It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A real mess coproduced by México, Spain, Panamá and the U.S., done by the Cardonas with the same sensationalism of other 1970s "films", as "El triángulo de las Bermudas", "¡Tintorera!" and a few others that father and son signed together or separatedly. Everybody spoke their lines in their native languages, many tried to speak English for the "international market"... and were indeed recorded, but finally dubbed for the American version. It is awful in any version. Little was left (I can only guess) of the real facts that made headlines on newspapers. All I can remember now is Stuart Whitman in a blood-red shirt, playing the head of the cult, and all those old familiar faces, probably making fun of what they were doing in Acapulco for a few dollars...

#Slight Spoilers# Based on the true story of the late Reverand Jim Jones who's paranoid obsession of an impending nuclear holocaust as well as him and his followers, of the People's Temple in San Francisco, being rounded up and put in concentration camps lead to the biggest mass-suicide in recorded history in the hot steaming and snake-infested jungles of Guyana back on November 18-19 1978.The entire event is told to us, off-camera, by a 24 year-old survivor of the Johnsontown massacre in the movie "Guyana Cult of the Damned". The movie goes back to a lawsuit against the People's Temple's founder Reverand James Johnson, Stuart Whitman, by the father of one of his followers who was "accidently" killed when he quit being a member of the Temple. California Congressman Lee O'Brian, Gene Barry, organizes a special task force that travels down to Guyana where Johnson has built a town for his some 3,000 followers to see if the accusations of torture humiliation and even murder of some of his followers against Reverand James Johnson are true.James Johnson over the years has gone from preaching the words and teaching of Jesus Christ to becoming both a dye in the wool Marxist/Socialist even secretly joined the American Communist Party. Johnson has also become dependent on proscription drugs and the drugs were slowly killing him. That may well have been the reason for his state of mind in the two years that lead up to his grand exit, together with over 900 loyal and not so loyal followers,on that infamous "White Night" in November.Life was hell in Johnsontwon with James Johnson ruling it with an iron fist and having anyone who disobeyed his orders or will tortured and humiliated in view of all the other Johnsontown members. In one case when a young couple were caught making love in the woods they were made to be forced to have sex, or other men of Johnsontown have sex with them, with male members of Johnsontown in full views of the entire Johnsontown community including the very young children!When Congressman O'Brian came to Johnsontown to investigate the charges against Johnson all hell broke loose with scores of Johnsontown residents wanting to leave with him. Johnson himself already suffering from advanced brain and stomach cancer went berserk and ordered his men to ambush Congressman O'Brian before he, and the defectors of Jonsontown, the newsman and cameramen left Guyana brutally massacred most of them including Congressman O'Brian.With the news of O'Brian and his fellow American citizens murdered Johnson got his followers ready for the big night that he's been planning and rehearsing for years the terrifying "White Night". With his faithful physician Doctor Gary Shaw, Bradford Dillman, mixing the deadly cyanide into a giant vat of fruit-punch Johnson had, and forced, his followers to drink it. Some 1,000 people in Johnsontown died before the US, and Guyanan, military could get there to save them from this murderous madman. When they finally got there, Johnsontown, the rescue squads found to their, and the worlds, shock and horror the biggest organized mass murder, by suicide, in human history had already happened. Even though Johnson's wife of 27 years Marilyn, Ericka Carlsson, and one of his young children took a drink of the death fruit-punch potion right in front of him thus going immediately into painful death-rattlings convolutions and dying the good Reverand Johnson, coward that he was, refrained from taking a drink and was shot,in the neck, instead by one of his loyal henchmen.Shocking but true story about madness and murder with James Johnson using the most naive of people who thought that he was a kind noble and God-like man. Instead the crazed and drug addicted James Johnson sent them and their families, even their infant children, to a hell not heaven on earth like he had promised them. In the end Johnson destroyed everything good, if there was any, that he did in his life making him one of the most evil, and God-less, men that ever walked the face of the earth. For some strange and ironic reason James Jonhson had a placard over his throne, or seat of power, at Johnsontown quoting the Spanish philosopher George Santanya stating " Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to relive it". Let's hope that we and the world learned from the evil deeds and actions of James Johnson aka Jim Jones and will always remember what he did and stood for and see to it, like Santayana's famous quote, that we never forget and never live to see or let it, or him, ever happen again.

