By their very nature, cults have always preyed on the susceptibilities of their victims, but these days they’ve been playing to the sensibilities of the masses. Cults—or, rather, the idea of them—have gone strangely mainstream in pop culture and fashion.
Beginning with Margaret Qualley’s characterization of a youthful, fun-loving hippie (who also happens to be a Manson-family member) in the film Once upon a Time … in Hollywood, and now Nicole Kidman’s turn as a witchy wellness guru, a character who might have been torn from a cult leader’s playbook, in the television mini-series Nine Perfect Strangers, cults are starting to seem like the place to be.
