Tag: cult

Will the Real ‘Scott Pilgrim’ Please Stand Up?

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Were we to outline the millennial canon—a collection of works that illuminate the generation’s character—then surely Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim would rank rather prominently. Scott Pilgrim is the story of a dweeby Canadian bassist who meet-cutes his mysterious American dream girl, Ramona Flowers, only to discover that in order to date Ramona, he must first defeat her “seven evil exes” in a series of boss fights across the mean streets and concert halls of Toronto.

These graphic novels, serialized in six volumes, released from 2004 through 2010, were a new sort of coming-of-age saga—a cute but also quite moody comic about love and video games and rock music. While O’Malley was still writing Scott Pilgrim, Edgar Wright directed a largely faithful live-action film adaptation, Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, starring Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Scott and Ramona, respectively, alongside a weirdly stacked cast of once and future stars: Chris Evans, Aubrey Plaza, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Kieran Culkin. Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World was a box office flop in its opening weekend but then a weirdly resilient cultural object in the following decade, spawning so many GIFs on Peak Tumblr as the movie matured into a nerdy cult classic. Now, the acclaimed anime studio Science Saru, in conjunction with Netflix, has reimagined the comic as an eight-episode series, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. O’Malley wrote this new series with BenDavid Grabinski, and he also made a point to recruit all of the actors from Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World for the voice cast of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off; Edgar Wright also returns as an executive producer.

But Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, rather unlike Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, is a smorgasbord of creative liberties. O’Malley was still writing the comic while Wright’s live-action adaptation was in postproduction, and he’s recently talked about how the performances in Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World gave him a new perspective and new ideas for several characters—possibilities he now gets to pursue in the anime.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off was billed as an adaptation but turns out to be a meta sort-of sequel or reboot. This is the story of Scott Pilgrim in fact losing that first fight with Ramona’s first boyfriend, Matthew Patel, at Club Rockit. In this version, Scott seemingly dies in battle before Ramona discovers that Scott hasn’t been killed, but rather kidnapped. Now, Ramona must confront her own exes and solve the mystery of Scott’s disappearance.

Accordingly, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off features a lot less Scott and a lot more Ramona, especially, but also everyone else in revised capacities. The League of Ramona’s Evil Exes is in disarray, as early on Matthew leads a coup against the group’s founder and the final boss of the original series, Gideon Graves. The other exes, absent any reason or opportunity to battle Scott, instead spend much of the series catching up with Ramona. Scott’s band, Sex Bob-Omb, is suddenly without a bassist, until drummer Kim Pine recruits Scott’s first girlfriend and Sex Bob-Omb’s no. 1 fan, Knives Chau. (Knives is surely the most improved characterization in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, compared to her role in Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, as Ellen Wong really leans into the new format and voices the character with yandere gusto.) As a reboot, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off gets to preserve these characters in adolescence but otherwise give them new glimpses and alternative arcs. The original premise is certainly more compelling for Scott’s intense and singular determination—beat the exes, win the girl—but Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is a refreshingly loose and playful take on these character dynamics.

The very fact of Scott Pilgrim enjoying a 2020s revival isn’t so surprising, given the unkillable nature of IP these days. And the revival coming in the form of a somewhat subversive reboot also isn’t so surprising, given the meta humor of the original comic. But why anime? And why would O’Malley and Grabinski go through the trouble of reuniting the actors from the live-action adaptation for the voice cast? The answer, in both cases, is nostalgia. Scott Pilgrim and O’Malley’s other works are chock-full of homages to video games, anime, and manga; in fact, Scott Pilgrim is in large part distinguished in balancing its more novelistic aspects with good ol’ fashioned superhero action.

Anime, if anything, ends up feeling like an inevitable format for Scott Pilgrim, even if the production is something of a fluke: this sort of crossover is pretty rare, and if Netflix didn’t have this particular relationship with Science Saru, then I can’t imagine this particular anime would’ve been made some other way. Which is doubly fortunate, really, as these days I can’t imagine many other studios tackling Scott Pilgrim as capably as Science Saru, a studio renowned for its saucy and surreal depictions of young adulthood.

