Best movies & TV Shows like A Sinister Sect: Colonia Dignidad

Cult leader Warren Jeffs rises to power in the polygamist Mormon sect once headed by his late father, but some of his wives fight back to bring him to justice. Based on a true story.

A journalist and his girlfriend get pulled in while they investigate a cult whose leader claims to be from the future.

A young woman's desperate search for her abducted boyfriend draws her into the infamous Colonia Dignidad, a sect nobody ever escaped from.

Savage Messiah is a docudrama about Roch "Moïse" Thériault, the charismatic former leader of a small religious group based near Burnt River, Ontario, Canada. Between 1977 and 1989 he held sway over as many as 12 adults and 26 children. He used all of the nine women as concubines, and probably fathered most of the children in the group. During his reign, Thériault mutilated several members. His major crime was to kill Solange Boilard, his legal wife, by disembowelment while trying to perform surgery on her. He was arrested for assault in 1989, and convicted of murder in 1993. Along with Clifford Olsen and Paul Bernardo, Thériault is considered one of Canada's most notorious criminals.

Anne Hamilton-Byrne was beautiful, charismatic and delusional. She was also incredibly dangerous. Convinced she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, Hamilton-Byrne headed an apocalyptic sect called The Family, which was prominent in Melbourne from the 1960s through to the 1990s. With her husband Bill, she acquired numerous children – some through adoption scams, some born to cult members – and raised them as her own. Isolated from the outside world, the children were dressed in matching outfits, had identical dyed blonde hair, and were allegedly beaten, starved and injected with LSD. Taught that Hamilton-Byrne was both their mother and the messiah, the children were eventually rescued during a police raid in 1987, but their trauma had only just begun.

Rüdiger was a child, Aki two months old and Kurt, the deputy of the pedophile leader of the sect. In 1961 they came to Chile together with 500 other German sect members and for over 40 years they lived secluded from the rest of the world. The film tells about the attempt to survive as a collective after decades of crimes such as torture and murder and shows different ways in which the individual copes with the history of the community.

After 20 years of exile, Aron returns to Chile to find out who he is. He asks questions, not only of those who stayed behind but also of himself, examining his relationship with his past and his own memory. The people who stayed lived through 20 years of dictatorship. They were either victims or executioners. Amidst this wreckage, Aron wonders what name his brother is using now, where his father is... Can he, in Isol's arms and through her love, find his way again ? What future awaits him? Like Mola the torturer, he has returned from an impossible journey, and Aron knows that each man is his own executioner. Shipwreck and resurrection are the two facets of a complex truth.

María, a girl from Colonia Dignidad, in Chile —a kind of sectarian community, tyrannically mastered by the ruthless Paul Schäfer, a German madman, religious fanatic and child predator, who would end up turning the place into a torture center at the service of the military dictatorship ruled by Augusto Pinochet—, is punished for having lost three pigs, so she decides to run away and take refuge in an abandoned house hidden in the forest.

Most of us know Billy Graham as the self-assured and charismatic preacher who became one of the most important figures of 20th Century Christianity. Now, with the release of Billy: The Early Years, we meet Billy as the earnest and promising young man at the crossroads of faith and doubt, ultimately facing the moment of decision that launched one of history’s most powerful evangelistic careers.

An American couple in Chile is drawn into the turmoil that followed President Salvador Allende's 1973 overthrow.

Pablo, a 12-year-old boy, receives a scholarship to attend school in the mysterious and isolated Colonia Dignidad established in Chile by German settlers. It seems to be quite a privilege for a kid like him, and he quickly becomes the favourite of the leader of the colony, Uncle Paul. Over time, Pablo witnesses some kind of strange things which happen there and make him act differently than the other students.

The harrowing true story of the 1993 standoff between the FBI, ATF and the Branch Davidians, a spiritual sect led by David Koresh in Waco, TX that resulted in a deadly shootout and fire.

Based on the novel by Jane Rogers, the series follows the stories of seven young women who came to live and serve in the household of 19th century cult leader John Wroe.

Colorized historical footage in ascending order of World War 1. Not only the relatively known Flanders and France battles, but also the generally unknown Italian-Austrian, German-Polish-Russian, Japanese-German, Ottoman Empire- Allied and African German Colonies, and other unknown or forgotten fronts and battles.

Berlin, 1914: When Katharina von Strahlberg discovers that her husband Richard had an affair with her sister-in-law Martha, she leaves him after stealing some important plans and photos of East Africa and travels to Dar es Salaam with one of Richard's business partners. In the German colony, she learns that nobody wants to employ her because of her husband's power, but she draws new courage from meeting Franz Lukas, a doctor, and Victor March, a lively Scotsman...

