The dark side of Scientology - 2015-07-11
The dark side of Scientology July 11, 2015,
The new documentary by the prolific Alex Gibney should come with an advisory notice: "Warning: Bohemian Rhapsody was harmed during the making of this film." Queen's high-camp and purely joyous quasi-operatic masterpiece sustains some pretty severe damage during a sequence in which it is the soundtrack to the creepiest game of musical chairs you've ever seen.
The game takes place in a "re-education camp" for officials of the Church of Scientology whose loyalty to the organisation has come under suspicion. Known as "The Hole", it consists of two large ant-infested trailer homes in which internees are deprived of sleep and served slop for food, sometimes having to eat from the floor.
Yet in the film, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, one such internee tells Gibney that they were so controlled that they never considered escaping. As for that musical chairs game, the last person sitting gets to stay - the rest are exiled.