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In fiction, cults tend to follow a few specific forms:
* Second Coming: More accurately billed as a ''sect'', as its beliefs are rooted in an existing religion, this is a group led by an individual who lifts himself up as the rebirth of Jesus Christ (or [[Crystal Dragon Jesus|another important religious figure]]).
* [[Ancient Astronauts|Alien Worshipers]]: Dogma based on popular modern myths, with beliefs and practices grounded in [[Hollywood Science|sketchy science]] and misconstrued theory more than spirituality.
* Revivals: Base their beliefs on old religions no-longer practiced.
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'''[[No Real Life Examples, Please]]'''
----
{{examples}}
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== Film ==
* Zero Church from ''[[Love Exposure]]''.
* ''Race With The Devil''.
* ''Borderland''.
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* ''[[Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom]]'' had the Thuggee.
* ''[[Children of the Corn]]''.
* ''[[Silent Hill (film)|Silent Hill]]'' has a Manichean-type religion with Puritanical Christian overtones and apparently worships a goddess. It is not the same cult from the [[Silent Hill|game series]].
== Literature ==
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* When you get closer to its core membership, The Sharing in ''[[Animorphs]]'' is constructed much more like a cult than the all-ages scouting program it pretends to be.
* Subverted in ''Maggody and the Moonbeams'', where a reclusive all-female Christian sect is actually {{spoiler|a front for a group of battered women in hiding, whose members are being exploited for cheap manual labor by their corrupt leader}}.
* All over the place in [[Kraken (novel)|Kraken]], ranging from the Lovecraftian-but-relatively-benign [[Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods|Church of God Kraken]] to the dreaded [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Chaos Nazis]].
* [[Petaybee]]: Shepherd Howling leads a doomsday cult that encourages pedophilia and other interesting forms of child abuse.
* [[The Subject Steve]]: The Center for Nondenominational Recovery and Redemption could be described as a cult and a rest home, combined.
* The Mysteries from [[Elantris]] are a cult that spun off from the benign Jesk religion- where Jesk worships a Force-esque life energy called the Dor, followers of the Mysteries seek to manipulate it to their advantage. The Mysteries is characterized by secrecy and bizarre rites that sometimes involve [[Human Sacrifice]]- as such, it's not very popular and tends to exist only in small, secretive groups.
* A rare positively portrayed example in [[Octavia Butler]]'s ''[[Parable of the Sower|Parable]]'' series. The main character, Lauren Olamina, starts a cult called Earthseed which believes that God is change. They are persecuted by the Christian America sect, which probably fits more of the cult stereotypes.
* In ''[[Bumped]]'' there is a Christian cult called Goodside. They are more or less like Amish people [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]].
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* In an episode of ''[[Everybody Loves Raymond]]'', Robert gets suckered into a lame but loving cult, but is horrified to discover that they too like Raymond better.
* In ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', Gul Dukat, a Cardassian who hates Bajorans, forms a doomsday cult based on Bajoran religion in an attempt to kill a few of the people he hates. His plan fails, though, when his followers question his reluctance to metaphorically drink the Kool-Aid first.
** Actually, the cult already existed. It's not a Doomsday cult; it's one that worships the Pah-Wraiths because they have lost faith in the Prophets following the Occupation, believing therefore that their Pah-Wraith enemies might not be so bad after all. He just subverted it to his own ends, claiming that the Pah-Wraiths were giving him visions. They actually were, and so the Kool-Aid may really have been their idea. [[Sealed Evil in a Can|The Pah-Wraith really are evil]], and the cult are just mistaken.
* The titular Millennium Group in ''[[Millennium (TV series)|Millennium]]'', at least in the second season and parts of the third.
* A subversion appears in the first season of ''[[Veronica Mars]]''. Secrecy (sort of), organic diet, isolation, authority clash... and they're actually decent people, whose "secret crop" is Christmas poinsettia flowers. The kid VM "saves" is "deprogrammed" back into a jerk, though she learns about his real soft spots and he remembers her somewhat fondly from her time infiltrating the cult, making him a useful source of information in a later episode.
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** Straight: A Satanic cult made up of the members of a small town PTA ("Die Hand Die Verledzt").
** Subversion: A vegetarian cult that believes in "walk-ins" (moments of spirit possession) that turns out ''not'' to be tied to the abduction, drugging, branding, and innoculation with extraterrestrial DNA of a group of small town teens ("Red Museum"). They were connected, though somewhat indirectly. The Cult's founder was involved with the conspiracy, & enforced vegetarianism because the conspiracy was running a secret experiment involving the town's meat supply & they needed a control group.
** Straight: A doomsday cult that believes in reincarnation and ends up taking part in a mass suicide ("The Field Where I Died").
** Straight: A murderous cult that worships a slug-like parasite that they believe to be the Second Coming of Christ ("Roadrunners"). No, seriously.
