Can you imagine being so annoying that a suicide cult cuts you out of the mass suicide? Well that’s exactly what happens to Chip at the beginning of Let’s Start a Cult.

After discovering that his fellow cult members have “ascended” without him, Chip’s life loses meaning and he returns to his family home, where we discover that Chip is somehow the least annoying member of his family. Then, one night, Chip sees his former cult on the news following the discovery of their bodies, and learns that the cult’s leader, Bill, did not, in fact, die along with everyone else. Chip decides to track him down and confront him about the fact that he was left behind, but instead ends up joining forces with Bill, and together they begin recruiting members for a new cult.

Synopsis

Having missed out on his cult’s long awaited ritual suicide, an obnoxious loser teams up with his bogus ex-messiah to rebuild their doomsday commune. Traveling together through middle America, the constantly-bickering duo induct a military wannabe, a mentally unstable mom, and a mysterious foreign hitchhiker into their cult… but will this family of outcasts fulfill their transcendent destiny, or decide this life might be worth living after all?

Let’s Start a Cult stars Stavros Halkias as Chip, Wes Haney as Bill, Eric Rahill as Tyler, and Katy Fullan as Diane. There are also cameos from Ethan Suplee, Joe Pera, Tom Papas, and CM Punk. The film was directed by Ben Kitnick and written by Kitnick, Haney and Halkias.

Have a look at the trailer below!

Based on the trailer, I expected this to be a hilarious movie. While Let’s Start a Cult certainly had some great laugh out loud moments, other parts really seemed to drag. I’m going to try not not to give too much away while taking a look at what worked and what didn’t.

I’ll start with what I thought worked well in Let’s Start a Cult. First and foremost, the acting was great. From stars Stavros Halkias and Wes Haney, to cameo actors Ethan Suplee and CM Punk, I felt all of the actors really brought their characters to life. And speaking of characters, all of the characters felt like real people. I can’t say for sure whether that’s down to the writing or the acting, but it’s likely a combination of the two. There were also some pretty fantastic creative choices, such as showing the “tracking issues” with the VHS tape recorded by the cult members, which might not make sense to a younger audience, but to me, it helped to lend a very definite 90s vibe to the movie.

Now, some things I felt didn’t work as well in Let’s Start a Cult. The biggest one of these things, for me, was the logic of the story. Bill creates a suicide cult with the intentions, I assume, to swindle these folks of all their worldly possessions and then convince them to kill themselves, thus leaving no witnesses and/or victims behind to point the finger at him. So far it’s all making sense. Buy why, then, does he make this videotape, even going so far as to appear on this tape and proclaim himself as the leader of this group? And why address the tape to a media personality and instruct Chip to mail the tape?

One could reasonably assume that Chip was expected to fail at this task, as he had failed at all tasks previously assigned to him. Yet, when Chip finds Bill, it is clear that he’s been in hiding and believed that Chip had successfully mailed the tape. This entire scheme makes not one single lick of sense to me, but without it, the entire plot of the film unravels completely. If Bill had always intended to skip the suicide part of the mass suicide, why would he want his name and face to be known? This entire film honestly feels like a really long, awkward trip, just to come around to the obvious and often used idea that you should always stand by your friends.

My final verdict on Let’s Start a Cult is that although the writing could be stronger, it is still far from the worst movie I’ve ever seen. I’d give it a solid 3 stars out of 5. The acting is great, and it does have some genuinely funny moments, but don’t expect a masterpiece of theater. Though I might watch it again given the opportunity, I don’t think I’d pay for the privilege. If you’d like to give it a watch and form your own opinion, it will be releasing in select theaters beginning Friday, October 25th, then coming to streaming platforms on Tuesday, November 12th.

At the time of writing, Let’s Start a Cult is set to show at the following theaters:

The Harmony Gold Theater (Los Angeles)

The Charles Theater (Baltimore)

Alamo Wrigleyville (Chicago)

Village East / Angelika (New York City)

AMC Gulf Point 30 (Houston)

AMC West Homestead, PA

AMC Atlanta Southlake Pavilion 24 Theatres (Morrow, GA)

AMC Cedar Rapids-Waterloo&Dubuque Dubuque 14 (Dubuque, IA)

AMC Chicago South Barrington 24 (South Barrington, IL)

AMC Chicago Yorktown 18 (Lombard, IL)

AMC Chicago River East

AMC Chicago Crestwood Theatre 18 (Crestwood, IL)

AMC Denver Highlands Ranch 24 (Highlands Ranch, CO)

AMC Denver Westminster Promenade 24 (Westminster, CO)

AMC Grand Rapids-Kalmzoo-B. Crk Grand Rapids 18 (Grand Rapids, MI)

AMC Los Angeles Ontario Mills 30 (Ontario, CA)

AMC Los Angeles Block 30 @ Orange (Orange, CA)

AMC Madison AMC Fitchburg 18 and IMAX (Fitchburg, WI)

AMC Milwaukee Mayfair Mall 18 (Wauwatosa, WI)

AMC Oklahoma City Quail Springs 24 (Oklahoma City, OK)

AMC Phoenix Ahwatukee 24 (Phoenix, AZ)

AMC Tulsa Southroads 20 (Tulsa, OK)

Alamo Brooklyn