Scott Pilgrim is in many ways a nostalgic tour of its author’s formative influences, e.g., Scott wears an Astro Boy tee, and he’s constantly talking about Sonic the Hedgehog. This explains the conspicuous effort to hire the old cast for the new series. Wright’s cast may not have been a part of O’Malley’s original vision for Scott Pilgrim, but the cast has, with the passage of time, added a new layer of nostalgia—not for Wright’s live-action adaptation per se, but for the whole cultural peak of Scott Pilgrim in 2010. O’Malley says he was prepared to produce a version of this anime with an original voice cast, in the event that he couldn’t get each and every one of the notable actors from Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World to return for Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. I’m sure his backup plan would’ve worked out well enough, but the returning cast really does bolster the series and create the illusion that not much has changed since the release of O’Malley’s final volume and Wright’s adaptation of the comic.

As I was watching an advance screener of the anime, I encountered some online speculation that its release might mark the beginning of a whole new era of Scott Pilgrim content from O’Malley—a Scott Pilgrim Cinematic Universe, even. It was an interesting thought, but also one that, if anything, underscored the limitations of these characters. Scott Pilgrim is such a distinctly adolescent saga, and it’s hard to imagine Scott and Ramona maturing into their 20s, out of their bombastic courtship and into a real relationship or, alternatively, to imagine Scott moving on from Ramona Flowers and wooing some other girl in some later phase of his life. Scott Pilgrim is these characters in this particular time in their lives.

Indeed, in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Scott and Ramona both confront much older versions of themselves. Older Scott is still rocking out in a ridiculous band, Older Ramona is still turning her hair purple and pink, but they’re both clearly the worse for wear, and they’re both still reeling from the later, harder work of trying—and for a period, failing—to build a life together. But O’Malley will only go so far in subverting the canonical love story of Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers. It all ends with a kiss, and while O’Malley’s comic and Wright’s movie are both invaluable artifacts of the Tumblr Era, the anime makes for a fantastic epilogue.

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Justin Charity

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November 17, 2023
Mother God, Robin Williams, and Alcohol as Medicine: Inside Love Has Won

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Love Has Won, called a cult by former followers, was not the sort where the leader overdoses on power, sexually abuses followers, and hoards weapons until it all implodes. This group’s leader, Amy Carlson, began her journey more as cult followers tend to: She fell down an internet rabbit hole, then ran away from her family. Before long, though, she claimed to be God and started collecting followers…who helped her slowly die.

“Amy created a palace of lies that she could not escape from,” explains director Hannah Olson, whose three-part HBO documentary series, Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God, premiered Monday.

In April 2021, following a tip, police located a body in an advanced state of decomposition, wrapped in a sleeping bag and decorated with Christmas lights. Carlson had died some days earlier in an Oregon hotel. Not knowing what else to do, her disciples had then taken the corpse to a campground—they were pulled over by cops on the way, who thought the body in the back, wearing a hat and glasses, was sleeping—where they were met by others in the group. The deceased’s boyfriend, known to acolytes as Father God, slept next to her in a tent. Then he and two other followers drove her body across five state lines, back to a home base in Colorado. Before she died, her skin had turned grayish blue. The police who found her thought she had been painted.

Three weeks later, Olson was in town, conducting interviews and scouring more than a thousand hours of footage from the group’s 2,700 YouTube videos and live streams. In 2016, the director had become interested in the way alternate realities were penetrating our democracy. “It’s easy for us to write off people with beliefs that we see as really far out there, rather than looking at the circumstances that created those beliefs,” she says. When she heard about Carlson, she saw an opportunity.

No one wakes up one day and decides to devote themselves to a woman in Colorado who is 19 billion years old and being helped by a team of dead celebrities, led by Robin Williams, in a cosmic battle against “the cabal.” A woman who can cure cancer, addiction, Lyme disease, and suicidal thoughts; one who would also “drink herself into oblivion every single night,” as one former follower puts it in the series. It takes time to get there. In Love Has Won, Olson effectively depicts the water reaching a boil.

There are no talking head experts in the series, or clips of media stories. Outside of Carlson’s family members, a local sheriff, and a reporter, the story is told exclusively by current and former followers and the footage they left behind, lending the series an immersive quality. Ultimately, it’s a story of people escaping untenable lives.

