Netflix dropped the trailer for “The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping” Wednesday and it looks absolutely horrifying.
Just imagine you’re a young teenager again, sleeping soundly at home, when all of a sudden your bedroom door bursts open and a group of men grab you out of your bed and drag you halfway across the country. This is literally the stuff of nightmares, but parents all over America paid strangers to do this to their badly behaved children. And judging by the trailer for “The Program,” it sounds like even more horrors awaited these kids once they arrived at their destination.
The docuseries comes from filmmaker Katherine Kubler, who was sent to The Academy at Ivy Ridge, a high school that apparently felt more like a prison. Kubler said she was not allowed to talk, smile, go outside or communicate with people in the outside world during her time there.
What made things worse was her father’s reluctance to accept how traumatic and harmful Kubler’s adolescent experience had been for her. (RELATED: Paris Hilton, Drew Barrymore Open Up About Being Put In Solitary Confinement)
The docuseries takes a dive into The Academy at Ivy Ridge, as well as the myriad copycat companies that sprung up in its wake. The series premieres on March 5, and should probably be viewed with some caution.