Holy Hell

"An uneven blend of news program, suspense narrative and toward the end, somewhat saccharine self-help exercise."

"Holy Hell should have dug a lot deeper and told its story with a lot more finesse. What happened?"

"Mr. Allen structures the revelations well, with a slow build that mimics a naïve member’s immersion into the sect."

"(The) film is far more compelling as an artifact than it is as a narrative."

"The film leaves you wanting to know much more than its offhand footage and scant 100 minutes can provide."

"Holy Hell has a flaw, and it’s that the movie buys into the idea that the Buddhafield was a mixture of the good and the bad."

"Even by cult documentary standards, this one finds absurd depths in the peddling of enlightenment."

"Part expose, part catharsis and all disturbing..."

"One of the decade’s strangest and most unsettling documentaries, especially given its as-yet-unwritten ending."

"Will Allen’s sunny gut-punch cult exposé Holy Hell plays like a thriller... but Allen never cheats in the interest of suspense."