New Docuseries About Infamous Heaven's Gate Cult Is Coming Next Month

A new docuseries about the infamous Heaven's Gate cult is out next week. Watch the trailer here:

Heaven's Gate: The Cult of Cults is a four-part series investigating the mysterious Heaven's Gate UFO religious cult, which was founded in San Diego in the 1970s.

The cult made international headlines in 1997 when the bodies of 39 members who had participated in a mass suicide were discovered by authorities.

A synopsis of the docuseries reads: "Heaven's Gate: The Cult of Cults is a thorough examination of the infamous UFO cult through the eyes of its former members and loved ones.

"What started in 1975 with the disappearance of 20 people from a small town in Oregon ended in 1997 with the largest suicide on US soil and changed the face of modern new age religion forever.

HBO Max

"This four-part docuseries uses never-before-seen footage and first-person accounts to explore the infamous UFO cult that shocked the nation with their out-of-this-world beliefs."

The series is directed and executive produced by Clay Tweel and will be available to stream on HBO Max on 3 December.

In the meantime, you can also watch Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult, another documentary about an infamous cult.

The docuseries tells the story of India Oxenberg, who was just 19 when she was lured into the NXIVM cult in 2011, having been drawn in by its promises of self-empowerment.

Little did she know that beneath the façade of a business programme and self-help group, NXIVM (pronounced 'Nexium') had another, much darker purpose as a sex cult, with a secret society dubbed DOS serving to please the group's leader and co-founder Keith Raniere.

Members were forced into sex acts, sending Raniere intimate photos, and even having their crotches branded with his initials.

Starz

A synopsis reads: "Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult chronicles the extraordinary and harrowing journey of India Oxenberg - the daughter of Hollywood actress Catherine Oxenberg and a descendant of European royalty - who was seduced into the modern-day sex-slave cult NXIVM.

"More than 17,000 people, including India, enrolled in NXIVM's 'Executive Success Programs', a front for the cult and a hunting ground for its leader, master predator Keith Raniere.

"Women in DOS, a secret master-slave society within NXIVM, were sex-trafficked and branded with a cauterizing iron."

You can watch it now on US cable network Starz.

Topics: TV and Film, US Entertainment

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey