Hulu’s Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence, a new docuseries, takes viewers inside Larry Ray’s grim 10-year influence over a group of young people. The three-part series follows the story from the cult’s origins in 2010 on the Sarah Lawrence campus until its recent demise, when the last members find their own paths to survival.
This heart-wrenching story is told with unprecedented access that puts the audience right into dire situation these students faced. From first-hand interviews to actual recorded audio and video from the time in question, the series really tells the full story.
Obviously, it is clear right from the title that this docuseries is not going to be for everyone. It focuses on an incredibly dark and heavy subject matter that might be triggering for some people. If you are someone who avoids true crime documentaries or stories of people surviving tragedies, this is going to be a skip for you.
That being said, this story is incredibly well told. Right from the beginning, this documentary grabs you and puts you right into the dorms with the students. You immediately connect with the numerous interview subjects, while also being teased by the mystery of both the story itself and the others involved. And throughout, more people are added to the story who also share their side of exactly what happened.
Stolen Youth is incredibly comprehensive. Not only do we hear from the multiple victims of this horrible tragedy, but also their friends and families who were willing to be a part of this doc. There is also an unbelievable amount of footage and audio recordings form inside the cult that are featured in the documentary. It can be a bit difficult to watch at times, but it also adds the necessary weight to this story that allows the audience to grab onto it.
If there was anything missing from this new series, it was simply a reunion of some sort between all of those involved who were willing to be included in the doc. We hear so much from so many different people, and seeing them all together would have made for the most satisfying conclusion. Of course, this is a documentary, so there’s not always going to be that completely happy ending for everyone.
Another thing this doc does very well is the visuals. In addition to the unprecedented access inside this horrific cult, the doc also does a fantastic job with artistic depictions. With so many people involved in this story, it could have been easy to lose track of everyone involved. Luckily, the doc consistently provides refreshers with these visuals, essentially providing a scoreboard, for lack of a better term, to remind the viewer of where everyone stands at a given point in the story.
Overall, Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence is quite possibly the most comprehensive and captivating documentary out there. It plays more like a movie because of that unprecedented access that allows the audience to see and hear things they would never expect to see or hear. While it’s not going to be for everyone, the story is so well told, it’s hard to imagine anyone who does choose to watch it will not be immediately enthralled by it.
Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence premieres Thursday, February 9th on Hulu.