Netflix’s newest hit drama has a star-studded cast including Asa Butterfield and Christopher Ecclestone, but the selling point for many is still the creepy cult at the centre of the TV show.
Unchosen is the biggest show in the world on Netflix right now, sitting at number one in the UK and number one worldwide on the streamer.
Reviews have been mixed on the series, with it sitting at a slightly disappointing 63% on Rotten Tomatoes, but fans have already become obsessed with the cult-focused show.
The TV series follows a woman in a controlling Christian cult who encounters a mysterious stranger, with him joining the cult and initiating an affair with her.
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Whilst the series is not a one-to-one recreation of any one cult, it still has clear inspirations from some cults in the UK, with the creator Julie Gearey revealing what conversations she had with cult survivors.
Viewers have identified inspiration from some real-life cults
The Sunday Times claims that the show ‘borrows from the Plymouth Brethren and other ultra-conservative groups’, and the comparisons don’t just stop there.
The series was actually filmed in a church hall in Harrow where the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church operated.
Whilst the Plymouth Brethren dispute the title they are often referred to as a cult. They have 55,000 members and are a conservative Protestant movement with strict rules and a general distance from wider society.
Gearey spoke to real cult survivors to inspire the series
The creator has said in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum that the series was partially inspired by a moment at a supermarket where she encountered a woman in full religious garb.
She said: “I thought, ‘I wonder what her life is like when she goes home.’
“We are a similar age, we have similar-age kids, and yet I’m going my way into the mainstream world, and she’s going left into her world.”
Speaking about interviews with cult survivors, Gearey explained that they interviewed several on the condition of anonymity. She said: “It was important to reassure them as much as we could that, firstly, nobody watching the show would ever recognize them, and, secondly, that whatever they had to say about the emotional experience of being involved, we would try to respect and reflect as truthfully as possible within the show.”
The show grapples with the sexuality of the characters involved, particularly with Asa Butterfield’s Adam, which was inspired by real testimonies. She said: “Several people we met had struggled with their sexuality within these groups.
“That was a story that kept coming up again and again, if you’re not straight, there’s no place for you.”
Topics: Netflix, TV and Film, TV
Michael Slavin