Metacritic reviews

I can't imagine anyone not being both horrified and fascinated by Stanley Nelson's Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple.

Nelson's film eschews sensationalism, and knowing how the story ends in no way diminishes its visceral impact.

Five people did escape, and they contribute their stories to the spellbinding documentary.

Nelson has fashioned a compelling movie around an unfathomable mystery. To see Jones's face, eyes hidden behind trademark aviator shades, is to experience the last shock in Psycho. His is the blank stare of living death.

Through interviews with Jonestown survivors and rare footage of Jones himself, this sober documentary presents an unforgettable historical portrait.

As this powerful, minutely documented film reveals, the tragedy wasn’t caused by the failure of the Peoples Temple to realize its goals. In many ways, it was succeeding as a self-sufficient community.

Meticulously researched documentary.

Provides lethal evidence of what becomes of those who deposit their sincerity into the command of a religious lunatic.

PBS-bound docu constitutes a revealing look at a poorly understood chapter in American history.

The Peoples Temple congregation was sizably African-American. But when it comes to how those followers turned into a zombie Kool-Aid death cult, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple leaves you with more questions than you went in with.