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Stolen Youth is a shocking account of a cult that sprang up not too long ago at Sarah Lawrence College, and it’s a compelling binge on Hulu.
PLOT: The true story of a group of college sophomores who fells under the saw of a father or one of their friends and found themselves willing members of a cult.
REVIEW: During the pandemic, I got very into true crime documentaries. I can’t get enough of them, and luckily Netflix, Hulu and many other streaming services have been around the scratch my itch. People everywhere have gotten into these shows, and given how you can always rely on reality to be stranger than fiction, docuseries aren’t going anywhere. However, it can’t be denied there’s an exploitative aspect to some of them, especially when the stories profiled are recent.
This brings me to Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence. This criminal trial was still ongoing when the show premiered on Hulu a few weeks ago, with two of the primary players, Larry Ray and Isabella Pollok, recently sentenced. Directed by veteran documentarian Zachary Heinzerling, it should come as no surprise that Stolen Youth is empathetic. Still, there’s so much real-life footage of Larry Ray’s crimes used that, at times, one might feel as though they’re exploiting the victims’ pain. Yet, it can’t be denied that these moments are the most fascinating, compelling parts of the documentary.
Here’s the cliff notes version for those who haven’t heard of the Sarah Lawrence cult. Larry Ray, a convicted felon who just got out of jail, moved into his daughter’s campus housing. While there, he befriended all of their roommates and eventually convinced many of them to move to an apartment in New York City, where he basically made them his acolytes. All of the students, who quickly became brainwashed, submitted to his abuse, with him convincing them all that he’s been the target of a vast conspiracy and, most incredibly, that they’re all willing participants in this conspiracy. He makes them all feel culpable and turns most of the women into his virtual sex slaves. At one point, he even convinces the doctor sister of one of the students to quit her practice and come live with him in New York as part of the cult.
The movie features several interviews, some of which are with members of the cult who have escaped, but a number of them are with people still clearly under Larry Ray’s spell, even with him behind bars. It makes the docuseries shocking and upsetting to watch, as a few of the women still have that brainwashed, glazed-over look. Indeed, one of the women, who is his most devoted follower, spends much of the final episode grappling with the fact that she’s staring down a large prison sentence. Her case is not helped by her unwillingness to face reality, asking the question, is she a victim, perpetrator, or both?
What’s most disturbing of all is seeing not only how this man won over a group of young students but how powerless anyone – from their friends to their families – was to stop it from happening. If Stolen Youth left me wanting anything, it was more insight into how Larry Ray broke these kids down and how exactly one falls prey to something like this in the first place, as the concept is hard to understand to many of us.
In the end, though, and perhaps appropriately, Heinzerling’s series isn’t here to pass judgment on anyone except Larry Ray himself. While difficult and without much of a happy ending (Ray has been punished but lives have been ruined) Stolen Youth is also pretty riveting stuff worth a binge on Hulu (the show is streaming now).
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