'Til Death Do You Part

I've been wondering if the presence of horror stories--fiction I mean--about cults have been at a lull, or maybe even a touch missing. I know they showed the remade Omen back earlier in the summer, but if its like the original it doesn't quite touch on the style of which I'm thinking. I'm talking about the Clive Barker's "Lord of Illusion" type or the kind that the Cthulhu mythos brings to mind. You know, the brainwashed sycophants under the thrall of the charismatic master manipulator. Maybe even a step further toward the robed kind, gathered to help in the rituals of tribute, or summoning of magic, creatures or greater masters from beyond our reality.

The leaders of these cults can be of several types. There are the quietly crazy ones and the stark raving mad ones. There are the ones that are in it for themselves and the ones in it to do someone or something's dirty work. There are the ones that only harm their own cult members and the ones in it to do harm to outsiders. We often see the ones who believe in what they are doing wholeheartedly, but we don't too often see the ones who are a sham and have some other purpose than the proposed agenda under which they brought the cult together.

As to the cultists themselves there is less variety. There are the meek ones and the aggressive ones. Almost universally they are weak of will, even if they are the aggressive and violent ones. After all, if they had enough self-worth they wouldn't be drawn in, in the first place. Certainly there can be other factors when we look at the more fictional cults, particularly magical ones. However, if it is taken too far, you have less of a traditional cult and something more along the lines of a coven, or at least following that idea. Likewise, if you have a really forward pushing, hard-line follower who fits a role, almost or absolutely, as an enforcer of the cults will, then that's less of a cultist and more a lesser leader, at least I think so. In any event, I just wonder if there is a lack of these stories and maybe a need to be filled.

Mood: lacklustre.
Music: Black Promises by Vince Neil and Coma by Guns 'N' Roses.

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