When a controversial cult leader builds a utopian city in the Oregon desert, conflict with the locals escalates into a national scandal.

Elizabeth Vargas, alongside former members of controversial organizations, goes on a search to uncover how these sects use their influence to prey upon people's desperation to create powerful and often destructive belief systems. Each episode will take an immersive look at one currently active group through the eyes of past devotees and get perspective from believers and leaders that are still inside.

People Magazine explores shocking stories of ordinary people who, lured by promises of eternal life, get caught up in a terrifying web of abuse, deception, and manipulation. Explore the deeply disturbing world of cults through the eyes of survivors who managed to escape.

The Germanic cult 'Colonia Dignidad' abused children, tortured and killed prisoners in its secret compound. Now, with Chilean dictator Pinochet gone, Leo Ramírez, a young federal prosecutor, must bring its leader Paul Schaefer to justice.

The self-proclaimed preacher Paul Schäfer gathered people around him in post-war Germany. The sect founded a youth home near Cologne. But in 1961 Schäfer had to flee. Many followers followed him to Chile. 350 kilometers south of Santiago, far away from civilization, they begin building the Colonia Dignidad. A supposed model village with workshops, agriculture, livestock breeding was being created. But paradise became hell because slave labor, violence and sexual abuse soon became a part of everyday life. After the military coup in 1973, Schäfer served the new rulers: secret police chief Manuel Contreras and dictator Augusto Pinochet now came and went in the colony, while the opponents of the terrorist regime are tortured and killed in the cellars. Using unpublished archive material and contemporary witness statements, this 4-part documentary miniseries traces the complex, 50-year history of perpetrators, victims, supporters and opponents of this place that became the epitome of evil.

The untold story behind cult leader Charles Manson and his followers' heinous crimes as told through interviews with former members, archival footage, and newly-unearthed images.

This four-part documentary series follows the story of India Oxenberg's perilous journey through the dark and criminal world of the notorious self-help-group-turned-sex-slave-cult NXIVM.

The documentary series explores different political figures throughout history.

Explores the world's most notorious and prolific cults Children of God, through the stories of three British women who escaped its clutches.

Explore how the late Gwen Shamblin Lara, who founded the controversial Remnant Fellowship Church and created the Christian weight loss program The Weigh Down Workshop, rose to fame as a diet guru and church leader.

25 defendants, 300 trial days and a legal scandal that has gone down in the history of jurisprudence: In this thrilling legal drama, bestselling author Ferdinand von Schirach transports the so-called "Worms Trials", a German legal scandal from the nineties into the present. The result is a gripping, current legal drama about hysteria in social media, collective anger and how the hunger for revenge can overlook the victims.

The harrowing true story of the Broberg family, whose daughter Jan was kidnapped multiple times over a period of years by a charismatic, obsessed family "friend." The Brobergs — devoted to their faith, family, and community — were utterly unprepared for the sophisticated tactics their neighbor used to exploit their vulnerabilities, drive them apart, and turn their daughter against them. This is the story of how their lives were permanently altered — and how they survived.

In interviews and rare home video footage, ex-FLDS members share the truth about their isolated community — and the events that pushed them to leave.

The pulse-pounding true story of charismatic vigilante Faye Yager, who built a vast underground network that hid hundreds of mothers and children, saving them from the alleged abuse of husbands and fathers when a broken court system would not.

Explore the horrifying story of the Christian church La Luz del Mundo (LLDM) and the sexual abuse that scores of members, many of them minors, say they have suffered at the hands of its successive leaders, known as the "Apostles."

A group of bright Sarah Lawrence College students fall under the dark influence of a friend's father, Larry Ray. With unprecedented access to the survivors who lived with Ray, the series follows the cult from its origins through its still-unfolding aftermath.

Preacher, populist, politician - the electrifying rise of the Reverend Ian Paisley.

A limited docuseries exposing the truth beneath the wholesome Americana surface of reality tv’s favorite mega-family, The Duggars, and the radical organization behind them: The Institute in Basic Life Principles. As details of the family and their scandals unfold, we realize they’re part of an insidious, much larger threat already in motion, with democracy itself in peril.

A deep-dive into the history of a splinter group of Mormon fundamentalist cult members who perpetrate a deadly wave of violence and abuse for decades in the name of their fanatical prophet, Ervil LeBaron.

A portrait of a brutal Pinochet military dictatorship made during a three month visit to Chile in 1985 by David Bradbury. The footage reveals a country torn with civil strife and political unrest; military intimidation of the population; indiscriminate arrests: murder torture and disappearances were facts of Chilean life.