• Latest
  • Trending
Aum: The Cult At The End Of The World Review

Aum: The Cult At The End Of The World Review—Behind the Sarin Attack

Hunt The Wicked Review

Hunt The Wicked Review: A Masterclass in Modern Mayhem

Girl on Edge Review

Girl on Edge Review: The Sharpest Blade Can’t Cut Through a Tangled Plot

Cattle Country Review

Cattle Country Review: Forging a Life on the Pixelated Frontier

The Girls We Want Review

The Girls We Want Review: Marseille’s Sun Can’t Hide a Fractured Story

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain Review

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain Review: Drawing the Shape of a Soul

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

Trailer Bids Farewell as “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” Sets September Release

5 hours ago
Spider-Man: No Way Home

Reddit Fan Art Forced Last-Minute Rewrite of “No Way Home,” Director Reveals

5 hours ago
Milton Hershey

Filming Wraps on Milton Hershey Biopic Starring Finn Wittrock

5 hours ago
Project Hail Mary

Trailer Launch Sends Ryan Gosling’s “Project Hail Mary” Into High Orbit

5 hours ago
2025 LMGI Awards

Record Submissions Drive Global Slate for 12th LMGI Awards

5 hours ago
Worth the Wait Review

Worth the Wait Review: Four Stories in Search of a Center

Spring Night Review

Spring Night Review: Two Ghosts Keeping Each Other Company

  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Gazettely Review Guidelines
Monday, June 30, 2025
GAZETTELY
  • Home
  • Movie and TV News
    Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

    Trailer Bids Farewell as “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” Sets September Release

    Spider-Man: No Way Home

    Reddit Fan Art Forced Last-Minute Rewrite of “No Way Home,” Director Reveals

    Milton Hershey

    Filming Wraps on Milton Hershey Biopic Starring Finn Wittrock

    Project Hail Mary

    Trailer Launch Sends Ryan Gosling’s “Project Hail Mary” Into High Orbit

    2025 LMGI Awards

    Record Submissions Drive Global Slate for 12th LMGI Awards

    Scarlett Johansson

    Scarlett Johansson Says Hollywood’s “Male-Gaze” Era Is Fading

    Rob McElhenney

    Rob McElhenney Files to Become ‘Rob Mac,’ Citing Global Tongue-Twisters

    Russell Crowe

    Russell Crowe, Barbie Ferreira Honoured at Valletta’s Golden Bees

    Vin Diesel

    Fast X: Part 2 Promises L.A. Street Races and Brian’s Return

  • Movie and TV Reviews
    Hunt The Wicked Review

    Hunt The Wicked Review: A Masterclass in Modern Mayhem

    Girl on Edge Review

    Girl on Edge Review: The Sharpest Blade Can’t Cut Through a Tangled Plot

    The Girls We Want Review

    The Girls We Want Review: Marseille’s Sun Can’t Hide a Fractured Story

    Little Amélie or the Character of Rain Review

    Little Amélie or the Character of Rain Review: Drawing the Shape of a Soul

    Worth the Wait Review

    Worth the Wait Review: Four Stories in Search of a Center

    Spring Night Review

    Spring Night Review: Two Ghosts Keeping Each Other Company

    Love on the Danube: Love Song Review

    Love on the Danube: Love Song Review: A Voyage into the Comfort Zone

    Mama Review

    Mama Review: A Home Built on Shifting Sands

    No One Will Know Review

    No One Will Know Review: Trapped in a Looping Nightmare

  • Game Reviews
    Cattle Country Review

    Cattle Country Review: Forging a Life on the Pixelated Frontier

    Nice Day for Fishing Review

    Nice Day for Fishing Review: Casting a Strategic Spell

    Front Mission 3: Remake Review

    Front Mission 3: Remake Review: Come for the Mechs, Not the Makeover

    System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster Review

    System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster Review: Still the King of Sci-Fi Horror

