The Cult Project

The Cult Project is a mockumentary short film. It follows a small documentary team who is granted access to interview Dante Thunderstone and Chib Flibmun, the individuals behind the creation of The School of Enlightening.

It was adapted into a stage play in 2020.

Release
The film's teaser trailer was released on YouTube on the 24th November 2018, with the film being slated for a December 2018 release. The film was released on the 30th December 2018, on YouTube.

Story
The film begins with best friends Dante Thunderstone and Chib Flibmun being interviewed about The School of Enlightening, a cult established by the two, and explaining how it was created, among various other things. This is interspersed with video clips explaining the cult's beliefs, their recruitment style and showing an example of a ceremony. It is shown that Chib genuinely believes in the cult's beliefs while Dante only goes along with it to feed his ego and to get attention.

During the film, it is revealed that someone has already "ascended", something which Dante originally thought he had made up. This person, Justin Blair, is contacted and interviewed, where it is shown that despite having never met Chib nor Dante, he believes in their beliefs and was contacted by letter about them originally on a trip to Hollywood. Chib proceeds to have another vision, revealing that a whole group of people have "ascended", one of whom is brought in and interviewed, revealing that they were the ones who implanted visions into Chib's mind, which allowed him to write the holy book.

This all causes Dante to start to doubt himself, and question whether or not the beliefs were made up or not. He begins to get angry that he has not "ascended", and at the end of the film is shown to have given in to the beliefs, vowing to become a better person so he can ascend.

Trivia

 * Whether or not the "Ascended" are actors or not is kept intentionally vague, but hinted at.