An intriguing mystery including amateur criminal investigation, perplexing cultish horrors, and a maze of puzzles to solve is revealed in Netflix’s French crime thriller series “Anthracite.” The show centers on a local sect that committed collective ritualistic suicide thirty years ago in the Alps.
The 1994 episode generated enough discussion to warrant a recurrence, so when a young woman is killed in keeping with the ancient ritualistic deaths, there is a great deal of conjecture and concern.
As a result, when troublemaker Jaro Gatsi—who has a past—finds himself suspected of the murder, he receives unexpected assistance from eccentric true-crime fan Ida, who is looking for her own father, who vanished.
The story’s captivating themes, which include an elusive mountains cultish group, a resurgent controversy, and a band of web sleuths, are evocative of the true-crime genre. Consequently, these components might draw in actual lovers of true crime and pique their interest in learning more about how the series is based on a true story.
Is the Netflix Show Based on Real Events?
The story and characters of “Anthracite” (sometimes titled “Anthracite: Secrets of the Sect”) are made-up works written by screenwriters Maxime Berthemy and Fanny Robert. Nevertheless, there is a real-world influence for the program that dates back to the mass suicides in the French Alps in 1995.
The writing team revealed Robert’s childhood in the Grenoble area, which is close to the Vercors plateau and is where the 1995 killings occurred, in an interview discussing their show. Robert’s inventiveness thus ended up being influenced by the stories of cult sects and their terrifying rituals that he was exposed to as a child.
Because of this, even though the show doesn’t exactly copy or recreate this real-life incident, its significance to the story is still clear.
Authorities found 16 people’s dead in the French Alps woodlands, according to reports from December 1995. Fourteen of the sixteen victims appeared to be arranged like stars, despite the fact that they were all scorched beyond recognition.
“It looks like some kind of collective suicide,” said Jean-Francois Lorans, the public prosecutor working on the case, when he first discussed the occurrence. The bodies are located in an awkward location and appear to have been part of some strange ritual.
Moreover, the demises bore a sinister parallel to earlier rites that claimed a great deal of lives, directed by a doomsday cult known as the Order of the Solar Temple.
The doomsday cult was established in Geneva in 1984 by Luc Jouret and Joseph De Mambro, and it was well known to be composed of affluent people whose wealth allowed the cult to control profitable real estate holdings in Canada and Switzerland.
Because of the murder-suicides, the group’s membership eventually began to dwindle. For the same reason, it’s still widely believed that, as of the twenty-first century, the group has between 140 and 500 members.
As a result, there is a clear similarity between the cult portrayed in the show and the Order of the Solar Temple sect that ruled terror from the mid-1980s until the late 1990s. But the core premise of the show, which centers on Ida and Jaro’s exploits with the cult, is still a made-up tale with no real bearing on the OTS sect.
This storyline element mostly stems from the screenwriters Robert and Berthemy’s fascination with the idea of contemporary digital investigation and real crime. There is truth to the theory that unidentified online users are flooding the police with reports of incidents they have investigated.
However, the details of Ida and Jaro’s personas and their involvement with the lethal cult are unrelated to any conceivable real-life parallels. As a result, even while the plot alludes to the tragic events surrounding the OTS cult—namely, their 1995 murder-suicides in Vercors—it only contributes a small portion of the story.
Other parts of the story—like the cult’s modern comeback—remain wholly made up and have very little bearing on reality. In the end, however the show draws inspiration from genuine stories in certain areas, it tells a fictitious tale that is only loosely based on fact.
Are you eager to learn more about the mystery surrounding Anthracite, a true crime? For additional information on how this compelling Netflix series blends fact and fiction, see our website. Investigate its eerie real-life influences and participate in the debate on whether reality is really stranger than fiction. Visit Investrecords to get the more information about these types of shows.