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Reviewed by:
  • Holy Hell dir. by Will Allen
  • Joseph P. Laycock
Holy Hell. 100 minutes. Directed by Will Allen. WRA Productions, Very Special Films, and Whitewater Films, 2016.

Holy Hell was created by filmmaker Will Allen about his twenty-two-year experience in "The Buddhafield." The Buddhafield is a new religious movement centered around a charismatic figure known as Michel Rostand (among several other names), who has worked as an actor and is best known for a brief appearance in Rosemary's Baby (1968). Allen joined The Buddhafield in 1985 and became the group's unofficial videographer. He left in 2007 following a major shake-up in which many members became disillusioned with Rostand. Holy Hell draws on thirty-five hours of edited footage Allen kept from his days with the group, interviews with former members, and recent footage of Rostand and his followers in Hawaii, some of which was filmed covertly by cinematographer Polly Morgan. Holy Hell premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was picked up for distribution by CNN Films. It gained wide exposure after airing on CNN during primetime in 2016.

Holy Hell is first and foremost a documentary about relationships. Each apostate describes how they were drawn to Rostand, how this relationship became toxic, and how they eventually left with feelings of betrayal and bitterness. While this is a compelling narrative, the actual beliefs and practices of The Buddhafield are only hinted at in these stories. Rostand allegedly claimed to have had "a master" at some point in the past whose teaching he was presumably transmitting to his followers. Although the group's name references Buddhism, it seems most influenced by Hinduism, especially the Bhagavad Gita. Several of Rostand's former followers describe him as "a guru." The group held regular services called "satsangs" and members attended weekly hypnotherapy sessions with Rostand called "cleansings," for which they paid $50. They also engaged in "service" that included charity work as well as work for Rostand that could take up to forty hours a week. Finally, the leader would occasionally offer an experience called "the knowing" to select disciples, in which he would transfer "shakti" energy to the disciple in order to trigger an experience of theophany based on Arjuna's encounter with Krishna's "universal form" in the Bhagavad-Gita.

Members of the Buddhafield were instructed to abstain from alcohol, caffeine, and sexual activity, even though one apostate explained they had jokingly called it "booty field" because of the numerous sexual [End Page 139] encounters that went on illicitly between members. Although members were taught not to dwell on the flesh, they were paradoxically encouraged to exercise constantly and to be physically fit. Rostand allegedly even encouraged some members to get plastic surgery. Members also received new names from Rostand and were eventually ordered to detach from their families. Allen describes telling numerous lies to his family about his whereabouts while in the group.

The Buddhafield began in West Hollywood, which is where Allen joined. In 1991 an outsider reported The Buddhafield to the Cult Awareness Network (according to former members this was done as retaliation when an attractive member of Buddhafield spurned the outsider's advances.) This triggered a paranoid reaction from Rostand who briefly went into hiding before relocating the entire group to Austin, Texas, in 1992 and taking the name Andreas. This paranoia worsened in 1993 with the immolation of the Branch Davidian compound, only a few hours' drive from Austin. In 1997 Rostand, a former dancer, ordered the construction of a dance theater and began organizing his followers to perform elaborate ballets. Former members described how these ballets would be rehearsed for an entire year at great cost and then performed only once with no public audience.

In 2006 an email was sent to all members of The Buddhafield from an unnamed apostate alleging that Rostand had been pressuring his male disciples into unwanted sexual relationships, fomenting another shake-up. Several apostates interviewed for the film describe sexual abuse by Rostand. The email also claimed that Rostand had appeared in gay adult films in the past. Heavily edited footage from these films is briefly in shown in Holy Hell. Following this...

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