Halloween Terrors: Masters of Horror 2 | Ari Aster & Hereditary

Heidi Wong (0:06)

This is Crime House.

I'm Heidi Wong and this is Twisted Tales. Every week, I'll take you deep into humanity's darkest stories and how they influence some of the world's biggest horror movies. Subscribe if you dare and share your own Twisted Tale below. Today, I'm getting into some of the world's most disturbing cults, family curses, and demonic spirits and how they all mix together in a truly chilling movie by horror mastermind Ari Aster. A cult that preys on generations of families, a family betrayed by their own bodies, another torn apart by its tragic history, people willing to exploit the grief of others for their own gain, with a terrifying demon to tie it all together. Today's stories pull from the world's most terrifying corners that led to the creation of the most iconic horror movies ever made. Welcome to Twisted Tales, a Crime House Original. I'm Heidi Wong. Every week, I'll take you deep into humanity's darkest stories and how they influence some of the world's biggest horror movies. If you've ever had a haunted moment or a twisted tale of your own, I want to hear about it. Drop it in the comments, the creepier the better. And for early access and ad-free listening, subscribe to our Crime House Plus community on Apple Podcasts. Today, I'm getting into some of the world's most disturbing cults, family curses, and demonic spirits, and how they all mix together in a truly chilling movie by horror mastermind, Ari Aster.

Meet the Family International, formerly known as the Children of God. This cult was founded in 1968 in Huntington Beach, California by a guy named David Berg.

He started with preaching to hippies on the beach, mixing Christianity with New Age ideas like free love and communal living, and people were all about it. The movement spread like wildfire. Before long, David Berg's beach ministry turned into a full-blown international operation. By the mid-1970s, the Children of God had 10,000 members living in communes across six continents in places like California, London, Manila, and Buenos Aires. David called himself a prophet, a modern-day Moses who could lead young people to spiritual enlightenment. He even gave himself the name Moses David or Mo for short. He made it all sound pretty good, but it wasn't. Because David didn't just want followers, he wanted complete control over their bodies, their minds, their children, their entire lives. And he got it. David communicated with his followers through nearly 3,000 letters he called Mo Letters. These weren't just spiritual teachings, they were detailed instructions on how to live every aspect of life. The letters started out relatively tame, but over time they became increasingly disturbing. In 1972, Berg declared himself God's prophet for the modern world. Not a prophet, the prophet, the only one who could interpret God's will. And his directives involved a lot of sex. David introduced something he called Flirty Fishing, where female members were encouraged to use sex to recruit new members and donors. Yeah, it's as bad as it sounds, and that's just the start of it. Children born into the family were raised in communal homes around the world. They didn't go to regular schools. They didn't have contact with the outside world. Their entire universe was the cult. And a lot of them were subjected to systematic physical and sexual abuse.

Trigger warning, the rest of this story does have mentions of pedophilia and SA, so if that makes you uncomfortable, then please skip forward a few minutes.

He published shocking materials suggesting that children could and should be sexual beings. One particularly horrifying publication called The Story of Davedito documented the sexualization of his wife's young son. Former members described growing up in an environment where abuse was normalized. Where flirty fishing meant that children watched their mothers being pressured into sex with strangers, where questioning anything could result in punishment or isolation. A British court case found that the group engaged in systematic physical and sexual abuse of children, resulting in lasting trauma for survivors. And this trauma lasted for generations. Kids who were born into the family didn't choose this life. Their parents didn't even really choose it. Many of them were born into it too, raised by original members who joined as hippies in the 60s and 70s. The cult controlled every aspect of their lives, like where they lived, what they believed, who they talked to, what they could read, even who they could marry. And when people tried to leave, there were consequences. They were shunned, emotionally manipulated, and threatened. The family tried to keep their activities under wraps. They lived in isolated communes, controlled information, and cut themselves off from the outside world. But eventually, cracks started to show.