In 2007, after a descent into extreme online thought—including classic conspiracy theories as well as beliefs about angels and ascended masters—Carlson abandoned her working-class life and her children in order to join a guy she met online. Soon they were preaching about the deity within us all in their own videos, as Mother God and Father God. But then, as the original Father God says in the series, Carlson decided “she was more God than other people were God.” She left him and found a new Father God (there would be several), who claimed she had cured his cancer. A so-called cult was born.

The self-styled deity sold remote healings and slowly gained an impressive online audience: almost 20,000 followers on Facebook and nearly 10,000 on YouTube. The group’s videos were watched more than 1.5 million times. All the while, she convinced more and more people to escape their lives and join her party. “You were high from the moment you woke up to the moment you went to bed,” a former follower recalls in the series.

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Jane Borden

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November 14, 2023
Cult Stash locations and puzzle solutions in Alan Wake 2
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Every Cult Stash you open in Alan Wake 2 will grant you helpful rewards. Like Lunch Boxes and Nursery Rhymes, finding Cult Stashes is an optional pursuit while you’re in control of Saga around Bright Falls and the surrounding areas as she investigates the Cult of the Tree.

In this Alan Wake 2 guide, we’ll show you where you can find Cult Stash locations, how to solve every Cult Stash you find, and what rewards you’ll get from every Cult Stash you open.

Note: This guide is in progress. We’ll add more Cult Stashes as we find them.

Cult Stash locations in Cauldron Lake

There are a total of five Cult Stash locations in the Cauldron Lake area, but you’ll only be able to get four of them during your first adventure in the area. These Cult Stashes come with a variety of supplies, but one of them in the Cauldron Lake area comes with an inventory expansion, which is definitely something you’ll want to have sooner rather than later.

If you miss any of these stashes on your first trip, you will be able to grab them later on in the game.

Cauldron Lake Cult Stash #1 (“Confused? Follow the Steps”)

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

The first cult stash is just south of the Murder Site and general store (where you get the shotgun) on the map. In front of the long, rectangular trailer, you’ll find a heavy box with a lock on it.

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

On top of the box, you’ll find a taped piece of paper, which reads: “Confused? Follow the steps! Wash hands, take chicken out of fridge, take a nap.”

The note is directing you toward the trailer. If you go inside the trailer and look at the bathroom sink, the fridge, and then the bed in the bedroom, you’ll see three symbols in order:
1. Two triangles with their points touching at an angle
2. Two triangles with their points touching that are vertical
3. Horizontal elevator “open door” buttons
(These symbols don’t have names, so if our descriptions are tough to follow, run through the house in the order we listed above to check for yourself.)

Head to the lock on the chest and input the three symbols we’ve listed above. Once in the right order, the chest will pop open and you’ll be rewarded with some handgun ammo and a trauma pad.

Cauldron Lake Cult Stash #2

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

You won’t be able to access this Cult Stash until after you’ve defeated Nightingale — the game’s first boss — and woken up on the shore with a mysterious companion.

Once you’re headed back toward the Witch’s Sign and the Overlap, hang to your right and you’ll find a ton of gnarly tree limbs scattered along a shore area. It doesn’t really look like you can adventure any further, but if you walk up to the biggest tree blocking your way, Saga will climb under it.

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

Once on the other side of the big tree, make your way through the narrow path until you reach another Cult Stash. This lock is the simplest to open by far. Activate it and some lights will flash in an order. Hit the buttons in the same order that the lock just showed you — like Simon Says — and it’ll pop open.

This is a pretty great stash to find, as it includes some shotgun ammo, a propane tank, a hand flare, and most importantly, an inventory expansion.

Cauldron Lake Cult Stash #3 (“Rock Rock Tree”)

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

Once you’ve removed the flooding from Cauldron Lake and you’re able to get down by the river, you’ll find another Cult Stash just south of the Private Cabin, in a little ravine that leads out to the lake itself.

The Cult Stash is on a shelf next to the cabin, and simply says “Rock, Rock, Tree. Are you bright enough?”

