This very interesting and disturbing TV film was based not on the Jonestown cult massacre but on the exploits of "The Two". This male and female pair of deluded UFO contactees roamed America in the 70's enlisting converts. I read articles about them then in major magazines such as TIME. They then disappeared and I wondered what had become of them. They resurfaced in the mid-90's as "Bo & Peep" the leaders of the suicidal Heaven's Gate cult. They believed they were in contact with a spaceship that was coming to Earth to collect them and was following in the wake of the Hale Bop comet. I think this TV movie takes an accurate and chilling look into the world of religious delusion, kooks, cults and the "outsider" mentality. I stumbled upon it late one night and it hooked me and has stayed with me. Highly recommended.
5 Reviews
But For A Hollywood Movie?
richard.fuller131 May 2014
Warning: Spoilers
I remember this thing. We see the two strangers, they summon people, friendly and cult-like, into tents, then everyone vanishes. Where did they go? Where the two people really from outer space? Now I'm hearing this oddity was based on the cult that killed themselves, Heaven's Gate in the '90s or whenever it was. Or indirectly based on them, obviously.
This then gives way to why would Hollywood talent produce such an odd concoction as this, as if it were challenging people's open-mindedness.
Why not do that with plain old Christian views? But we can't have that, can we? That would be ripe for jokes.
And this isn't? Overall, this movie offered no insight into beliefs in aliens or anything else.
It was as dated as Wonder Woman effects. For some reason I recall watching it as we would V or something.
Truly bad.
Watch it if you like bad sci fi from the eighties, which can have its place, but it's unfortunate place in history makes you question the decisions they make in Hollywood all the more.
This then gives way to why would Hollywood talent produce such an odd concoction as this, as if it were challenging people's open-mindedness.
Why not do that with plain old Christian views? But we can't have that, can we? That would be ripe for jokes.
And this isn't? Overall, this movie offered no insight into beliefs in aliens or anything else.
It was as dated as Wonder Woman effects. For some reason I recall watching it as we would V or something.
Truly bad.
Watch it if you like bad sci fi from the eighties, which can have its place, but it's unfortunate place in history makes you question the decisions they make in Hollywood all the more.
Genuinely Spooky
nephihaha10 May 2012
I got the chance to watch this twice on an obscure cable channel. Otherwise it's very difficult to get hold of (it didn't appear on IMDb for a number of years).
It's by turns quite dated and cheesy, and oddly creepy and atmospheric. We never do really find out what's going on. In that sense, it's quite close to "Picnic at Hanging Rock". Two cult leaders start indoctrinating people, and one by one they start disappearing. The lesson here, perhaps is about giving yourself over to the unknown, particularly when you don't know what its intentions are.
Basically this film is a reaction to the various UFO sects that have sprung up over the years (especially in the decade or so before the film) - Heaven's Gate, Raelians, Share International ("Maitreya"), George Adamski, the Aetherius Society etc, and also some of the tragedies resulting from New Religious Movements in general, e.g. the Jonestown Massacre, the Manson Gang etc. As it turned out, the film demonstrates a real concern, as there have been many more such tragedies since then. It's also about the souring of the hippie/New Age ideal, about peace and love distorted and gone horribly wrong.
It's by turns quite dated and cheesy, and oddly creepy and atmospheric. We never do really find out what's going on. In that sense, it's quite close to "Picnic at Hanging Rock". Two cult leaders start indoctrinating people, and one by one they start disappearing. The lesson here, perhaps is about giving yourself over to the unknown, particularly when you don't know what its intentions are.
Basically this film is a reaction to the various UFO sects that have sprung up over the years (especially in the decade or so before the film) - Heaven's Gate, Raelians, Share International ("Maitreya"), George Adamski, the Aetherius Society etc, and also some of the tragedies resulting from New Religious Movements in general, e.g. the Jonestown Massacre, the Manson Gang etc. As it turned out, the film demonstrates a real concern, as there have been many more such tragedies since then. It's also about the souring of the hippie/New Age ideal, about peace and love distorted and gone horribly wrong.
Mysterious Two=Heaven's Gate
eljonez9 May 2003
This movie was actually based on the Heaven's Gate cult that up and committed mass suicide in San Diego in 1997. The characters played by Pointer and Forsythe are based on Ti and Do, leaders of the UFO cult. Although the movie is profoundly hokey, it's a pretty chilling thing to watch when you realize that it's based on a genuine cult and sort of illustrates exactly what their plans were 15 years before they decided to act on them.
Well, Now I Have To See This Again!
jkevinstevens3 July 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This was a network TV (CBS, NBC, or ABC) movie-of-the-week production that aired a couple of times. I just stumbled across one of those airings, and recall it was totally engrossing.
The story, as I remember it, had more to do with two grifting cult-leaders, though you have to stay til the end to discover that. It's pretty convincing in a suspenseful, are-they-or-aren't-they kind of way. They build an amazing structure (with the money they glean from their followers) in anticipation of an otherworldly visit predicted for a certain date, but on the very day it was supposed to happen, the mysterious two vanish, leaving behind a large group of beguiled cultists to wonder whatever happened to their big day.
I do not remember any of the cultist followers disappearing, as alluded to in other reviews here, which is why I need to see this again.
The story, as I remember it, had more to do with two grifting cult-leaders, though you have to stay til the end to discover that. It's pretty convincing in a suspenseful, are-they-or-aren't-they kind of way. They build an amazing structure (with the money they glean from their followers) in anticipation of an otherworldly visit predicted for a certain date, but on the very day it was supposed to happen, the mysterious two vanish, leaving behind a large group of beguiled cultists to wonder whatever happened to their big day.
I do not remember any of the cultist followers disappearing, as alluded to in other reviews here, which is why I need to see this again.
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