The craziest thing on TV right now isn’t a fantasy show about dragons or even the daily news; it’s a documentary about a mostly forgotten cult in rural Oregon. Wild Wild Country chronicles the true story of how a Rolls-Royce–driving Indian guru moved his alleged sex cult to central Oregon in the 1980s. They wanted to form a spiritually enlightened city but ended up conducting the largest bioterror attack on U.S. soil. Voter fraud, bombings, orgies, and attempted assassinations all factor into one of the most gripping stories you’ll see this year. Seriously, go watch it! It’s a bizarre tale, but it’s also a well-made documentary that parcels out the twists while maintaining a human connection to people on both sides.

GQ spoke to the directors, Chapman and Maclain Way (brothers, naturally) about their documentary, what details they wish they could have included, and what the hell was up with all the red clothes.

Maclain Way and Chapman Way Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images

GQ: Everyone I know who has seen Wild Wild Country has said a variation of the same thing, which is "How the hell did I not know about this?" Why has this really fascinating, bizarre episode been forgotten while Waco and Jonestown and so many other cult stories are in the cultural consciousness?

Chapman Way: Yeah, Mac and I talked about this while we were making it, because we were born just north of Los Angeles in the late ‘80s, and growing up we had never heard of it. The conclusion that we came to was that no one died in this bizarre saga, where there's, you know, a huge death toll number in Jonestown and Waco.

Maclain Way: Everyone just really dismissed the story as just this bizarre, kooky cult. I think at the time it was just a very quirky story, these people [dressed] in red out in Oregon, this Rolls-Royce guru, this sex guru. It was more of a punchline than it was a national talking point like Jonestown. It didn't really scar and shock the nation like Waco and Jonestown did.

Trump and the current political climate aren't explicitly part of the documentary, but it's interesting how many elements are relevant today. Anti-immigration sentiment, the gun stockpiling, voter suppression. Are there lessons we can draw from this today?

Chapman: I've been working on it for four years, so I don't know exactly what the takeaways are. But I do know that we are interested in hopefully allowing the audience to do some critical thinking and giving some provocative thought to these issues. Everyone is so conditioned, especially in today's political climate, to immediately assign good and bad, right and wrong, left and right. I'm guilty of that as well when I watch news. So it was kind of fun for us as filmmakers to use that to our advantage to really challenge the audiences to see how they truly feel about these issues.

Maclain: What we were so excited about is this idea that, as an audience member, you're naturally going to take one side or another at a certain point in the documentary series. That's fine. Hopefully, like 10 or 15 minutes later, you are then questioning that position you took, which is also fine. But part of that is questioning of the position that you took. If you feel like the Antelopians were like redneck bigots that were the villains of the story, that's fine, but if you got your way there through critically thinking about these issues, then that's what I'm excited about. If you think that the Rajneeshees were like these evil brainwashed cult members, that's a valid takeaway, too. There's a lot of argument for that, but hopefully you've reached that through, again, a lens of critically thinking about these issues.