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

This one is a little tricky, as you’ll need to do some minor math and hunt around for the code. If you’re just looking for the code, here you go: 658.

The gist is that there are two numbers written on a rock down by the river (to the south) that say 7 and -2. Then there’s a tree to the left of the box with a 6 and a +2 on it. And then there’s another rock to the right of the box with 3 and +3. If you do the math on this, that means you’re dealing with 5, 6, and 8.

The cache doesn’t specify which rock is first, so we just had to try both to figure out the order.

You’ll get a propane tank and a first aid kit for your trouble.

Cauldron Lake Cult Stash #4

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

Just west of the Witch Sign, next to the tent icon in the Crow’s Foot Hills on the map, you’ll find another stash. Depending on how you approach it, you’ll likely see the golden arrows before you see the box itself.

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

The box just has a picture of a lightbulb on it. If you look at the trees from the west (looking east, toward where your car and the parking lot is) with your flashlight, you’ll see a bunch of arrows leading you to the right (or south, on the map). Follow these arrows and you’ll eventually find some keys on a mound of dirt.

Pick up the Streamside Stash Key and bring it back to the stash to unlock it and earn a hand flare, some shotgun ammo, and a trauma pad.

Cult Stash locations in Watery

There are a total of eight Cult Stash locations in Watery, which you’ll be able to head to as Saga once you complete the first Alan gameplay section. These Cult Stashes come with a variety of supplies — as usual — but one of them in Watery is how you’ll unlock the Crossbow, which is a powerful long-range weapon for Saga.

If you miss any of these stashes on your first trip to Watery, you will be able to grab them later on in the game.

Watery Cult Stash #1

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

North of downtown Watery, just after you meet the Taken Throwers for the first time, you’ll find yourself on a winding trail up into the woods. Keep going until you’re able to turn right and head back the way you came along a small ridge — if you make it to the rest shack with the generator, you’ve gone too far, and if you find a nursery rhyme, you didn’t go far enough.

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

After passing by some foliage you’ll find yourself on a ridge overlooking the area you just walked through. On the lip of the ridge is a Cult Stash. This has the same Simon Says-style lock as the second Cauldron Lake Cult Stash. Copy the inputs and it’ll pop open, netting you a propane tank and some shotgun ammo.

Watery Cult Stash #2

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

North of downtown Watery you’ll find a safe room shack with a generator outside. Once you turn it on and save your game, walk outside the safe room and you’ll see another Cult Stash sitting under and awning by the shooting range. If you read the note you’ll see that this Cult Stash is where you can get a Crossbow — if only you could figure out the code…

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

The code here is 527, and the way you figure it out is actually pretty cute.

If you look at the crossbow training area to the right of the stash, you’ll see a bunch of targets with numbers on them. The five has one bolt sticking out of it (indicating it’s the first number), the two has two bolts, and the seven has three bolts.

Input the code and steal the Crossbow for yourself. You can grab all of the bolts out of the aforementioned numbers to get some extra ammo.

Watery Cult Stash #3 (“Only striped cups”)

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

Once you make it inside Coffee World, you’ll find another Cult Stash at the foot of the Slow Roaster, the creaky death-trap of a Ferris Wheel.

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

The code here is 147, and the clue says “only striped cups.”

If you look up at the Slow Roaster you’ll see that all the Ferris Wheel carriages are numbered and some are striped. You just need to pick the three striped ones and put in their corresponding numbers. You’ll get some shotgun and handgun ammo for your trouble.

Watery Cult Stash #4 (“What hides behind the smile?”)

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

In Coffee World, in the section of the map sandwiched between the “Coffee World” area (the one south of the Slow Roaster, not the big red sign on the map) and Kalevala Knights Workshop, you’ll find the Huotari Well. And behind the Huotari Well, against the back wall of the area, is another Cult Stash.

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

The clue shows a picture of Drippy — the giant coffee pot mascot for Coffee World — and says “what hides behind the smile.” This sounds cryptic, but it’s actually quite literal. Head back toward the Coffee World area and the main entrance to the park (remember, you entered from the back) and you’ll see the giant, painted Drippy made out of concrete, sitting on a wall. Walk up behind the mascot and weasel your way though a little gate to what looks almost like a tiny garden. You’ll find a key sitting on the ground.

