Cult justice joins the true crime content series on Hulu with an eight-episode first season written by journalists Michel Bryant and Brian Ross and produced by the team at Law & Crime, the network founded by the journalist and On patrol: live host Dan Abrams. Each episode highlights the personalities and practices of cult leaders, features commentary from law enforcement authorities and attorneys, and includes interviews with cult victims and survivors. In the first episode, we learn how the so-called Christian ministry established by Tony Alamo and his wife Susan transformed into a cult justifying polygamy and child sexual abuse by its defiant founder, a prophet of Self-proclaimed God.
CULT JUSTICE: Stream it or ignore it?
Opening shot: “Another half hour of truth!” In old, creaky, blurry footage, Tony and Susan Alamo appear as part of their 1970s television ministry. The voice of lawyer David Carter is heard. “There have been allegations of polygamy, allegations of child abuse, and there have been allegations of underage brides…”
The essential: “If we are a sect, we would have to say that all fundamentalists were sectarians. » This is a pretty bold statement for Susan Alamo, especially because she compares herself to Martin Luther, the 14th century theologian and founder of the Lutheran faith. But what’s even more daring about this stock footage is how unapologetically evil she is. When the Alamos founded their ministry near Hollywood in the late 1960s, investigative journalist Debby Schriver says it wasn’t kindness and caring values that inspired them. It was a scam, pure and simple, and they were aggressive and threatening when it came to recruiting converts.
The Alamos eventually migrated with their herd to a compound in Arkansas, and in 1982, when Susan died of breast cancer, Tony had her body embalmed and put on display, where he forced his followers to pray at his feet. His rule over the cult also became more extreme. As the group’s “prophet”, he said he was allowed to have multiple wives – but only his own, of course – and that he had also begun grooming his followers’ young daughters into wives. minor. Alamo was accused of beating another child, became a fugitive in 1989, and was eventually arrested and convicted of tax evasion.
But that didn’t stop the cult. Released in 1998, Alamo returned to the welcoming arms of his true believers and targeted eight-year-old Desiree Kolbek as his next victim. Kolbek, who is interviewed extensively in Cult justice, eventually escaped the compound, and it was her testimony that contributed to Alamo’s second arrest and conviction, this time for transporting minors across state lines for sexual purposes. “You are the cult, not us,” Tony Alamo growls, deeply unapologetically, in the footage of his criminal deposition. He also calls Carter, the lawyer, a bastard. The level of nastiness is astonishing, and that’s before Alamo can even defend his disgusting and unrepentant views on sex with children. It’s an ugly thing, and federal authorities and prosecutors questioned for Cult justice It must be recognized that Kolbek had the courage not only to escape the clutches of the Alamo, but also to stand up to it in court.
What shows will this remind you of? The four-part docuseries Ministry of Evil: The Twisted Cult of Tony Alamo was produced by Sundance TV in 2019; these days it’s available through Prime Video. And Hulu also offers Stolen Youth: Inside Sarah Lawrence’s Culta three-part film that details one of the most unexpected and bizarre turns toward cult-like behavior to appear in recent years.
Our opinion : Just when you think there are no more cults for today’s thriving true crime industry to discover, along comes the next show that features more of their stories. Cult justice keeps it pretty simple with its production. There’s no narrator, but neither are there the touches of directorial flair or the dramatic flourishes in the storytelling that have become hallmarks of true crime in the Netflix era. Instead, Cult justice the journalistic guard. And although it appears to have spent very little on graphics and titles, and allows for far too many moments where the same photo or foggy footage is used over and over again, the documentary series builds a solid framework for the victims of the sect interviewed. share their travels. The visual aesthetics here are minimal. But the stories Cult justice the stories are powerful.
Sex and skin: The court testimony of one of Tony Alamo’s child wives, in which she describes his chronic sexual abuse, is difficult to watch.
Starting shot: “As long as there are human beings, we will have cults,” says Debby Schriver, the investigative journalist. “We are all vulnerable when we are looking for or needing something. And we are easy targets for anyone who wants to take advantage.
Sleeping Star: Federal prosecutor Kyra Jennings highlights the moral void that exists within the Alamo sect, which she called a Christian foundation. “What is astonishing to the prosecution team in this case is that the parents knowingly placed their children, that is, their daughters, in the hands of a predatory pedophile.”
Most pilot line: “Tony possesses a rare combination of charisma, biblical knowledge and sociopathic tendencies,” says David Carter. “And when you see this mixture in a person as they gain power, within a religious group, their tendency is to become more and more violent.” It’s David Koresh’s old method, and Carter says Alamo followed it to the hilt.
Our call: Flow Cult justice if you are a true accomplice to the crime. There is absolutely no wow factor in the look and feel of this documentary series. But it confirms the importance of victims’ stories as a bulwark against the horrific behavior of a cult leader like Tony Alamo.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is a free-lance freelance writer and editor in Chicagoland. Her work has been published in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media and Nicki Swift.
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