In 1978, A Mexican film crew (Mismovision) struck a deal with Mexico City Broadcasting (MCB): In the years that followed, they could use their characters in any way they saw fit. MCB producer Memo Vasqueze, who was responsible for bringing many great cult leader shows to TV throughout the 70s, decided to do a Jim Jones series, and wanted the story to remain as faithful to the Marvel comic as possible, but MCB's sponsor Bambino Machino wanted to sell more toys, so there was a major story rewrite, and they had to push a giant robot into the story! MCB's producers thought Bambino Machino was crazy! Nonetheless, this was to be the first time in a cult leader series in which a cult leader figure (as opposed to a regular pilot, such as in the Japanese METZENGINGER Z) operated a giant robot!The MCB/Bambino Machino project entitled GUYANA: Crimen del siglo a Mexinization of Jim Jones himself (the project was going to be called GUYANA: Robusteza del Mal), but Bambino Machino got more control than Vasqueze, for whom this show was the last straw. When he left evil cult shows (and worked on soap operas at MCB), it was completely Bambino Machino's show from there on. The next Cult Hero Series, Siempre listo en las tinieblas (1980) and ¡Así es mi tierra! (1981) had MCB in the opening credits! Go figure!Here we have Bambino Machino's GUYANA: Crimen del siglo, which, despite its shortcomings, should supposedly be a treat for fans of that type of thing! I will say that it was better than the short-lived American series starring Powers Booth (which wasn't TOO bad). Before the excellent new GUYANA film starring Stewart Whitman, this is definitely the least historically faithful GUYANA ever portrayed on film! The attitude was right, the poses and stunts were incredible! But the faithfulness ends with portrayal of Cult Leader Jimmy (Jim-Jam) Jones himself. . .The STORY is what bugs me! The Mexinization is much more extreme than the aforementioned Marvel Comic from the same year, and here, Jim-Jam's regular foes are nowhere to be seen. Also, his origins have been changed completely! He's from outer space, he has a racing car (Messiah-Machine GP-12000) and rides a giant ship called the Marveller (hmmmm . . . Where DID they get that name . . . ), which transforms into the giant robot Assuptionizer! OK, now this is TOTALLY out of place for IL' Captain Koolaid, even more absurd than any of Ralph Bakshi's "drug-trip" Hobbit adventures (from the last two seasons of the classic animated series)! But that's not all! Bambino Machino ran out of money to do the FX prior to the post-production, and Assuptionizer was replaced by a goofy-looking bozo-clown named Senior Bungles, as it was rumored that some nasty fanatic stole the robot costume! So its appearance was limited to stock footage of the robot, with new footage of Senior Bungles' balloon animal antics spliced in!But now, let'slook at a few the show's minuses: As, moreover, we are forced to endure more Guyana Cult Tragedy action! In fact, the show is VERY violent! incorporating in certain instances real footage of human brain surgery!I'll be as brief on the plot as I can: In space, Professor Jehovah, leader of the Angelican Army (his cronies include right hand woman Oblate Sisters of the Assumption, a similar two Caucasian women, and dove-like henchmen) are in pursuit of the space craft Marveller, which comes to Earth and crashes on a mountain in Guyana, freeing an old hermit named Padre Sebastián, who was from the planet Spider (which the big Prof. plundered and destroyed long ago). After a race show, motorcycle stuntman Bert Powers (Ricardo Carrión) (who lives with his sister and little brother, and has a fashion model girlfriend, who's unaware that her boss is actually an Oblate Sisters of the Assumption in disguise! Wow, and you thought the Branch Davidians of the infamous Waco Massacre were out there!) is fatally wounded by Oblate Sisters of the Assumption and the dove-henchmen, who attempt to remove his brain but are thwarted by Padre Sebastián, the old hermit, who injects "grape koolaid" into Bert's jugular artery before turning back into a starfish! He also receives a metallic bracelet, which stores his cult leader suit (PLUS!!!), shoots holy fire, and is also a communicator for the Messiah-Machine GP-12000 and Marveller, which he can ride and transform into Assuptionizer, which kills 917 "true believers", as we all know, on that ill-fated day (it hurls its punch bowls at it's prey, as opposed to to merely lacing it with stychnide and leaving it there by the wayside for the followers to imbibe at their leisure)! **SPOILERS** I will say that, ultimately, though incredibly rushed (especially after its slow first half), has its fair share of sick sick scenes, in particular, those depicting the heaps of stagnant dead bodies rotting in the sun, and accompanied by the buzzing of flies on the soundtrack! Anyhow, after the Assuptionizer kills the congregation off, Jim Jones comes face to face with Professor Jehovah, who, after a little scuffle with our cult leader, grows to giant size, pounds his chest like King Kong, and exerts "The Angelican Army is immortal!!!" Jim Jones does the usual Marveller/Assuptionizer thing and kills the evil Professor the same way he killed everyone else, but this time, with a bit of fire & brimstone thrown in between for dramatic effect (supposedly taken from real life transcripts of real-life sermons but echoing here via the employment of some audio trickery and thus difficult to understand) My final take: Bambino Machino's GUYANA: Century of the Crime a fun roller-coaster ride with tons of unnecessary (but not unwelcome) sermonizing, and a must-see for Jesus freaks. I say, don't let the minuses get to you, and just sit back and enjoy the plusses!Not Recommended.

I keep getting this movie confused with "Guyana Tragedy", the TV movie based on the Jim Jones incident. But this is a fantastic film, truly bone-chilling and bizarre! I just saw it on TV (on FOX, of all places!) and could not believe how well-made it was. Having heard mostly negative reviews of the film, I am glad to say that they were all wrong. For the most part, "Cult of the Damned" is a lot more accurate than the TV movie and being a theatrical feature, can actually show more of the massacre than a TV movie's restricted budget and audience. Try to find this on TV sometime or even better, search for it on video! It's long out of print, but well worth the time to look around!