Parents' Guide to The Doomsday Cult of Antares de la Luz

This disturbing documentary could have been a lot better. The director of The Doomsday Cult of Antares de la Luz squandered the opportunity to tell a fascinating story about evil and personal responsibility but sapped the film of its potential power by telling it backwards. At around 50 minutes in, we still don't know exactly what the crime is, which is like telling the story of Jonestown by postponing the fact that the cult leader persuaded 900 people to commit suicide until the end of the story. The hideous nature of the crime is what makes this worthy of a film.

The other major issue is whether cult members who do bad things at the direction of an evil leader are evil perpetrators themselves or victims suffering "shared psychosis." We wonder wouldn't a person be shaken out of "psychosis" when a man locks a cat in a box and throws it in a river because the cat had Lucifer in him? Would most people see that act as a clue that something was amiss? Had the film spelled out the actual crime at the start, everything the cult members subsequently say would be placed in a context that would add depth to our understanding. Yes, cult leaders isolate and brainwash their followers, but until we learn the worst act the leader ultimately causes the members to perform, this documentary is a tough slog. As it stands, every time a former cult member says "we had to" stand naked and get beaten, or watch a cat drown or a baby die, the viewer emphatically yells back at the screen, "No! You didn't!"