Louis Theroux's Most Extreme Documentary Subjects

Fans of Louis Theroux, the legendary British-American documentary-maker and podcast host, were treated to an unfamiliar sight this week as the long-serving BBC filmmaker went to number one on the Netflix charts with Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere — his first effort in what could turn out to be a new series of collaborations with the streaming giant.

 Newcomers to Theroux’s delightful charm and compelling approach will be happy to hear that Manosphere is just the latest instalment in a career-long project to meet, speak with, and attempt to understand some of the most extreme people on planet earth — whether that be in terms of religion, politics, hobbies, or ideology. 

In the list below, I’ve rounded up eight of the most extreme subcultures and groups that Theroux has encountered and documented in that time. Some of these are naturally heavier than others, and some are more comedic. All are delivered in Theroux’s non-judgemental, entertaining, and uniquely humane style.

Read on to discover more about each documentary or show and, wherever possible, use the guide below to find them on services like BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere. 

Survivalists (1998)

For me, the first truly great episode of Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends was when Louis went to Idaho to meet with communities of survivalists — aka, people prepping for a global catastrophe that only they seemed to know about. Like many of the subjects of his earliest work, this is a subculture that has slipped into the mainstream in a big way in the last 10 years or so — albeit now with far less connection to ecological concerns. At the time, however, this funny, touching, and only occasionally worrying episode felt like it had been beamed in from another planet. 

Weird Weekends was Theroux’s first program for the BBC (he was still in his 20s when he made it), and it’s gone on to become one of his most influential. If you’re a fan of shows like Nathan for You or How To with John Wilson, you’ll certainly see where they’ve come from. 

Afrikaner Separatists (2000)

Each of the six-episode seasons of Weird Weekends offers a mix of humour, surrealism and darkness in their respective collection of subjects. In the third and final series, released in late 2000, Theroux had his first encounter with the deep south rap scene (including a moment that was recently re-immortalised as a viral TikTok song); dove headfirst into the extreme body building circuit in California; and, in perhaps the most challenging of Weird Weekend episode of all, traveled to South Africa to meet with extreme communities of white Afrikaners.

This remarkable episode saw Theroux journey to the gated communities that had started to pop up since the end of Apartheid — places where that racist rule of law was essentially still being upheld. For the episode, Theroux met with Eugène Terre'Blanche, the community's white supremacist leader, on numerous occasions, offering a taste of the courageous work that has since defined him.

Neo Nazis (2003)

After the success of Weird Weekends and his When Louis Met interview series for the BBC, Theroux had built up enough respect within the industry that he was essentially given creative freedom to work on whatever he chose. This resulted in an ongoing series of one-off specials for BBC 2 that are currently numbered at 35 documentaries and counting. 

The first batch of these came out in late 2003, the last of which was his most daring documentary to date at that time, Louis and the Nazis. The film followed Theroux as he travelled to California to meet some of the leaders of the Neo Nazi movement there, while also taking time to get to know their families and children — showing how the younger generation were being unknowingly swept up by it. It’s a phenomenal piece of work that further showcases his singular humility as a documentarian. 

The Westboro Baptist Church (2007)

If I’m remembering correctly, I think my own first experience with Louis Theroux came in 2007 when the BBC released The Most Hated Family in America, a first-hand study of The Westboro Baptist Church — an extreme religious group that became infamous in the late ‘00s for their anti-homosexual rhetoric. 

This one, more than most, still feels like a remarkable coup — the filmmaker essentially immersed himself within the family and the church for several days, getting to know and following them to the infamous protests (which usually took place outside the funerals of soldiers who had died in Iraq) for which they had earned the documentary’s title. 

Prisoners in San Quentin (2008)

A year after his study of the Westboro Church, Theroux received some of the best reviews of his career for Louis Theroux: Behind Bars, a documentary that saw him gain unprecedented access to the guards and inmates of San Quentin Prison, even allowing the filmmaker to get up close and personal with serial murderers and gang members. 

The film was an enormous success at the time and was watched by millions on the newly-launched BBC iPlayer — with Theroux once again receiving praise for his humane approach to the subject matter. 

Ultra Zionists (2011)

In 2011, Louis travelled to the West Bank in Palestine for the first time to attempt to understand the mindset of the Ultra Zionist settlers and their decades-long attempts to bully (with the unofficial but obvious assistance of the Israeli military) local Palestinians off their land and out of their homes — actions that are, as the documentary explains, essentially considered war crimes under international law. 

Released in 2011, long before the escalations of the last few years, the film was a bold attempt by Theroux to talk to the people committing what few at the time were quite prepared to call ethnic cleansing. Last year, he returned to talk to similar people in the region in The Settlers, finding that their ideology and beliefs had become even more brazen after the events of October 7, 2023 and the subsequent devastation of Gaza. Both films are harrowing but essential viewing. 

Sex Offenders in LA (2014)

Throughout his career, and long before anyone else was doing it in a meaningful way, Theroux has always shown himself to be a keen observer of the strange and sometimes horrifying extremes of sexual desire.  

Perhaps the toughest watch of any of these — indeed, perhaps of any of his films — is Among the Sex Offenders — a doc that saw him meet with paroled offenders living on the fringes of society. It’s a fascinating watch but a deeply upsetting one.

Scientology (2015)

Theroux’s My Scientology Movie, a feature-length documentary that was briefly released theatrically, is one of the most inventive films in the director’s back catalogue. The subject, of course, is the Church of Scientology — a topic that documentary makers couldn’t seem to get enough of in the 2010s.

Coming a year after Alex Gibney’s similarly great Going Clear, Louis can’t claim to have gotten there first, but his approach to the subject matter allows his film to stand out. This involved Theroux (who was denied official access to film within the institution itself) hiring actors to reenact first-hand accounts of alleged abuse within the church. Naturally, he was sued many times over, which usually means you’re doing something right.