Having been raised in a creepy cult from birth through high school (I won’t say which!), this editor finds movies featuring fringe religions or reclusive communities especially nerve wracking. In an article for Script Lab, David Young says that writers can learn a lot about crafting horror from films featuring cults or cult-like enclaves.
Young examines 7 films – including Hereditary, Children of the Corn, and Rosemary’s Baby – to find lessons about using red herrings to mislead your readers, describing the effects of psychological and physical abuse, and portraying the weird as perfectly normal.