    SAEKO: Giantess Dating Sim Review

    SAEKO: Giantess Dating Sim Review: Anxiety in Pixel Form

    Islands & Trains Review

    Islands & Trains Review: A Minimalist Escape

    PaperKlay Review

    PaperKlay Review: Fun, Flawed, and Full of Heart

    Projected Dreams Review

    Projected Dreams Review: Illuminating a Beautiful Story

    Tom Clancy's The Division 2: Battle for Brooklyn Review

    Tom Clancy’s The Division 2: Battle for Brooklyn Review: A Nostalgic But Flawed Homecoming

  • The Bests
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Movie and TV News
    Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

    Trailer Bids Farewell as “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” Sets September Release

    Spider-Man: No Way Home

    Reddit Fan Art Forced Last-Minute Rewrite of “No Way Home,” Director Reveals

    Milton Hershey

    Filming Wraps on Milton Hershey Biopic Starring Finn Wittrock

    Project Hail Mary

    Trailer Launch Sends Ryan Gosling’s “Project Hail Mary” Into High Orbit

    2025 LMGI Awards

    Record Submissions Drive Global Slate for 12th LMGI Awards

    Scarlett Johansson

    Scarlett Johansson Says Hollywood’s “Male-Gaze” Era Is Fading

    Rob McElhenney

    Rob McElhenney Files to Become ‘Rob Mac,’ Citing Global Tongue-Twisters

    Russell Crowe

    Russell Crowe, Barbie Ferreira Honoured at Valletta’s Golden Bees

    Vin Diesel

    Fast X: Part 2 Promises L.A. Street Races and Brian’s Return

  • Movie and TV Reviews
    Hunt The Wicked Review

    Hunt The Wicked Review: A Masterclass in Modern Mayhem

    Girl on Edge Review

    Girl on Edge Review: The Sharpest Blade Can’t Cut Through a Tangled Plot

    The Girls We Want Review

    The Girls We Want Review: Marseille’s Sun Can’t Hide a Fractured Story

    Little Amélie or the Character of Rain Review

    Little Amélie or the Character of Rain Review: Drawing the Shape of a Soul

    Worth the Wait Review

    Worth the Wait Review: Four Stories in Search of a Center

    Spring Night Review

    Spring Night Review: Two Ghosts Keeping Each Other Company

    Love on the Danube: Love Song Review

    Love on the Danube: Love Song Review: A Voyage into the Comfort Zone

    Mama Review

    Mama Review: A Home Built on Shifting Sands

    No One Will Know Review

    No One Will Know Review: Trapped in a Looping Nightmare

  • Game Reviews
    Cattle Country Review

    Cattle Country Review: Forging a Life on the Pixelated Frontier

    Nice Day for Fishing Review

    Nice Day for Fishing Review: Casting a Strategic Spell

    Front Mission 3: Remake Review

    Front Mission 3: Remake Review: Come for the Mechs, Not the Makeover

    System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster Review

    System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster Review: Still the King of Sci-Fi Horror

    SAEKO: Giantess Dating Sim Review

    SAEKO: Giantess Dating Sim Review: Anxiety in Pixel Form

    Islands & Trains Review

    Islands & Trains Review: A Minimalist Escape

    PaperKlay Review

    PaperKlay Review: Fun, Flawed, and Full of Heart

    Projected Dreams Review

    Projected Dreams Review: Illuminating a Beautiful Story

    Tom Clancy's The Division 2: Battle for Brooklyn Review

    Tom Clancy’s The Division 2: Battle for Brooklyn Review: A Nostalgic But Flawed Homecoming

  • The Bests
No Result
View All Result
GAZETTELY
No Result
View All Result
Aum: The Cult At The End Of The World Review

New Jack Fury Review: Neon-Soaked B-Movie Bliss

Alpha Review: Stone Flesh and Fractured Time

Home Entertainment Movies

Aum: The Cult At The End Of The World Review—Behind the Sarin Attack

Arash Nahandian by Arash Nahandian
1 month ago
in Entertainment, Movies, Reviews
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on PinterestShare on WhatsAppShare on Telegram

AUM: The Cult at the End of the World throws viewers into a maelstrom of gas-filled subway cars and frantic radio dispatches (an arresting choice, since most docs ease you in). On March 20, 1995, sarin gas tore through Tokyo’s Hibiya Line, killing 13 and injuring thousands.

Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto follow that calamity back to its source: Shoko Asahara’s Aum Shinrikyo, which mutated from a meditation circle into a doomsday machine. Premiering at Sundance, the film asks: How did a fringe yoga outfit morph into a global terror network?

And why did its excesses go unchecked for so long? (Hint: blinking often helps when history feels stranger than fiction.) By probing those questions, the documentary reckons with faith’s dark mirror—and whether vigilance can ever catch up to conviction.

Origins and Organizational Evolution

Shoko Asahara began life as Chizuo Matsumoto: a near-blind graduate of unaccredited pharmacy courses who moonlighted as a yoga instructor. In 1984 he launched Aum Shinrikyo, promising “miracle” meditations and purported cures (the term “therapeutic cult” might apply). Official registration in 1989 gave the group legal cover—an entry ticket to Japanese society.

Televised “levitation” stunts and slick promotional anime drew in university students seeking meaning amid post-bubble malaise. When Asahara’s 1990 bid for parliamentary seats crashed, he repackaged the cult as a political contender—a pivot that eventually flopped.

Yet geopolitical shifts offered fresh leverage: after the Soviet collapse, Aum forged ties in Russia, securing chemical-weapons know-how and even small arms. That expansion—from incense-lit ashrams to clandestine factories—illustrates a pathology of ambition: belief harvested as biochemical weaponry.

The 1995 Subway Attack and Personal Stories

The film’s in medias res opening flings us onto a train carriage where dispatch recordings crackle beside bleary surveillance footage. At 8:09 AM, sarin canisters hiss open; 13 commuters die, thousands gasp for air. Rather than abstract statistics, Braun and Yanagimoto humanize calamity through intimate portraits.

Aum: The Cult At The End Of The World Review

Yoshiyuki Kono, scapegoated after a Matsumoto-test run accident, lost family and reputation. Tsutsumi Sakamoto, a lawyer who prosecuted Aum, vanished along with his wife and infant son—victims of karmic retribution turned lethal. Oxygen-tubed survivors appear, their gratitude tinged with survivor’s guilt (medicine meets metaphysics here).

Fumihiro Joyu, once Asahara’s gilted PR manager, surfaces as marquee interviewee. Now leading Aum’s splinter group, he speaks in soothing tones yet refuses any self-reflection; his “most-hated man in Japan” claim lands flat (one term for it: “vanity denial”).

Curiously, few frontline survivors recount their own terror—an omission the filmmakers gloss over. And while we glimpse the Russia connection, its full scope remains compartmentalized behind bureaucratic barricades. In these gaps, the film reveals its own blind spots: a cult-story told through selective lenses.

Documentary Craft, Themes, and Contemporary Resonance

Clocking in at 106 minutes, AUM attempts encyclopedic reach where a miniseries might thrive. Archival news clips segue into animated re-creations (a clever riff on propaganda tropes), while talking heads shuffle on and off screen like chess pieces.

Aum: The Cult At The End Of The World Review

Journalists Marshall and Kaplan provide spade-work context; ex-members and victims supply emotional ballast. Notably absent are law-enforcement insiders, whose silence invites questions about institutional accountability.

Moments of genuine clarity emerge when media complicity is laid bare: TV producers chasing ratings handed Asahara free airtime, unwittingly grooming a bio-terrorist celebrity. Yet the film’s pacing sometimes feels “grab-and-go”—racing past revelations that deserve lingering. The score’s muted tension underscores this ambivalence, alternating empathy with clinical detachment.

Symbolically, AUM resonates as a case study in “belief contagion,” a term worth coining. When charismatic authority meets social fracture, ideas can become invisible pathogens. In a world buffeted by shifting convictions—political, religious or digital—the film reminds us that unchecked faith can mutate into mass destruction. If history is a mirror, AUM demands we stare back.

