Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult – Review | Netflix

DANCING FOR THE DEVIL: THE 7M TIKTOK CULT on Netflix is a new documentary series in three parts. It’s classic cult behavior and creepy. Read our full Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult docu-series review here!

DANCING FOR THE DEVIL: THE 7M TIKTOK CULT is a new Netflix documentary series. This series has three 45-minute episodes and tells the story very chronologically. There isn’t a murder or death involved here, so the true crime has more to do with other forms of abuse.

Also, I should mention that those who escape the cult (and quite a few former members are interviewed) are not all in good places. In fact, especially one of them is very honest about wanting to give up on life altogether. It’s dark and creepy, which we know from other cult documentaries. Also, this is well-made.

Continue reading our Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult docu-series review below. Find it on Netflix from May 29, 2024.

Church or Cult? Both really!

In this Netflix docu-series, we meet dancers who get wrapped up in a cult via a management company called 7M. Basically, 7M is the gateway that leads directly to the Shekinah Church. Once you’re in, the money you make via 7M ends up in Shekinah as you pay for all sorts of things.

It’s a money scheme masquerading as a Church, but also a way for pastor Robert Shinn to get close to lots of young women.

Among them is Miranda Wilking. Her family is desperately trying to get their daughter out. Of course, it’s also part of their whole social media presence, so there’s a slight issue there as well. Especially as things progress in the docu-series and those damn posts take precedence over action.

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Is the Shekinah Church “just” a Church or is it a Cult? Well, in my book it does ultimately meet the criteria of being a cult due to the dictator-like and God-empowered leader, the way members are giving most of their money to the project, and the way members are asked to distance themselves from family.

Well, family that isn’t also in the Shekinah Church, obviously.

However, these three elements can also be found in many other religions. From Scientology to Jehovah’s Witness and others. As someone who isn’t a fan of organized religion that asks for anything except for its members to love their fellow man, it all sounds eerily similar. A rose by any other name, and all that.

Question everything

What’s especially scary about Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult is the way they are brought in. Sure, they are dancers who become part of a management company called 7M, but that isn’t where things go sideways.

No, it’s the fact that religion has been an integrated part of these young people’s lives forever. Either they have had a good and healthy relationship with a Church growing up or they only attended during Christmas and other holidays or events.

Either way, going to church was normal, and believing in God was the default. This is what leads them directly to Shekinah. They have been brought up never to question Church or God, and this one man is exploiting that to the fullest.

I have no problem with faith, but organized religion is often to the benefit of the human being at the top of these organizations. Kids should be brought up to question everything and figure out what their own belief system is.

At least this would make it a bit harder for the religions that are run as cults to lure in young and vulnerable souls.

TikTok take me to Church?!

In Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult, we become acquainted with several dancers who become famous on social media. Despite TikTok being part of the title, we also see a lot of clips from Instagram. I think the whole “TikTok Cult”-element of the title is just because it sounds good.

Also, threats of banning TikTok are near constant, but really, the actual cult has nothing to do with TikTok. Instead, it’s the classic Church. Yes, as in Christianity, but a very perverse kind that has been tailormade by Paster Robert Shinn to meet his own needs, greed, and overall desire.

Yes, desire as in the carnal kind.

After all, Paster Shinn of the Shekinah Church is “just a man”. Of course, he has also named himself “Man of God” (this is his literal title within the cult) and has a direct line to the man upstairs. Yeah, it’s all the classic BS of any cult leader. Nothing new here.

Including how the young dancers who get involved with the Shekinah Church don’t realize that they’re in a cult until they leave.

Watch Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult on Netflix

This three-part documentary series comes from director Derek Doneen. He previously directed episodes of Heist and Religion of Sports. Also, he directed the 2018 documentary feature Kailash about rescuing children from slavery. A very different story from this one.

One of the producers of this Netflix documentary series is That 70s Show actor Wilmer Valderrama. Maybe this is something he will focus on in the future – documentary filmmaking, I mean.

I love that we get several former members speaking out against Robert Shinn. He’s the 7M Films owner and Shekinah Church pastor Robert Shinn. Of course, he isn’t acting alone so several Shinn family members and decade-long members are also at the top of the Church.

I enjoyed how the focus of Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult was exposing the diabolical tactics used by these cult-like organizations. Showing how they lure in these young adults searching for purpose and meaning, and then beginning to exert control.

These cults exist in a vacuum and the more the spotlight is pointed directly at them (and their tactics), the more difficult it becomes for them to continue. Or, it should, but this docu-series ending shows that nothing is simple when dealing with these organizations.

Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult premieres on Netflix on May 29, 2024.