Lifetime drops a breathless trailer for its movie about the NXIVM sex cult
Aux Features Coming Distractions
NXIVM, the bizarre “sex cult” that counted Smallville actress Allison Mack in its ranks, is too weird a story to not get dissected to death. HBO, for example, has a documentary on the way, while Lifetime, as one might expect, wasted little time in putting together its own sensational depiction. Today, the network released a trailer for its take, and, well, it’s about as unsubtle as you’d expect. A breathy “Yes, Master” punctuates each escalating beat, and now we just really need to take a shower.
Escaping The NXIVM Cult: A Mother’s Fight To Save Her Daughter is based on Catherine Oxenberg’s Captive, a memoir about her efforts to extract her daughter, India, from the orbit of NXIVM founder Keith Raniere. Twilight’s Peter Facinelli stars as Raniere, who was found guilty of racketeering, sex trafficking and other crimes in June. Sara Fletcher, meanwhile, will play Mack and, as the trailer demonstrates, the resemblance is striking. Per Lifetime, the film will expose “the intricate seductive power of Allison and Keith and the mental and physical abuse India fell victim to.”
The film premieres on September 21 and arrives with a documentary in which Gretchen Carlson will interview Oxenberg and other individuals involved in the dismantling of the organization.
31 Comments
I have little faith that Gretchen will provide a good interview. I’m fully expecting her to turn shit around on the victims.
Maxwell Lord from Supergirl and Chloe from Smallville both turned evil! I did not see that coming. Well, not for her
Don’t forget about the actor who played Pete Ross pleading guilty in a conspiracy to move 10,000 pills of Oxy.
Wait what?
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/smallville-actor-his-way-prison-204674
Wow. What does it say when you get busted for smuggling 10,000 pills of Oxy and you’re still only the second worst criminal on your show.
I worked on one of this cult’s offshoot websites for half a day as part of an interview for a job I did not get. AMA
Were you compensated in cash, or, uh, favors?
They paid for my flight and hotel room to come out for the interview. It was for a contractor building the website, not for the cult itself.
i did one of their 5 day sessions. it was clearly a scam from the get go, but it seemed more like a way to separate bored rich people from their cash than anything truly nefarious.
Was it immediately apparent that something deeply weird was going on, or did it seem like a run of the mill scam/seminar nonsense?
It seemed more like a high-end pyramid scheme than anything else. It was for Jness, which was all about empowering women. Apparently being fully empowered requires 10 weekend getaways at $10k/trip. But each cluster was led by a “grandmother” who could recruit new “sisters” and get a cut of what they paid for the retreats.
What big teeth you have, etc. Thank you for your reply!
The sex cult was just one part of this guys operation. He had a bunch of other scams and scam adjacent things going on.
Who killed Kennedy?
The ghost of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
What’s the fastest animal on earth?
The Mordavian Scuttlebunny.
Incorrect. That would be the cheetah, as well as a missed Airplane II reference.
I fully accept ownership for my failure in this exchange.
Looks like you picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.
What’s the point of Lifetime doing this story? If I’m going to watch a ripped-from-the-headlines take on a bizarre sci-fi sex cult, I want some shameless Italian horror director to film it. This story seems wasted on Lifetime.
I can just imagine the dialogue:Lifetime movie mom: “Oh, God, India! Did you do ‘it’ with him?”
“India! What did I tell you about sleeping with danger?”
Right now, Uncover’s “Escaping NXIVM” podcast seems to be the number one resource for understanding what it was. Definitely worth a listen.
That was an excellent season. I haven’t listened to the subsequent ones yet.
Say what you will about it being a cult intent on ensnaring people: NXIVM was great at brand management.
TANYA!
Don’t know anything about Nexium. Everytime I got to the part where branding is a horror but tattooing is not, I got confused and lost track.
Peter Facinelli stars as Raniere
Wait, the jock from Can’t Hardly Wait? Now I genuinely can’t wait to see this.
You could’ve at least said you can’t hardly wait to see this. Come on.
Damn. I ought to be thrown in the punitentiary for missing that one.