The Cult

There are two striking different narratives in this film by one-time-director "Kentucky Jones" (how is that connected to Indiana Jones, I wonder?). First is the (colour) story of his bizarre love cult, a typically stereotyped religious community with a male guru and his young female followers. You have the sex, you have the chanting, but there's not much of charisma in the leader, and even less of a story. For whatever reason they come across an assembly of four equally stereotyped party people eager to explore, both spiritually and physically, new things, all in the wake of '68. While at first this combination seems to fit perfectly, things get out of hand soon… Yet from the perspective of today, the Manson family's massacre on Sharon Tate et al. is weaker connected than one might think. (In Germany, it is thus called 'The Daughters of Satan' to eliminate any false promises.) Second, there are the (black and white) flashback sequences, giving rather fragmentary information on the cults' backgrounds and their motivation. With one exception: The past of the leader is explored a bit deeper, giving insight into an insane mixture of incest, homosexual rape and other violence. Since this is exploitation at it's worst (and therefore best), there's not need to be convincing or realistic. The characters are pure cliché, direction is fourth class, the music is campy, the actors can't act. With other words: Great fun, highly entertaining, and the script even has some notable ideas.