* An episode of ''[[Cold Case]]'' dealt with a cult that preached a new beginning by eliminating the past; in a slight subversion, instead of a mass-suicide, the cult was planning mass-''patricide'', killing their fathers as a tribute to their "new" father figure, the cult's leader.
* An episode of ''[[Monk]]'' had the titular OCD detective infiltrate and get completely sucked into a cult, whose charismatic leader is played by real life OCD sufferer Howie Mandel. Humorously, while Stottlemyer's partner Randy and several other characters were trying to deprogram Monk, Monk manages to convert Randy. In a plot twist double-whammy, Monk manages to both alibi the cult leader ''and'' break up the cult: {{spoiler|the leader claimed that he was never, ever sick, but on the night in question he was secretly receiving cortesone injections to deal with back pain. The cultists, upon discovering their leader is a fake, simply abandon him.}} Even liars sometimes speak the truth. For some reason Monk seems not to have appreciated, afterwards, that however dishonest the cult leader might have been, he had more success than Dr. Kroger ever had had in helping Monk overcome his OCD.
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** And now Punk is the leader of [[The Nexus|The New Nexus]], which is seeming very culty with the whole "Faith" thing they're doing.
* Back during the [[Attitude Era]], the WWF had [[The Undertaker]]'s [[Ministry of Darkness]] where Taker would go kidnap C-level guys on the roster and "convert" them into his followers with new names. There was also to a lesser degree [[Vampire|The Brood]], who were briefly part of the Ministry themselves.
* The Order of the Neo Solar Temple in [[CHIKARA]]. Led by UltraMantis Black, They've been known for brainwashing and converting enemies. The crowd usually bows to them when they enter, even.
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== Video Games ==
* The Cabal in ''[[Blood]]'', and 100 years later Cabalco (essentially the same cult disguised as a multinational coporation).
* The ancient Pagan-Supernatural-Judeo-Christian-Kabbalistic mishmash cult from the ''[[Silent Hill]]'' series. Though it's rather overlooked in the second game, the first game explains it in great detail, and in the third game, {{spoiler|being a chronological sequel to the first}}, that same cult becomes a very important part of the storyline.
* The cult in ''[[Guardian's Crusade]]'' screams of evil but never ''actually'' does anything bad... until a certain point later in the game. From this point, the player can (optionally) return to towns from earlier in the game to stop the cult members that have transformed into optional bosses.
* ''[[Thief]] II: The Metal Age'' revolves around the apocalyptic Mechanist cult which has schismed from the [[Crystal Dragon Jesus|Pseudo-Catholic]] Hammerite church.
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* ''[[Resident Evil]] 4'' had Los Illuminados, essentially a cult of [[Puppeteer Parasite|Puppeteer Parasites]].
* ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'' had at least one cult worshipping the [[Eldritch Abomination|Ancients]]. The main branch was run out of a French cathedral, and used a made-up Christian relic to lure in human sacrifices.
* ''[[Warcraft]] III'':
** "'''The Cult of the Damned!''' ''... I need to print more brochures''"
** The multiple other cults in World of Warcraft, like the Wyrmcult, or the Burning Blade Clan.
** Twilight's Hammer, the Auchenai ... "I always wanted to start my own religion. ...so I did!"
** "We're not a cult, so much as a maniacal group of fanatical, blade-wielding zealots."
* [[Command
** Subverted, in that {{spoiler|Kane and his followers did, in fact, ascend}}. Also, given how open with their views they eventually became, Nod began to move from cult to religion between the ''Tiberiun Sun'' and ''Tiberium Wars''.
* ''[[Fahrenheit (2005 video game)]]'' (known as ''Fahrenheit'' in Europe) has not one but two cults that are [[MacGuffin]] organizations. At least one reviewer, Yahtzee from [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation The Escapist's] [[Zero Punctuation]], has labeled the combination of a cult trope with the sudden emergence of superpowers as [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/34-Condemned-2-Bloodshot "Indigo Prophecy Syndrome"]
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* The Children of the Atom in ''[[Fallout 3]]'', a group of people in the Town of Megaton who worship the giant unexploded bomb the town is named for. Their essential belief is everytime a nuke explodes a new universe is created. They're obviously crazy, or at the very least completely unaware of exactly how the bombs work which isn't surprising considering there aren't many people left who can properly explain how an Atom bomb works to them. Despite their obviously nutty beliefs they're quite harmless and the residents of Megaton tolerate them, even if most of them think they're nuts. The even gather round at times to watch Confessor Cromwell, the Church's leader, preach about how the bomb is so great! Probably because its good entertainment or they're one of his followers. Even if you effectively disable the bomb Cromwell continues to preach about its gloriousness. Of course, blowing up the bomb and killing him and everyone else, according to him, would probably be a blessing to everyone.
** Lampshaded in-game, where the sign that points to the Church building in Megaton reads 'Local Cult'.
** The Children of Atom take a nasty twist in the DLC ''Broken Steel'', when one of the high-ranking memebers starts {{spoiler|Stealing the Aqua Pura destined for megaton, and then irradiating it to lethal levels}}.
