CULT MASSACRE: ONE DAY IN JONESTOWN -- Survivors Speak Out 46 Years Later

Review by Joseph Fayed

If you have ever heard the phrase "drinking the Kool-aid," you probably already know the fate of the People's Temple, led by Jim Jones. Over 900 died from poisoning in Jonestown, Guyana, making it the largest intentional loss of American citizens until 9/11. Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown is a three-part National Geographic docuseries that interviews survivors, both members of the cult and some concerned members of Congress and the media who were there that fateful day in 1978. Heart-pounding stories of survival are shared in the docuseries, which begins to lose a bit of its edge by the end of its run.  
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On November 14th, 1978, Congressman Leo Ryan, along with a team of his staff members and reporters, flew to Guyana to visit Jonestown, the sect of the People's Temple founded by Jim Jones that had relocated from the United States several years prior. This visit came after a growing number of relatives of members of the People's Temple wrote to the Congressman, expressing how they had not been able to contact any of their loved ones in many months. A few days later, the group is allowed to visit Jonestown. Shortly after their arrival, several members tell Ryan they secretly want to leave. When this information gets leaked to Jones, it sets off a domino effect for something sinister he had planned should members try to deflect. Survivors who were both members and non-members recount how they were able to escape the nightmare that quickly unfolded. 

The docuseries is divided in the most reasonable way possible for content with just three episodes. By focusing on the beginning of the end, the day of, and the day after, it is phased out with an equal amount of coverage for how Jonestown fell apart. I'm sure there are years of stories leading up to the tragedy that deserve to be told and say more about who Jim Jones really was than these few survivors recall. But with that said, the documentary lays enough groundwork in the first episode to give you a definitive answer as to who Jones really was. The docuseries avoids being a flat-out character study of Jones but allows those interviewed to share their experiences with him and how their perceptions differed by the fateful day in 1978. ​

This docuseries is survivor-centric, with both members and non-members who were in Guyana making up nearly all of the talking heads. There are no cult experts or outsider perspectives shared here, which is for the best because hearing the red flags from survivors feels more damning than from someone who has only studied cults like this one. The interviews with the various survivors are edited together pretty well, recapping the natural flow of what occurred in those last few days. With some of them, you feel like a lot was left on the cutting room floor due to time constraints. One particular survivor, Leslie, is not featured until episode three, and she shares a largely overlooked story of her and about 15 other survivors fleeing Jonestown the morning of the massacre. It would have been interesting to hear more from her versus the retelling of the other escape involving the Congressman. 

This being made by National Geographic, there are no obvious signs of poor directing, such as horribly acted reenactments or large amounts of B-roll. Archive footage of those who are deceased and that of The People's Temple live on, and thankfully for the viewer, plenty of it was preserved to paint a picture of what Jonestown appeared to be like from the outside as this Utopia. At the same time, the words of the survivors reveal it was anything but. The interviews are set up for the subject to speak directly to the camera, often in a close-up. It comes across as an interrogation at times. Still, when intercut with footage from 1978, the cinematography and camera angle remind you that this is a survivor speaking to us in the present. 

Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown depicts how mass murder came to be. This docuseries has an important distinction from previous ones I've seen where a title card at the end points out how this tragedy was long regarded as a mass suicide but is now seen as murder. This is largely because of how testimonies from that day have changed the narrative. Hearing some of those survivors recount their survival is chilling, but narratively speaking, the filmmakers tie it together for the most part. While some moments arguably deserve to be highlighted more, what and how it all went wrong is exactly what we still talk about and look out for in modern-day cults. Like similar series about cults in the present, there could easily be room for another episode about the aftermath of survival.

Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown is now streaming on Hulu. All three episodes reviewed.

Rating: 4/5