The Doomsday Cult of Antares De La Luz (Antares de la Luz: La secta del fin del mundo) is a real-life horror tale that questions the vulnerability of human minds. Making you wonder, how people still fall into monstrous cults, in this day and age. This Chilean true-crime documentary is directed by Santiago Correa and has a runtime of about 1 hour and 40 minutes.
The documentary features journalists, investigators and former cult members including Veronica Foxley, Pablo Undurraga, Miguel Ampuero, Juan Emilio Gatica, Juan Estay, Jaime Undurraga, Gustavo Gaete, Jorge Herreros, Alexander Saravia, Natalia Guerra, David Pasten, Eduardo Munez, Carolina Vargas, Ismael Gomberoff, Pilar Alvarez, Otto Dorr, Isabel Soublette and others.
In late 2012, as rumours of an imminent apocalypse spread, Antares de la Luz, the captivating leader of a Chilean sect, skillfully coerced his followers into blind devotion by promising salvation. Nearly a decade later, ex-cult members come forward to reveal the disturbing truths of their time in the cult after they were branded as accomplices in De la Luz’ horrific crimes.
-This Article Contains Spoilers-
The Doomsday Cult of Antares De La Luz Review
We all have seen the social media posts of the world ending in 2012 according to Mayan Calender or an asteroid colliding with the Earth and whatnot. Adding to it was the popular 2009 film, 2012, showing the end of the world in great detail, filling a subconscious thought that it might come true, looking at the disastrous rate at which the world has been moving. One would have chucked the thought over time, however, somewhere in Chile, a man named Ramón Gustavo Castillo Gaete might have made it his whole personality and started his ascension to the position of God – for whoever believed in him.
Regardless of whether the world ended in 2012 or not, it definitely shattered the lives of the people involved in Ramón aka Antares De La Luz’ cult. It is said that he adopted the name Antares after experimenting with Ayahuasca for some chronic pain and refers to the brightest star in the Scorpius constellation. This is said to be the start of Antares’ constant use of the psychedelic that became a core practice of his cult teachings. Whenever any ex-cult member describes how they got into the cult, you can expect the answer to be ‘transformative meditation’.
It’s the same narrative – “outcasted, didn’t belong anywhere, looking for the purpose of life”. Then they meet some spiritual guru, who makes them empty their chaotic minds and as they experience a peaceful moment, everything changes or they are bewitched. Like an addiction, one session becomes endless sessions to even living under the same roof. And like the social beings humans are, they feel like sharing the same enlightenment with others, turning a private session into a group convention.
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In the case of Antares De La Luz, he didn’t outrightly proclaim to be ‘God’ or an incarnation but slowly manipulated people into a state of shared mystical delirium. Ayahuasca became his tool to induce a powerful hallucinating state in his follower’s meditation practice and guide them to see what he wanted – to be seen as ‘God’. Once you somewhat start to believe that this highly spiritual being is none other than the prime creator, he barters with your moments of peace by instilling fear – of him and the sinner world that’s bound to end.
If they secretly believed that your life was quite pointless, Antares proved them exactly with the help of drugs and persuading with his enigmatic personality. Making his followers leave their mundane lives behind, pack their bags and move from Olmué, Mantagua, Colliguay etc. He formalised the theory that there were three types of people – pure, impure and darkness. Pure people were full of light, impure people went against god’s command and the ones who were in complete darkness were made by Lucifer or satan. Antares role in this world was to burst the darkness, some part of which also resided in him, attacking his every move apparently.
Therefore, his followers like Pablo Undurraga, Natalia Guerra, David Pasten, Carolina Vargas and others had to do everything in their power to take care of ‘God’s’ wellbeing. Feeding, bathing, clothing, mating, massaging, taking him on walks and everything else had to be done by them. While Antares fought the battle with darkness and then gave orders on what to do next. How did they follow him so obediently? – By textbook technique of diminishing their ego, individuality and brainwashing them to sacrifice everything and become the soldiers of God in front.
Pablo Undurraga, who was like the second in command in the doomsday cult, plays a big role in the documentary to explain how he and many others joined Antares. But instead of sympathising with him, one can only question – “What kind of a trippy state you were in to believe all that, to see evil things yet not react?”.
Pablo shares how Antares killed his pregnant pet cat by trapping it in a container, to show that the kittens in its belly were children of Lucifer, deliberately put there to attack the pure being (him). It’s unthinkable to imagine someone killing your beloved pet and instead of being horrified, your belief deepens in his delusional cause of fight against Lucifer.
