MovieChat Forums > The Sacrament (2014) Discussion > What a blatant ripoff the Jonestown mass...

What a blatant ripoff the Jonestown massacre...


First and foremost, I have to admit I have only briefly heard of the Jonestown poisoning many years ago, so I did not know what to expect when coming into this movie.

What got me was the scene where the poison was being poured into the kool aid

I thought, ''hey I heard about something like this before''

and after googling about mass poisoning I found that it was the Jonestown massacre.

Now what irks me the most is how many similarities I found from google.

The shed, the entrance to the town, the gospel singing, Christian cult, the dead bodies, Jim Jones sunglasses, the kool aid setup and even the TRUCK.

Then I come on here and find out even the speeches were heavily similar.

Geezz Ti West should have really put a caption 'based on the Jonestown massacre' or at least 'based on a true story', if he was going to copy so much....

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They changed enough to be based on a true story but they could have said inspired by. This movie wasn't the first. Robert Kirkman's Walking Dead:Decent & Joe McKinney also have zombie books with straight rip offs. Mckinney's book is almost straight from the source.

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Hardly anybody on this board realises that the film is a take on the Jonestown massacre, that is why it seems similar. The term based on a true story is meaningless anyway.



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Yoansen, i believe no art is completely original. in fact i would go so far as to say all art is influenced by art that same before it. so technically all art is "ripped off"

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How the hell does someone "rip off" history? Anyone with common knowledge of modern history would know that this films plot is emulating Jonestown after simply seeing the lead religious figure---he's made up to look just like Jim Jones! Are Psycho, TCM, and Deranged rip offs of Ed Gein, then? Is Poltergiest a rip off of the Anityville Horror tale? Jonestown isn't touched on enough, but other murders and criminals from the 70s like Manson and Bundy are.

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well in fairness if I recall correctly, TCM does indeed say, inspired by true events or something like that. Unlike this movie.

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It wasn't based on or emulating it was almost EXACTLY the true story..
Offensive.
It was a literal re-enactment of Jonestown without acknowledging the real thing which is at best - plagiarism, and at worse - shameful profiteering from tragedy.
Ti West should be ashamed..

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I totally agree. This was Jonestown to a T. The only difference is that it was done in miniature, and it is unknown if Jones shot himself or was shot, and that was done in the pavilion itself, not some office.

It truly is plagiarism of an actual event passed off as a fictional horror movie.

Birdbrains Teaser Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTvpV8eKPiQ

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you guys are acting like there's never been an exploitative film based on the Guyana tragedy!! remember Rene Cardona Jr.!! Guyana Cult of the Damned! Guyana Tragedy! Heck, I bet Ticket to Heaven counts. And, really, how many Manson family films are there? the list of films exploiting headlines is LONNNNGGGG.

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