Like the rest of the world, Netflix has lately found an interest in the fascinating world of cults. However, its newest venture isn’t a true-crime documentary fans may be used to, but a six-part drama series starring Christopher Eccleston. Unlike the optimistic preacher he plays in HBO’s The Leftovers, Eccleston’s role as Mr. Phillips, the leader of a religious cult, is something quite different.
Unchosen follows a strict religious sect in the UK that has all the makings of a dangerous cult. At the center of it all is Rosie (Molly Windsor), a devout wife and mother, who starts to get disillusioned by the only world she has ever known. Though the cult swears off any contact with the outside world or modern technology, Rosie is relieved when her brother-in-law, Isaac (Aston McAuley), possesses a contraband phone, which allows them to call an ambulance when her daughter Grace almost drowns. This one event causes a chain reaction that makes Rosie start to question the world that she has always accepted.
Cults are often a source of fascination, but Unchosen doesn’t exploit the pain of others for entertainment value. The series is inspired by the real stories of cult survivors who were affected by religious indoctrination.
‘Unchosen’ Delves Into the Real World of Religious Cults
The opening text of Unchosen Episode 1 establishes that there are over 2,000 active religious cults spread across the United Kingdom. The Netflix series is completely fictionalized, but the realities of these communities inspired the show’s creatives. Series creator Julie Gearey reached out to many real-life former cult members, as she told Tudum.
“What we found was that quite a lot of them were traumatized. It was important to reassure them as much as we could that, firstly, nobody watching the show would ever recognize them and, secondly, that whatever they had to say about the emotional experience of being involved, we would try to respect and reflect as truthfully as possible within the show.”
The story at the center of Unchosen is more romantic than a show like this may typically have. The catalyst for Rosie’s separation from the cult is represented by the man who saved her daughter’s life. Played by Hawkeye’sFra Fee, an escaped convict by the name of Sam dives into the pond where Rosie’s daughter starts to drown. He saves her, and immediately, Rosie is drawn to him. The titular “unchosen” man is outside the community and a direct contrast to Rosie’s fanatical and controlling husband, Adam (Asa Butterfield). A spark starts to kindle between Rosie and Sam, an obvious violation of the cult’s rules.
Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you’re not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
🏕️Jason
🔪Michael
💤Freddy
🎈Pennywise
🪆Chucky
01
Something feels wrong. You can’t explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
03
What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?
04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
05
You’re with a group when things start going wrong. What’s your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn’t.
06
What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
07
What’s your best weapon against something that can’t be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
08
It’s the final scene. You’re the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What’s yours?
Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween
Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.
But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.
Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Derry, Maine · It
Pennywise
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chicago · Child’s Play
Chucky
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
Sam notes that Rosie’s world has a lot of these rules, as she starts to buckle beneath the weight of it. This setup is an exciting way to attract viewers to the story, but the reality of these characters is close to these cults in real life. Like Rosie’s day-to-day, many of these cults are hierarchical, placing women beneath their husbands. They are not allowed to question the men or have minds of their own in many cases. Unchosen has invented many of the more narratively dramatic aspects, but the core emotional resonance is what is truthful.
Grearey’s series protects the identities of the real-life cult survivors by doing this, but is still able to communicate the dangers of these types of communities. The creator also doesn’t punch down on these stories and offers empathy for those inside these places.
“I think there’s a real comfort and support in these groups. You don’t have to worry about where you’re going to live, what you eat, or whether you’ve got any friends. It’s a very, very secure social structure … When it works, it really works, but if you start to question their methods … that’s where the problems start.”
With that in mind, there is no question as to why Unchosen is doing so well on Netflix. Other series, such as Ryan Murphy’s world of serial killers, seem to take all the wrong lessons from true crime. The fictional sect in Unchosen isn’t admired in any way, but it also doesn’t judge the characters who find refuge inside it. The truthful telling of these people’s experiences has resulted in a series unlike anything else on the platform.
