Jeunesse volée: la secte du Sarah Lawrence College

As many millennial women do, I love a good cult story. This one takes the cake as far as modern-day (post-2000) sex cults go. This doc gives shocking insight into the events and experiences that took place within a small group of friends on and off the Sarah Lawrence campus starting in 2010 and lasting for over a decade.

Whether or not you are not familiar with this story, watch this series. It gives first hand accounts of what took place and also offers just an absolutely insane glimpse of just how far brain washing can go. The home footage and audio recordings are harrowing and the things these kids were convinced to do is genuinely incredible.

I went thru a lot of emotions while watching this Hulu documentary: Intrigue- As to why I had never heard of this situation and why the hell is this adult living in this dorm? Where is the damn RA?! I was a RA in college and I would have kicked his a$$ out.

Bewilderment- At the human mind and how the human mind can get so brainwashed to believe certain things by a charasmatic individual. Cults are so fascinating to me in general. I could see how college students whose frontal lobes are still being developed could easily get involved in a very manipulative situation.

Mild blown- At what Mr. Larry Ray was able to convince these students to do for him. Almost to the point where I was like this can't be true but then reminded myself of the Waco Branch Davidians, Jim Jones, and Heaven's Gate where adults blindly followed these men which ultimately led to their deaths so anything is possible.

I had heard about this story when it occurred at the time, and watched the 3 episode documentary because it was reviewed so positively by most critics. It did remind me a little bit of the NXIVM cult, as someone else mentioned in another review. I guess some people think that what Larry Ray did to these people wouldn't be possible, but sadly, there are many people out there looking for answers who are not very strong-minded, and want others to do all their thinking for them. As you can see in the documentary, not all the Sarah Lawrence friends fell under Larry Ray's evil spell. Sadly, some did. The manipulation and the implanting of false memories was stunning. Watching and listening to Larry Ray was like watching and listening to Pure Evil. One of the good/bad things about society today compared to 40 years ago is that people can easily videotape and audiotape themselves (and seem to enjoy doing that, by the way). Sadly, I'm sure things like this happened 40 years ago, but there is little, if any documentation of what happened. Now, we get to see a lot of it.

As Episode 1 of "Stolen Youth" (2023 release; 3 episodes ranging from 64 min to 75 min each) opens, it is "Freshman Year 2009" at Sarah Lawrence College. MGMT's "Time to Pretend" is blasting away, and we are introduced to a group of then18 yo kids, who are now in their early 30s. They bond, and by their sophomore, they move in together in an off-campus house. Things couldn't be better. Then out of the blue, Tania's dad, Larry Ray, recently released from jail, also moves in, "temporarily"... At this point we are 10 minutes into the opening episode.

Couple of comments: this mini-series is the latest from award-winning director Zach Heinzerling ("Cutie and the Boxer", "McCartney 3,2.1"). Here he looks back at the bizarre events that unfolded in the early 2010s in New York involving a group of college kids being manipulated by a narcissistic guy, I mean, you can't make this stuff up! It is at the same time fascinating and nauseating. It's like watching a train wreck happening before you very own eyes. In addition to the many audio and video archive materials, we also hear from many of the people directly involved, looking back at this more than a decade later, some seemingly still shellshocked as they recount these events and how they ended up getting stuck in a cult, because that is what it was. Psychological manipulation in its most extreme form is what happened here. You probably are thinking that this could never happen to you, and that is exactly what this group of kids is now warning you about: if it could happen to them, it can happen to anyone. Please note that this mini-series is NOT titled "Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence". It is simply titled "Stolen Youth", per the mini-series film credits.

"Stolen Youth" premiered on Hulu in late February. I binged the 3 episodes in a single setting, and found this a lot more compelling that I had expected. If you are in the mood for a true crime documentary mini-series that reminds us what a cult is like, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

Agree with previous review to ignore the low ratings because people for some reason don't like or believe the story. Are you by any chance in Larryland?

The recordings and videos are horrific, my heart goes out to these people. Someone who experienced gaslighting and emotional abuse at home I can easily believe why these kids ended up in this situation. The end of episode two floored me!

It's great (for a lack of better word) that this documentary had the actual recordings, this is what some of documentaries really lack, I don't understand how someone can claim it's one sided or scripted, it's not that type of documentary.