Grab the Coffee World Stash Key and take it back to the Cult Stash to get some handgun, shotgun, and crossbow ammo.

Watery Cult Stash #5

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

West of the Watery Lighthouse and its nearby safe room, you’ll find a ledge you can grab up on. Climb up to find a Cult Stash sitting against a rock. Here, you’ll need to shine your flashlight around looking for cult symbols in a particular order. But there are way more symbols here than codes to place into the lock, so you’ll need to narrow it down.

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

The code to the box is:
1. Two triangles facing down on top of each other
2. Two triangles facing up on top of each other
3. Two triangles next to each other facing down
You can find this pattern for yourself by looking around for the roman numerals above each symbol. These symbols are marked with an I, II, and III respectively.

You’ll get a propane tank, an arrow, and some pistol ammo for your trouble.

Watery Cult Stash #6

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

Once you’ve conquered the Overlap in Watery and made the flooding subside, head back to Saga’s trailer (marked “‘My’ Trailer” on the map) and go to the trailer one just south of it. Head toward the front door, which faces the dock, and you’ll see the Cult Stash hanging out under an awning near the front door.

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

There is no hint on this stash at all, and while you could go into the house and read some emails to figure out where to find the key, we’ll just tell you where it is.

Facing the stash, walk right and you’ll see a ramp that leads up to a pole. Walk up the ramp and look to your left. Grab the Trailer Park Stash Key off of the electrical box and use it to open the stash.

You’ll get an arrow, a propane tank, and a trauma pad for your trouble.

Watery Cult Stash #7 (“Battery 1600 Amps math problem”)

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

Once the flooding has gone down in Watery, head back into downtown and go down the dock facing to the east, on the farthest edge of town. You’ll find the Cult Stash box sitting next to some other boxes and it’ll have a bit of a math problem for you to solve. Let’s take a look:

There are 3 batteries (B1, B2, B3) which have a combined charge of 1600 Amps. B2 has 128 Amps more than B3. B1 has two times as much charge as B3. How many Amps does B2 have?

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing via Polygon

The correct answer and code is 496.

Show our work? Sure! Subtract 128 from 1600, which gives you 1472. Divide that number by four (three different batteries, but we know one of them is double the other, so it counts for two), to get the value of our lowest battery, B3: 368. Multiple B3 by two and you’ll get B1: 736. And add that 128 back to B3 and you get the code and answer to B2: 496. Check your work by adding 368, 736, and 496 back together and you get 1600 Amps exactly. Math!

You’ll get an arrow, a trauma pad, and shotgun shells for flexing your math skills.

More Cult Stash locations coming soon!
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Ryan Gilliam

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November 2, 2023
Captivating New Audiobook Helps Trauma and Cult Survivors Find Hope Through Humor

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LOS ANGELES, May 22, 2023 (Newswire.com)
–
Crewest Studio, an independent publisher with a focus on the arts, and Katie Love, critically-acclaimed author and comedian, today announced the launch of Love’s new audiobook, “Two Tickets to Paradise – From Cult To Comedy.” This unique and powerful memoir is a testament to the power of humor as a healing force for trauma and cult survivors. The audiobook, a heartfelt exploration of Love’s life journey from childhood trauma to redemption through humor, is now available on Audible and Amazon via https://fromculttocomedy.com.

With an engaging narrative style, “Two Tickets to Paradise” shares the tale of nine-year-old Katie discovering her mother’s suicide, only to be taken in by her older sister and shown a path of hope by entering a controlling religious group. Katie’s initial pursuit of perfection and entrance into “Paradise” unfolds with both heartbreak and humor, perfectly capturing the dichotomy of the human experience. As her devoutness to the religion evolves into a nightmare, she ultimately finds a way to escape, allowing humor and self-discovery to guide her toward healing.

Striving to foster a sense of connection, empathy, and healing among listeners, this powerful memoir is certain to resonate with survivors of trauma and control-based groups. The honest account and universal themes ensure that the audiobook will appeal to a broad spectrum of audiences, transcending any particular religious or cultural background.

