There is a fine line between faith and madness, one should carefully tread. However, the glam of the influencer-driven world might just be too bright to keep steady. Cult documentaries often offer precious lessons about control, identity, and manipulation, but not many can quite capture the outrageous controversy and the digital vulnerability like Netflix’s Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult. This bone-chilling docuseries brings a criminal underbelly to the dance floor.

As cinematic as it sounds, Netflix has harnessed facts and survivors to lay bare the mindboggling saga of heartbreak, exploitation, and betrayal.

The cruel choreography behind Dancing for the Devil: Plot and cast

A documentary unveiling the curtains to indoctrination and unsettling details about a management company becomes a wake-up call about how digital dreams can become real nightmares. in Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult, Director Derek Doneen tracks the rise and fall of the church-affiliated 7M Films and its connection to Shekinah Church, founded by pastor-CEO Robert Shinn. In three episodes, former TikTok stars and their families revisit how young dancers, the Wilking sisters, Miranda and Melanie, were poached into the group.

What began as popular fame on social media soon became a clean switch to religious control, financial exploitation, and separation from their families. Despite having millions of followers and lucrative brand deals in 2020, Miranda Wilking lost all of it, including contact with her family, after singing with 7M Films. In 2022, her parents shared an Instagram video accusing 7M of brainwashing and spiritual coercion, begging to have Miranda back. All hell broke loose, then, as the truth about the management company came to light.

This three-part docuseries is not only a testament to brutal exploitation but also a look at the emotional toll on those whose voices shaped the story.

Dancing for the Devil cast: TikTok cult survivors and their truth

Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult features emotional testimony, taped messages from concerned family members, and interviews with Melanie Wilking, her mom and dad, Kelly and Dean Wilking, and other former dancers who were dismissed from the group, like Aubrey Fisher-Greene, Kevin Konkrete Davis, Kailea Gray, and Kylie Douglas. While Robert Shinn and 7M and Shekinah Church officials did not cooperate with Netflix, filmmakers skillfully utilized family archives, home movies, and emotionally charged testimony to create a terrifying series about manipulation, which came disguised as opportunity.

A streaming guide to Dancing for the Devil: where and when to watch

Netflix dropped this bombshell documentary last year on May 29. Its emotionally charged and sensitive three episodes: Die to Yourself, The Escape, and Reap What You Sow are streaming exclusively on the platform. Having drawn millions of viewers, with each part ranging from 49 to 58 minutes, this series has now joined Netflix’s treasure trove of exquisite documentaries, shining a crucial light on important incidents happening all around the globe and digitally. Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult, meanwhile, has sparked a debate over coercive exploitation in the name of religion and legal ambiguity in the case of a cult-like business.

What are your thoughts about the spine-chilling TikTok cult documentary on Netflix? Tell us in the comments below.