Academic literature on the topic 'Cults – Jonestown massacre'

The chapter begins with an analysis of The Invitation (2015). The film evokes the 1969 Manson Family murders and the 1978 Jonestown Massacre in a manner which underlines its subtly metafictional resonance. It is as much a film about the long-standing association between California and dangerous cult organisations as it is about a fictionalised version of one of these groups. Here, the qualities which make California an attractive locale for those seeking spiritual fulfilment again make it the perfect breeding ground for a cult which promises ‘utopia’ but instead delivers madness, destruction, and death. This is also the case in 1BR (2019) in which a vulnerable young woman is taken captive by a cult which promises to re-invent the concept of ‘community’. Finally, it is argued that The Circle by Dave Eggers builds upon earlier iterations of the ‘California as Poisoned Eden’ trope. Here, Northern California is the headquarters of a powerful tech company which ultimately comes to resemble the cults previously discussed in this section. Here, the supposedly progressive ‘technological utopia’ which is one of the newer manifestations of the ‘Californian dream’ is a dehumanizing and unstoppable nightmare.

This chapter begins by observing that California has long attracted those in search of a ‘fresh start’, opportunity, physical renewal and spiritual fulfilment. It explores texts in which these long-standing associations become actively dystopian. The chapter begins with a detailed discussion of the relationship between California and ‘cult’ organisations and an analysis of the ways in which the dystopian flipside of the ‘hippie dream’ emerged from the late 1960s onwards. Then it discusses discuss Our Lady of Darkness, in which San Francisco is depicted as a primal locale which particularly welcoming to charismatic charlatans. Fritz Leiber’s debt to Clark Ashton Smith, is discussed, as is the importance of San Francisco’s unique topography. Philip Kaufman’s 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is described as a classic urban nightmare lent further resonance because of the ways in which the film anticipates the real-life horrors which would soon beset the city: the Jonestown Massacre, and the murders of Mayor George Moscone and LGBT rights activist Harvey Milk in City Hall (an important setting in the film).