Kirkus Reviews commends Love’s talent as a storyteller, stating, “a bighearted personal story about the creation of an artist,” and recognizes her ability to evoke emotions and authenticity in her compelling memoir. The engaging narration invites the reader into Love’s world, delivering a story that is poignant, hilarious, and ultimately, inspiring.

Katie Love, herself a talented writer, comedian, writing coach, and producer, takes the reader on the journey from the trials of her troubled past to her emergence as an accomplished humorist. Through her unflinching examination of her childhood experiences, she discovers the transformative power of laughter and forges a connection with those who have walked a similar path.

The audiobook adds a new dimension to the already powerful written word, allowing listeners to hear Love’s compelling story directly from her own voice. This immersive experience promotes an even deeper connection, as Katie narrates the events that shaped her life and her journey towards healing.

The launch of the “Two Tickets to Paradise – From Cult To Comedy” audiobook, released by Crewest Studio, provides a beacon of hope and encouragement to those who have endured trauma or control by emphasizing the power of humor, personal growth and resilience, and the possibility of positive change. It is certain to leave a lasting impact on listeners from all walks of life.

Just in time for summer reading, “Two Tickets to Paradise – From Cult To Comedy” is also available in paperback and Kindle formats, offering readers multiple ways to enjoy Katie Love’s inspiring story. To find the most convenient option and enjoy this unforgettable memoir, visit https://fromculttocomedy.com.

About Crewest Studio

Crewest Studio is a Los Angeles-based production company specializing in arts and culture programming across film, television, podcasting, publishing and events.

Source: Crewest Studio LLC

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May 22, 2023
Billie Eilish’s Unhinged ‘Swarm’ Character Was Inspired By A Real Cult, Co-Creator Reveals

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Warning: Spoilers for the Prime Video series “Swarm” below.

It should be no secret that Amazon Prime’s new viral hit show “Swarm” has had the internet in a chokehold since its premiere last week.

From its grisly trailer — which as been viewed more than 6.5 million times on YouTube as of this writing — to a viral steamy sex scene featuring Chloe Bailey and Damson Idris, the dark comedy series has caused quite the stir on social media.

Grammy winner Billie Eilish, who made her acting debut on the twisted show centered on a pop-star-obsessed serial killer, has recently garnered massive praise on Twitter over her role, which the show’s creator says was inspired by a real cult leader.

“There is a cult that existed in the world that was very prominent during that time,” Janine Nabers, who co-created the series alongside “Atlanta” creator Donald Glover, said in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “And that is the kind of true-crime element to that episode.”

“I think that when people think of the idea of artists or celebrities, there is this idea of thinking about the cult of Taylor Swift, or the cult of The Beatles or whatever,” Nabers added. “What we were really interested in was just seeing someone who worships at the altar of ‘something,’ and [exploring] this idea of what is the cult of the mind.”

Billie’s mysterious character, Eva, who leads a cult that disguises itself as a “women’s empowerment group” in Episode 4, is seemingly inspired by NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere, according to THR.

In October 2020, Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison and a $1,750,000 fine over his involvement in a high-profile sex trafficking case.

“Swarm” follows a warped heroine named Dre (Dominique Fishback) whose unhealthy obsession with an intentional Beyoncé-like figure named Ni’Jah leads her to go on a murderous rampage across the country.

The thriller also stars Kiersey Clemons (“Dope”), Rickey Thompson and Paris Jackson.

Season 1 of “Swarm” is available to stream on Prime Video.

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March 20, 2023
Time Travel, Brain Scans, and FBI Drop-Ins: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of a QAnon Commune

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Kasey watched as her sister, now living just a few blocks from where they had grown up, tried to put a girl-power branding on QAnon. When I talked to Kasey in July 2020, a month after she had first asked me for help, she was losing hope that her sister would ever leave Steinbart’s group. Mutual friends who saw Kiley’s increasingly QAnon-focused posts asked Kasey if her sister had lost her mind.

“She’s more into it than even before,” she said.

