Would it have been better if set in 70's
I liked the movie a lot, I don't have any problems with it. But, cults were pretty influential in the 60's, 70's and early 80's so I wondered about that. It wouldn't have taken much to set it in the 70's so I wonder why they didn't do that. Do you think it would have been better set in a different time? Restrained though, just setting the time, but not calling attention to itself is more what I'm talking about... no giant afros, leisure suits and bell bottoms. The film from Mexico would be on a projector instead of a laptop. There were no cell phones, so that doesn't matter... the phone lines could be out for some other reason. The prius would be a pinto. Not sure what else would have to changed.
Throughout the movie Jonestown was on my mind. When they opened an 8 million dollar bottle of wine was when I first thought of it, and then when he finds a bottle of phenobarbital. Maybe the drawback of setting it in the 70's is that it would be too obvious what would end up happening. Setting it in the present at least helped keep a lingering doubt in the mind. But, the scene with the lanterns I think would have been more realistic in the 70's. It's hard to imagine in present day for every house in an affluent neighborhood to join a suicide cult.