Branded & Brainwashed: Inside Nxivm

As with most recent true crime documentaries, this one uses repetitive reenactments to the point of distraction. The story is compelling enough to provide the material for a much better film. Podcasters and other so-called "experts" are interviewed with the usual cliches.

Keith Raniere is just another con man who was able to convince a large number of gullible women, including the wealthy offspring of Samuel Bronfman, to fund his self help organization. His flock believed his long line of BS, which was largely based on many of the precepts of Scientology.

An actress named Allison Mack was his best recruiter and she was not only his lover but also quite handy with a modified branding iron.

I am constantly mystified by the need for people to believe in charismatic figureheads. I have lived long enough to only depend on my own common sense.

This is a documentary exploring the genesis and growth of NXIVM (which has origins in the word slave) from the very start, using recreations, actual footage, and interviews with both past members and experts on cults. Kieth is a person with great charm and charisma, and had an aura about him of being intellectually superior. He started out like many groups peddling human potential development, instilling in a person a sense of purpose. As it grew, the seminars became more extensive and longer, with the understanding that you must experience discomfort if you want to grow. In reality, it is a technique of breaking a person down to manipulate them. In a way, it is psychological manipulation to have one understand that one can never obtain the goal, but there are workshops ($$$) you can take to try. There are parallels implied to some of the same approaches used by Scientology, which will probably get push back by them. As things became darker, he preached that one being a victim is on you, so it cannot be rape, etc. A person needs to shed their victim hood. The darkest is the recruitment of the DOS program for women. It is chronological, but also a bit uneven. The thing about cults that makes them successful is that one doesn't realize one is in a cult. The strength of the movie is at each stage of the growth of NXIVM, the experts explain how that fits into the eventual goals of the cult. Vanguard and Prefect were names of him and his top associate, so it makes them into not just a person, but much more than that.

Chock-full of inaccurate information, hyperbolic buzz words, salacious gossip, and repeating the same myths and unproven rumors that have already been rehashed to death. The only information that are both proven and correct about Kristin Snyder are her name and her location and her master's degree. Even her given age in November 2002 was wrong. Plus, Kristin never took a NXIVM class -- because NXIVM did not even exist at that time. The intensives she took were ESP. The unproven but often-repeated story about the space shuttle was presented as if it were fact, and the timeline is just plain wrong anyway. The space shuttle exploded during her second ESP class -- but this mockumentary states that she believed she was responsible for the disaster (again: unproven and unverified) and THEN signed up for a second NXIVM (wrong: ESP) class. Also, Kristin did NOT go to Albany to "meet Keith Raniere," she visited the center for a couple of days to learn more about ESP while in the lower 48s visiting many other states/friends. Albany was NOT her first stop in January 2003 nor was it her last! This mockdoc states as fact that Kris is dead, wrong, Kris Snyder is a missing person with an open ongoing missing persons case! Seriously worst mockdoc on this subject so far.