Overview
Your next Australian streaming obsession is on its way — and it's set to tell a story so wild that it can only be true. The tale of Australian cult The Family always falls into that category, as seen in the excellent and supremely creepy 2016 documentary that shares the cult's name, plus the 2019 series The Cult of the Family, both by filmmaker Rosie Jones. Now, the sinister Aussie sect is also providing inspiration for Disney+'s new eight-part series The Clearing, which will hit the service globally in May.
First announced in 2022, this new show is a drama and based on a novel — but The Family is clearly an influence. If you're new to these details, then strap yourself in for quite the story. The Family was very real, forming in the 1960s around Melbourne, with charismatic yoga teacher Anne Hamilton-Byrne at its head.
A cult run by a woman is already extremely rare, but this tale also includes adopting kids who looked identical, dressing them in matching clothing, claiming that Hamilton-Byrne was a living god and, because that's not enough, a lot of LSD. Police raided the sect's Lake Eildon compound back in 1987, all those children were removed from the property, and Hamilton-Byrne and her husband fled Australia, but were arrested in the US in 1993.
There's more to this story, which inspired JP Pomare's book In the Clearing alongside other cults around the world — and that's what The Clearing adapts. The show steps into the fictionalised but still chaotic details by following a woman who starts to confront her nightmarish past to stop a secret cult that's gathering up children to serve its master plan. Unsurprisingly, the mood is tense in the psychological thriller's just-dropped first teaser trailer, which arrives ahead of the series premiering its first two episodes on Wednesday, May 24.
Cast-wise, almost every famous Aussie acting name possible is involved, or so it seems, including Teresa Palmer (Ride Like a Girl), Miranda Otto (Wellmania) and Guy Pearce (Mare of Easttown), as well as Claudia Karvan (Bump) and Mark Coles-Smith (Mystery Road: Origin).
Also set to appear on-screen: Hazem Shammas (The Twelve), Kate Mulvany (Hunters), Xavier Samuel (Elvis), Anna Lise Phillips (Fires), Harry Greenwood (Wakefield) Erroll Shand (The Justice of Bunny King), Doris Younane (Five Bedrooms), Miah Madden (Dive Club), Julia Savage (Blaze), Gary Sweet (Wentworth), Alicia Gardiner (Offspring), Matt Okine (The Other Guy) and Jeremy Blewitt (The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart), plus Lily La Torre (Run Rabbit Run) and Ras-Samuel Welda'abzgi (Neighbours). We told you it was a hefty list.
Behind the lens, Jeffrey Walker (Lambs of God) and Gracie Otto (Seriously Red) are on directing duties, with Elise McCredie (Stateless) and Matt Cameron (Jack Irish) creating and writing The Clearing — with help from co-writer Osamah Sami (Ali's Wedding).
And if all of the above information doesn't have you ready to watch ASAP, the trailer will — complete with blonde-haired kids everywhere, Otto at her most unnerving, Palmer looking frantic and a police investigation heating up.
Check out the first teaser trailer for The Clearing below:
The Clearing will stream via Disney+ from Wednesday, May 24.