The reason I watch documentaries is to learn something new, to educate myself about a subject I don't know a lot about it. Did I really learn anything after watching The Way Down? No, not really. It's always been obvious to me that cults are just a bunch of rather desperate people getting indoctrinated by some delusional gurus. I would say 99% of those people are easily fooled idiots that need something to believe in, that need somebody to tell them what to do in life. Starting a cult is actually very easy. You just need to be a smooth talker, set up somes rules, it doesn't matter how crazy they are as long as in the long term you're the entire beneficiary of it, and then just start looking for some naive dumb people, and that is believe it or not the easiest thing in the world to do as we're surrounded by them on this planet. Is this documentary good? Well it's basically interviews of cult members that left the crazy circus, telling us what crazy people did there, without realizing they were those crazy people themselves. They don't like it that people see them as fools but the truth is they are, and most of them still are when you hear them speaking. The upper guru here is Gwen Shamblin, an abomination, as well physically as mentally. That anybody would listen to anything that "thing" has to say is beyond my comprehension, I will never understand it. Let alone that anybody would want a relation with her. I wouldn't touch her with a ten foot barge pole, even if she was the last woman on earth. Her second husband, yeah that's the crazy thing, she's allowed to divorce whilst others aren't, is an opportunist that saw there was some easy money to be made whilst just smile at anything the upper guru has to tell, probably poke her every now and then to keep the diva satisfied (respect that he managed to do that, I wouldn't be able to). The tragic deaths of all those leaders (well tragic is a big word, I would rather say that karma is a b***h), was the funniest thing about this documentary. I guess God has a special kind of humor. The upper guru had also kids, a son that looked miserable all the time because of depression, and a daughter that looked miserable because a lack of food intake. If for some obscure reason her little lunatics club would fail in the future (I doubt it considering the amount of idiots available on planet earth), there's still a chance for the daughter to get the major role in The Corpse Bride if somebody would make a movie out of it. So is this documentary worth a watch? I tend to say yes, even if you're like me a convinced atheist that will end up in eternal suffering in their fictional hell. At least you get the feeling you're smarter than all those sheeple. I had all kind of feelings whilst watching the five episodes of The Way Down, mostly anger and disbelief, hatred towards the leaders, but not really compassion towards the "victims", I mean nobody put a gun to their head, they're just weak, naive and not very smart. This wasn't the first cult, this will not be the last cult, there are millions of Gods to chose from, so I'll you need to succeed creating your own is finding your flock of dumbos.
Review of The Way Down
