Trailer For HBO's Documentary Series PRAY, OBEY, KILL about a Religious Cult Murder
HBO has released a trailer for a new true crime documentary series titled Pray, Obey, Kill. It tells the mysterious and compelling story of the murder of a young woman in the remote Swedish village of Knutby, and, of course, it involves a religious cult.
On a cold night in January 2004, gunshots rang out across the remote Swedish village of Knutby, home to a small, tight-knit Pentecostal congregation, leaving a young woman murdered in her bed and her neighbor suffering from multiple bullet wounds. Attention soon turned towards the community: the victim’s husband (also the sect’s pastor), the victim’s 26-year-old nanny, and the sect’s leader known as “The Bride of Christ.”
The case gained instant international notoriety when the nanny confessed within days, claiming she was told to commit the acts of violence through a series of text messages from God. What soon emerged, however, was a tale of a scandalous love triangle and details of another suspicious death that had occurred years before. Behind it all were the mysterious actions of the sect’s leader who exerted an increasingly powerful pull over her congregation.
Tracing the chilling events of January 10, 2004, and the resulting police investigation, criminal trial, and its aftermath, Pray, Obey, Kill highlights investigative journalists Anton Berg and Martin Johnson’s meticulous re-examination of the case. Their investigation includes in-depth interviews with journalists and police investigators who covered the crimes, as well as former members of the Pentecostal sect, some of whom are speaking for the first time about the psychological and physical abuse they suffered.
Pray, Obey, Kill was directed by Henrik Georgsson; produced by Ruth Reid for Warner Brothers ITVP; executive-produced by Anton Berg, Martin Johnson, and Martina Iacobaeus.
HBO will debut the first two of the five episodes of Pray, Obey, Kill on April 12th.