The Clearing is the eerie new psychological thriller on Disney+ that will shock you to your core. What's more is that while Hollywood regularly takes inspiration from true stories, the fact that this eight-episode series is based on real-life events is even more startling.
Starring Miranda Otto, Teresa Palmer, and Guy Pearce, the show follows one mysterious woman who faces the demons of her past to prevent a dangerous and religious secret cult from gathering children and coercing them into executing their grand master plan.
If that wasn't enough to send shivers down your spine, the show is a creepy yet fascinating look into the damage done to a society where facts and fiction are blurred when a female leader is at its helm.
The show, which is the first Australian original scripted series from Disney+, has been written by Matt Cameron, Elise McCredie, and Osamah Sami.
It is based on the best-selling 2020 novel by J.P. Pomare titled In The Clearing, which is a fictionalised account of the Australian New Age group, the Family.
But what is the real-life sorry behind the cult, which inspired the book and, subsequently, the limited television series?
Well, the actual Australian doomsday cult, the Family, was formed in the mid-1960s in regional Victoria under the leadership of yoga teacher Anne Hamilton-Byrne, who claimed she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and a living god.
Over two decades, the cult, which preached that it was "a mishmash of Christianity, eastern mysticism and apocalyptic prophecy", got its hands on 28 children through shady adoptions arranged by lawyers, doctors, and social workers within the group. Some children were "gifts" from unwed mothers, while others were natural children of members of the Family.
All the children were housed in a secluded Lake Eildon property where they were allegedly subjected to beatings and starvation and frequently dosed with benzodiazepines to keep them under control.
The children, who were all told that Anne Hamilton-Byrne was their mother, were also allegedly forced to take psychedelic drugs and left in dark rooms while under the influence.
The downfall of the cult came when one of the children, Sarah Hamilton-Byrne was expelled from the cult for rebelling in 1987. She then worked with a private investigator to bring the Family to the attention of the Victoria Police. Shortly after, A raid occurred at the Kai Lama property, and all children were removed from the premises.
Anne was charged with conspiracy to defraud and to commit perjury by falsely registering the births of three unrelated children as her own triplets in 1993. Those charges were eventually dropped, but she pleaded guilty to the remaining charge of making a false declaration and was fined $5,000.
While the history and the events of the cult are shocking, to say the least, it's important to note that the series doesn't cover every A-Z detail and is more like a fictionalised account which touches on real-life facts.
But it's a show that will stay with you for a while, as Jeffrey Walker, the show's co-director, said: "It was one of those reads that you just couldn't stop thinking about. It affected me emotionally and psychologically."
The Clearing is available to stream on Disney+.