I never heard from Kasey again. After we spoke in July, she stopped responding to my calls and text messages. But in videos posted by Steinbart’s group, Kiley addressed her sister’s recent death. Kasey died of a heart attack at twenty-seven years old.

With Kasey gone, I lost my closest connection to Steinbart’s group, right as he drew in more followers and became a more vocal figure in QAnon. But internally, Steinbart’s compound had already started to collapse.

The Ranch crew projected a cheerful image online, coming off like a season of The Real World with a time-traveler for a roommate. Steinbart’s videos garnered tens of thousands of views, filled with responses from QAnon believers convinced he was Q.

It seemed like there was nothing those closest to Steinbart wouldn’t accept. They didn’t seem to mind that there was no evidence that he had billions of dollars. At times, it seemed like Steinbart had set up a force field outside the Ranch that no sense of reality could penetrate.

The fun-loving portrayal of life at the Ranch belied the fact that Steinbart faced a mountain of legal problems that could send him to prison for years. Steinbart’s bail conditions prohibited him from drinking alcohol or using drugs, rules he freely flouted in the company of his followers. Tellingly, visitors were required to sign non-disclosure agreements prohibiting them from discussing any such drinking or smoking “habits” they witnessed at the Ranch. But Steinbart’s drug and alcohol use became a vulnerability as some of his followers started to become suspicious about his claims.

A follower named Mike became disaffected. Instead of working to carry out “Operation QAnon,” Mike noticed, residents at the Ranch just drank all night and slept the day away. And while Steinbart claimed that he had enough money to fund the entire Space Force, he asked his followers to pay whenever he wanted a six-pack of beer.

“He never paid for a single thing there,” Mike said in a video posted online, urging other Steinbart followers to abandon their leader.

The Ranch purge began. He began to suspect that his once-loyal aides had installed hidden cameras around the house to catch him breaking his bail conditions.

Somehow, whether from one of Steinbart’s defectors or some other means, court officials discovered that Steinbart had violated his bail restrictions. He was arrested again in September 2020, and admitted to drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana. When police searched his house, they found a “Whizzinator,” a prosthetic penis meant to cheat drug tests. A judge ruled him held until trial.

Steinbart’s imprisonment shattered the Ranch. With their charismatic leader now in only sporadic contact via a jailhouse telephone, some of Steinbart’s remaining followers began to wonder what they were doing with their lives.

Steinbart was out of jail by the summer of 2021, after pleading guilty in April 2021 to the extortion charge and being sentenced to eight months time-served. But his path back to QAnon greatness had vanished. The Ranch collective dissolved in his absence. The post-riot social media crack-down on QAnon followers obliterated his YouTube and Twitter accounts. And while Steinbart claimed he had won new adherents in jail, many of his genuine followers had returned to their pre-Steinbart lives.

Michael Rae Khoury, a Steinbart follower who had put $40,000 of his own money into the group invited me to Phoenix to see Steinbart give a speech at the premiere of an election fraud documentary. Other QAnon believers treated Steinbart’s flock like “lepers,” Khoury complained, but they didn’t know what was really going on since Steinbart’s release. I should come see it for myself.

I couldn’t turn down the chance. Steinbart’s QAnon experiment had burned itself out, but it was still one of the strangest ways that QAnon had played out in the real world. And I wanted to find out what had happened to Kiley Mayer.

Steinbart had somehow snagged a speaking spot at the premiere of a conspiracy-theory film about election fraud.

Steinbart helped secure a church on the outskirts of Phoenix for the premiere, and his remaining followers passed out flyers to drum up interest. The premiere coincided with the end of Arizona Republicans’ controversial inspection of millions of votes—an attempt to find any scrap of evidence to dispute the fact that Biden had won the state—and the premiere doubled as a party for the audit team. It had drawn some boldface names on the right, including Michael Flynn’s brother and some state lawmakers.

Steinbart struggled to get invited to conferences for mainline QAnon believers, who still saw him as, at best, a crank. But he had no problem getting a booth at the premiere, where his roughly dozen remaining supporters advertised a club service called “Q Meetups”—Steinbart’s latest attempt to take his version of QAnon nationwide.

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Will Sommer

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February 17, 2023