cult will heap on the member. The neighbors in the apartment complex love bomb Sarah to catch her off guard, and confuse her as the abuse begins. Every abuse cycle ends with love bombing.
In reality, the "hands on the wall" scene is taken directly from accounts by ex $cientologists about "corrective" abuse they underwent at "Gold Base" in Hemet. Many of the other scenes in the movie are thinly veiled references to confessionals by former members of $cientology and other cults.
Third, the cult isolates the new member from any and all people who aren't members of the cult so the new member has no way to check her own reality. In the film, the cult removes Sarah from her job and her only friend.
Fourth, the cult has a belief system that has all the answers to life's questions. The belief system usually has a sacred text. This is the book the cult forces Sarah to read.
Fifth, the cult forces the member to "confess" past sins to build intimacy, and make the new member more vulnerable. It's why the members ask her about her sex life and her father. It's why AA has a 9th step and $cientology has auditing,
Last, the cult has a charismatic leader. In the movie, the leader is Charles Ellerby, whose words, are repeated by the members again and again, "It's not crazy. It's science." It's why Sarah has to repeat the "four foundations."
The film uses these characteristics of cults to move along the plot and desensitize the audience to the possibility of Sarah (or anyone else) escaping the cult. The plot is helped by the acting of Nicole Brydon Bloom's portrayal of Sarah as an ordinary millennial, who may or may not give in to the horrors of the cult.
The movie is a combination of mediocre Netflix horror, and and extraordinarily well-researched premise about cult thinking.