That incident was the early sign of what was to come later. Just this one incident of animal brutality is shared in detail in the documentary and is briefly mentioned that animal sacrifices were a common practice in the doomsday cult. Which should have been the first cue to run away from the delusional Antares. How could these people not question why God is so afraid of Lucifer if God created everything? Why would a creator of life, deliberately murder innocent animals over some childish reason of darkness attack?
Running the cult successfully from 2009 presumably, everything came to an end when police started investigating them in the early months of 2013, after being tipped by people who left. The enraging thing is that the events of November 23, 2012, weren’t the tipping point for them but the fact that the world didn’t end on the promised date ie December 21, 2012. This is where the real horrifying saga starts.
What Antares De La Luz and the Doomsday Cult Do?
According to Antares De La Luz, him being god meant that he couldn’t procreate. But when his chosen girlfriend and cult member Natalia Guerra became pregnant, his farce started to crumble. At first, he was in denial but later called it Jesus who would be born after 10 months (probably around the doomsday ie Dec 21). One extra month because he is a child of God. But as the real god intended, Natalia went into labour in November and was rather berated and taken to a secluded place to give birth. The other members were tasked with aiding in childbirth but there was no chance to do so without killing the baby and the mother.
That’s when Natalia was hurried to a nearby hospital by her followers, while Antares stayed hidden. They even lied about finding Natalia along the side of the road, to avoid raising any alarm. But Antares discreetly removed the baby from the hospital without informing the staff to avoid registering his son’s birth with the Civil Registry of Chile, as he was once again convinced that his son was the antichrist. Instead of accepting his child, he came up with a vile plan of sacrificing him in order to prevent the 2012 doomsday prediction from becoming true.
The three days-old-baby was immolated in a bonfire on 23 November, by gagging his mouth with a sock and tying his hands and feet to stay still. Despite the shock and sorrow felt by his followers, they chose to continue believing in him and remained steadfast in their loyalty to his cause, waiting for the doomsday.
It’s quite tragic to see that the real eye-opener for the members wasn’t that they were mercilessly beaten, forced to mate, witnessed animal brutality and became accomplices in the murder of a small baby – but the fact that they were alive to see December 23, 2012. It was when people like Pablo and his assigned girlfriend Carolina started questioning the authenticity and left the cult.
What Happened to the Doomsday Cult Members?
After the runaway members reported to the police, they could only investigate the property due to the fact that ayahuasca was trafficked from Peru to Chile. That’s when they found evidence of the fire sacrifice and created a case against the cult. Another point was when Natalia also came back to her hometown, the police caught hold of her and proceeded with the case when no baby was found with her. Soon the horrifying events were picked by the media, sending Antares into hiding in Peru.
While some cult members surrendered or were caught by the police. The public expected each of the accomplices to be punished for what they did to the baby. It was just one person against the 4-5 members, they could have stopped him from doing so, even the mother, Natalia, easily complied despite going through unmeasurable pain to give birth. However, the defendants put up the narrative that the majority of cult members were victims in the case on grounds of insanity/shared psychosis, as they sincerely believed Antares to be a God.
Meanwhile, Ramón Gustavo Castillo Gaete aka Antares De La Luz, hanged himself in a village in Peru, avoiding any repercussions of his monstrous actions. Pablo Undurraga and Natalia Guerra were eventually convicted and given a 5-year sentence. Out of which they only served two years and Natalia was even on the run until 2019 and served till 2021. The other members were given a 3-year sentence each.
Final Thoughts: While it’s an impactful documentary, it seems to have missed many other details about the cult activities that would have been much more horrifying to listen to. It’s insightful to hear an integral member’s perspective but despite multiple attempts, one can not make the viewers sympathise for any of them. Sure there was a psychedelic involved which altered their sense of reality but it’s no excuse to acquit them of being part of heinous crimes, and others that were probably never mentioned. It only proved that they knew what was happening but continued to let it happen intentionally.
Almost all the members have integrated back into society but it feels dangerous to imagine what they are capable of. Their beliefs might have been debunked but there has to be something twisted about these individuals inherently, to become part of such delusion initially and go beyond such limits eventually. More such documentaries are released on various cults, more it makes me believe that if people meditate/introspect themselves properly – they can avoid meeting man-made gods.
The Doomsday Cult of Antares De La Luz is available on Netflix.
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