*** Amusingly you can talk them out of it by pretending to be their [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]].
** The original game had the Children of the Cathedral, a front for that game's [[Big Bad]]. The second game has [[Church of Happyology|Hubologists]], a cult the player can either join or massacre.
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*** Sounds like this idea influenced a quest in [[Fallout: New Vegas]]. In this particular quest, you can choose to aid a group of ghouls in their quest to use an old rocket in order to reach space and leave behind the racist human oppressors. Their leader is more or less a cult leader, though he's much nicer and decidedly not psychotic. If you get them the fuel, they take off successfully (unless you deliberately sabotage the launch). {{spoiler|Amazingly enough, if their flight goes off without a hitch, the epilogue states that they actually survive and return to Novac in order to help defend it from Caesar's Legion.}}
* In ''Secret Files: Tunguska'', {{spoiler|the cult in the game believes that they were descendants from aliens. They are also responsible for your father's kidnapping, but turns out to be the ''good guys'', kidnapping him to protect him from the evil corporation trying to create mind-control machine from the remains of [[The Tunguska Event]] and silencing anyone related after [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|they have outlived their usefulness.]]}} The sequel has a more traditional doomsday religious cult {{spoiler|who's responsible for all those disasters}}.
* [[Our Demons Are Different|Daedric]] cults in [[The Elder Scrolls]] series both play straight and avert the idea of cults being a [[Religion of Evil]]. While they aren't worshipping the official religion of [[The Empire]], the belief in the Nine Divines, daedric cults are generally decent or at least halfway decent people and even worshipped quite officially in some places, most notably Morrowind. Daedra do have a tendency towards [[Blue and Orange Morality]] though, so they might still do some weird stuff, at least. Despite that, there are quite a few not-so-nice ones too, especially the Mythic Dawn. There are also a few non-daedric cults, such as those weird people in Hackdirt.
* Spaghetti Cultists, who [[Anonymous Ringer|worship a Flying Spaghetti Monster]] from [[Kingdom of Loathing]], the [[Evil Counterpart]] of the game's Lawful-Good [[Whatevermancy|Pastamancers]].
* The Church of Unitology in ''[[Dead Space (series)|Dead Space]]'' is a very large, very successful cult by the time the games take place, but it is still a cult.
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* And then there's [[Halo|the Covenant]], where the leaders don't even realize {{spoiler|they're running a suicide cult}}.
* The Cultist faction in ''UFO: Aftershock''.
* Dr. Wood in [[Die Anstalt]] starts one among the patients partway through his therapy. He takes their most precious material possessions from them, and in return gives them little ravens-claw trinkets and goes through a little "faith-healing" routine with them. He never does anything with the items, only taking them to bolster his own percieved self-importance.
* The Cult of Kefka from ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'', which was formed after Kefka became a god over the ruined world, and worshipped Kefka for no other reason than possibly fear. Also referred to the Fanatics. They also have a theme song that has ominous chanting.
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* In ''[[Templar, Arizona]]'' there is a cult of people founded by 'Jake', whose core beliefs revolve around theft, polygamy, and breeding, and refer to themselves as 'Jakes' or 'Jakeskin' (Jake's kin).
* The demon K'Z'K has its own cult in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', complete with a leader who plays fast and loose with her interpretation of scripture. Very much a [[Religion of Evil]].
* A group of cultists shows up on a couple of occassions in direct opposition to the Light Warriors in ''[[8-Bit Theater
* In [[Our Little Adventure]], the group comes across a poster for 'Angelo's Kids', and since [[Exposition Fairy|Julie wasn't there]], Rocky had to explain to the others that 'Angelo's Kids' is both a youth cult and a pyramid scheme.
* Nutritionists form a cult around a “Lemonade” soda sticker in ''[[Romantically Apocalyptic]]''.
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* One episode of ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (animation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]'' had Gadget (as part of a [[Ten-Minute Retirement]]) join the "Cola Cult". It worshiped TV commercials for soda ("Come along, you belong, feel the fizz of Coo Coo Kola!"), and instead of mass suicide, it had the followers give up their worldly possessions, where they were secretly hoarded by the cult's brutish second-in-command. (In a mild subversion, the leader fully believed in the commercial's rather upbeat message, though the Cult was still broken up at the end.)
* ''[[Stroker and Hoop]]'' were targeted by a cult of "enlightened cannibals", who drug people and surgically remove their vestigial organs for the group's consumption.
** Though they ''did'' commit mass suicide via poisoned appendixes to ascend to a comet, so not that enlightened.
* ''Wait Till Your Father Gets Home'' had an episode in which the daughter joined a cult. It was a relatively benign cult in the sense that the leader was simply scamming for money-- sort of like the [[wikipedia:Osho|Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh]] without the [[wikipedia:1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack|bioterror attacks.]]
* On ''[[King of the Hill]]'', Luanne gets caught in a cult whose member all take the name of Jane.
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