Movies about Cults: Essential Films
The subgenre of films about cults encompasses everything from satanic panic classics to modern psychological thrillers, exploring the disturbing world of religious manipulation and fanatical devotion. Our watch list spans multiple eras and approaches to the subject matter.
From the foundational works of the late 1960s and 1970s - including Rosemary's Baby and The Wicker Man - to modern classics such as The Master and Midsommar, these films examine how charismatic leaders control their followers. The list includes folk horror nightmares, deprogramming dramas, satanic ritual thrillers, and international perspectives from South Korea, Turkey, and beyond.
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List not ranked (sorted by Release Date)

Rosemary's Baby
A young couple moves into a notorious New York apartment building with dark secrets, where Rosemary becomes increasingly paranoid about her elderly neighbors and their sinister intentions regarding her pregnancy.

The Devil Rides Out
The Duc de Richelieu battles the sinister Satanist Mocata to save his friend's soul from the forces of darkness. This classic Hammer horror film pits good against evil in a supernatural struggle involving occult rituals and demonic summoning.

The Wicker Man
A devoutly Christian police sergeant travels to a remote Scottish island to investigate a missing child, only to discover the pagan community's disturbing rituals and beliefs that challenge everything he holds sacred.

Race with the Devil
Two couples on an RV vacation witness a satanic ritual murder and find themselves terrorized by the cult members who want to silence them.

The Devil's Rain
A burned Satanist cult leader returns from the dead to hunt down the descendants of those who destroyed him, using a supernatural book of blood contracts to claim their souls.

To the Devil a Daughter
An American occult novelist must rescue a young girl from a dangerous Satanic cult led by an excommunicated priest who has sinister plans for her soul.

Split Image
When a young man becomes indoctrinated by a religious cult, his desperate parents hire a deprogrammer to kidnap him and attempt to break his psychological conditioning.

Children of the Corn
A traveling couple becomes stranded in a remote Nebraska town where they discover a sinister cult of children who worship a dark entity dwelling in the surrounding cornfields.

Society
A teenage boy from a wealthy family begins to suspect that his upper-class relatives and their social circle are hiding a dark secret. His paranoia reaches a breaking point when he discovers the disturbing truth about their exclusive society.

The Sect
A lonely schoolteacher's act of kindness toward an elderly stranger she nearly hits with her car leads her into the dangerous world of a Satanic cult operating in Frankfurt.

Lord of Illusions
A private investigator in Los Angeles becomes entangled with a dangerous cult attempting to resurrect their deceased leader, a powerful and malevolent magician.

Eyes Wide Shut
A New York doctor becomes obsessed with sexual exploration after his wife admits to fantasizing about another man, leading him into a mysterious underground world that proves more dangerous than he anticipated.

The Ninth Gate
A rare book dealer becomes entangled in supernatural events when he's hired to authenticate copies of an ancient text rumored to possess the power to summon the Devil.

Dagon
After a boating accident, Paul and his girlfriend Barbara find themselves stranded in a mysterious Spanish fishing village where the locals worship an ancient sea god. As night falls, they discover the town harbors dark secrets and inhuman creatures that threaten their survival.

The House of the Devil
A cash-strapped college student takes a mysterious babysitting job during a lunar eclipse, only to discover her employers have sinister intentions that put her life at risk.

Red State
A group of teenagers responding to an online invitation find themselves trapped by a dangerous Christian fundamentalist cult with deadly intentions.

Martha Marcy May Marlene
After escaping from a cult, Martha seeks refuge with her estranged sister but struggles to readjust to normal life as disturbing memories and paranoia continue to haunt her.

Sound of My Voice
A journalist and his girlfriend infiltrate a mysterious cult whose enigmatic leader claims to be a time traveler from the future.

The Master
A troubled WWII veteran with PTSD becomes involved with the charismatic leader of a mysterious new religious movement in post-war America.

Jug Face
A young woman in a remote woodland community must find a way to survive when a supernatural pit demands her as its next blood sacrifice.

The Sacrament
Two journalists follow their friend to a remote religious commune called Eden Parish, where they discover the utopian community harbors dark secrets under its mysterious leader known as "Father." What begins as a documentary quickly becomes a fight for survival.

Faults
A desperate couple hires a cult deprogramming expert to help rescue their daughter from the grip of a mysterious religious group called Faults.

Last Shift
A rookie police officer working the final shift at a closing police station discovers the building harbors dark supernatural forces. Trapped inside and unable to leave, she must survive the night against malevolent entities that call the station home.

Baskin
A squad of unsuspecting police officers stumble upon a horrifying Black Mass ritual in an abandoned building, leading them into a nightmarish descent into hell.

Colonia
A young woman infiltrates the notorious Colonia Dignidad sect in Chile while searching for her missing boyfriend, entering a place from which no one has ever escaped.

The Invitation
When Will and his girlfriend attend a dinner party at his ex-wife's house, he becomes increasingly suspicious that their charming hosts have sinister intentions for the evening.

The Void
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The Veil
A documentary crew returns to the site of a religious cult's mass suicide 30 years earlier, accompanied by the sole survivor who was just five years old when the tragedy occurred. Their investigation uncovers disturbing secrets that prove more terrifying than the original incident.

The Wailing
When a mysterious stranger arrives in a small Korean village, a deadly sickness begins spreading among the residents. A local policeman must uncover the supernatural truth behind the epidemic to save his infected daughter.

The Ritual
A group of college friends on a reunion trip through a remote forest encounter a sinister presence that begins stalking them through the dark woods.

The Endless
Two brothers reluctantly return to the mysterious cult they escaped from years earlier, only to discover that the group's seemingly impossible beliefs about time and reality might actually be true.

Apostle
In 1905, a man travels to a remote island to rescue his sister from a mysterious religious cult that has kidnapped her.

Hereditary
After the death of their family matriarch, Annie and her children discover dark secrets about their ancestry that plunge them into a terrifying supernatural nightmare they cannot escape.

Mandy
In 1983, a peaceful couple's idyllic life in the Shadow Mountains is violently shattered, sending Red on a surreal and bloody quest for vengeance.

1BR
When Sarah moves into what seems like the perfect Los Angeles apartment with friendly neighbors and great amenities, she discovers that the building harbors dark secrets and she may not be there by choice.

Midsommar
A group of friends travels to a remote Swedish village to witness a rare midsummer festival, but their idyllic getaway gradually transforms into a disturbing nightmare as they become entangled in the community's sinister traditions.

The Lodge
A father leaves his children with his new girlfriend Grace at a remote holiday lodge, where they become trapped by a blizzard and face terrifying supernatural events linked to Grace's troubled past.

The Empty Man
An ex-cop investigating a missing girl's disappearance uncovers a mysterious cult trying to summon a dangerous supernatural entity.
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