Holy Hell

Release Date: May 27, 2016
Runtime: 100 minutes
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: CNN Films
Director: Will Allen
Cast: Will Allen; Cristala Allen; David Christopher; Phillipe Coquet; Radhia Gleis; Murti Hower

Documentaries are tricky to review: oftentimes they are someone’s very personal story. The examined subject means a tremendous amount to a person or persons and it requires a certain level of discretion to tell their story in a manner at once respectful and sensitive, yet informative and entertaining. Holy Hell is filmmaker Will Allen’s cathartical account of his twenty-two years lived as a devoted member of the Buddhafield, a New Age-y cult presided over by failed actor turned guru and despot, Michel Rostand (later Andreas, later Reyji).

Allen, raised a Catholic, joined the cult (as so many young, smart, curious people do) seeking a sense of purpose, for meaning in the world. He found it in the Buddhafield, a utopian community filled with gorgeous, energetic, nubile things like him. The group members spent their days smiling, swimming, playing, and meditating…all under the direction of creepy (they always are) and charismatic (they are always that too) Svengali, Michel Rostand. Rostand promised his followers peace, spiritual growth, and, ultimately, if they were lucky and deemed “ready,” the chance to experience the Knowing (group speak for a personal audience with God). Further tightening the vice on his followers, Rostand required each member to undergo intense therapy sessions where he traded on his training in hypnosis to coerce intimate confessions from the individual. Sooner or later, under the impression that he or she was being guided down the road to enlightenment, the now-obedient follower would cater to any whim of their leader.

As the Buddhafield grew in size (Will enlisted both of his sisters into cult membership), Will developed into more of a manservant to Rostand, eventually “working his way up” to acting as his personal masseur. Yet as with just about every maniacal leader you can think of from cults of the past, things were not what they appeared to be in the Buddhafield and emotional and spiritual devastation were not far off.

Leveraging a lifelong interest in filmmaking into a position as the group’s designated videographer, Allen is able to showcase in Holy Hell an astounding amount of collected homemade film that traces his time in the group from the beginning in the mid-1980s to the present. He balances the footage with documentary-standard interviews with former cult members, all of whom agree that the only positive aspect to emerge from their collective experience was the sense of family and community that both attracted them to the cult and remained with them after their defection. While not exactly Spielberg, Allen nevertheless demonstrates a flair for the visual, honed over the course of many years directing short films and music videos for the group.

No question Michel Rostand is (as the movie indicates, he is still espousing his gobbledygook in Hawaii under the name of Reyji) is a deluded psychopath, and I hope his current followers stumble upon this film on Netflix. However, every cult leader is a deluded psychopath. Holy Hell provides little background information on Rostand (perhaps, as Allen indicates, this is because Rostand divulged very little about himself to the group) other than that he was an unsuccessful actor (he was an extra in Rosemary’s Baby (1968)), a possible porn star, and a fervent lover of ballet who fancied himself something of a Baryshnikov. Whatever the case may be, Rostand comes across as your average deranged Speedo-wearing cult leader; attractive to some, bewilderingly insane to (most) others. What Holy Hell effectively illustrates is the frequently baffling issue of how intelligent people from good families and backgrounds wind up in cultic situations. All of Allen’s interviewees are articulate, well spoken, and offer stupefying reflections about how they allowed themselves to surrender a chunk of their lives and bodies to this man. It’s fascinating psychology: no wonder many ex-cult members pursue work in psychotherapy and religious studies.

Holy Hell starts off like so many other stories about cult leaders, yet evolves into a remarkably affirmative portrait of a group of people, forever bound by a harrowing ordeal, who have all survived and, in the end, found peace.