AUM: The Cult at the End of the World premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and was released in select U.S. theaters on March 19, 2025, followed by a digital release on March 28, 2025.

Full Credits

Directors: Ben Braun, Chiaki Yanagimoto

Writers: Ben Braun, Chiaki Yanagimoto

Producers: Ben Braun, Chiaki Yanagimoto, Dan Braun, Josh Braun, Rick Brookwell

Cast: Shoko Asahara (archive footage)

Director of Photography (Cinematographer): Yohei Tateishi

Editor: Keita Ideno

Composers: Dan Braun, Charlie Braun

The Review

Aum: The Cult At The End Of The World

7 Score

AUM: The Cult at the End of the World offers a compelling, if uneven, exploration of faith weaponized. Its vivid archival footage and thematic urgency illuminate how charismatic authority can morph into mass terror, even as sourcing gaps and brisk pacing leave some facets underexamined.

PROS

  • Vivid archival footage that immerses viewers in 1990s Tokyo
  • Thought-provoking access to former members and victims
  • Creative use of animation to illustrate propaganda tactics
  • Sharp exploration of media complicity and institutional failures
  • Philosophical framing of belief as a “contagion”

CONS

  • Key survivor testimonies are underrepresented
  • Law-enforcement perspectives largely absent
  • Russia–cult connection remains only partially illuminated
  • Pacing rushes through certain revelations
  • Central interviewee offers little introspection

Review Breakdown

  • Overall 0
Tags: A Fifth SeasonAUM: The Cult at the End of the WorldBen BraunChiaki YanagimotoCrimeDocumentaryFeaturedGreenwich EntertainmentHistoryShoko AsaharaSubmarine Deluxe
Previous Post

New Jack Fury Review: Neon-Soaked B-Movie Bliss

Next Post

Alpha Review: Stone Flesh and Fractured Time

Try AI Movie Recommender

Gazettely AI Movie Recommender

This Week's Top Reads

  • Smoke Review

    Smoke Review: The Year’s Most Unpredictable and Unsettling Show

    7 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • The Sound Review: A Long Way Down

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Love Island USA Season 7 Review: Summer’s Hottest Guilty Pleasure Returns

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Mix Tape Review: A Story Told on Two Sides of a Cassette

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Boglands Review: Shadows and Whispers in the Irish Mist

    2 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Please Don’t Feed the Children Review: Destry Spielberg’s Ambitious but Flawed Debut

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • She’s Got No Name Review: A Moving Tale of Empathy and Survival

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Must Read Articles

Heads of State Review
Movies

Heads of State Review: Elba and Cena Carry the Ticket

2 days ago
Squid Game Season 3 Review
Entertainment

Squid Game Season 3 Review: No Happy Endings Here

3 days ago
Love Island USA Season 7 Review
Entertainment

Love Island USA Season 7 Review: Summer’s Hottest Guilty Pleasure Returns

4 days ago
The Bear Season 4 Review
Entertainment

The Bear Season 4 Review: A Contemplative, Cathartic Final Course

4 days ago
Surviving Ohio State Review
Movies

Surviving Ohio State Review: The Weight of Witness

4 days ago
Loading poll ...
Coming Soon
Who is the best director in the horror thriller genre?

Gazettely is your go-to destination for all things gaming, movies, and TV. With fresh reviews, trending articles, and editor picks, we help you stay informed and entertained.

© 2021-2024 All Rights Reserved for Gazettely

What’s Inside

  • Movie & TV Reviews
  • Game Reviews
  • Featured Articles
  • Latest News
  • Editorial Picks

Quick Links

  • Home
  • About US
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise with Us
  • Review Guidelines

Follow Us

Facebook X-twitter Youtube Instagram
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Movies
  • Entertainment News
  • Movie and TV Reviews
  • TV Shows
  • Game News
  • Game Reviews
  • Contact Us

© 2024 All Rights Reserved for Gazettely

Go to mobile version