It’s a tangled, gruesome story you’ve probably heard before, but you’ve never heard — or seen — it this way. Waco: American Apocalypse explores the infamous 51-day standoff outside of Waco, Texas, between the US government and the Branch Davidian religious sect led by David Koresh. The bloody siege resulted in the loss of 86 lives, and the new three-part documentary from filmmaker Tiller Russell (Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer) retells this infamous event with never-before-seen material as well as realistic CGI visualizations.
The new trailer for Waco: American Apocalypse begins with a brief look at life for the Branch Davidians before the siege in 1993. This group of men, women and children lived on a compound called the Mount Carmel Center — Koresh had convinced all of them that he was their messiah, the only one who could save them when the apocalypse inevitably unfolded on their doorstep.
Ahead of the siege, Koresh armed his followers with guns and grenades and converted automatic assault rifles, most of which broke federal gun laws. The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) obtained a warrant for Koresh’s arrest, and what happened next was one of the most shocking tragedies in recent American history. The bloody, multi-week gunfight and televised hostage negotiations resulted in the deaths of dozens of people, including 28 children. For a complete timeline of the events that transpire in Waco: American Apocalypse, see this comprehensive timeline.
Thirty years after the tragic event, Waco: American Apocalypse airs intimate interviews with people from all sides of the conflict, including one of Koresh’s spiritual wives, the last child released from the compound alive and members of the ATF tactical team who watched their colleagues die in the shoot-out. The limited series includes raw news footage never before released to the public, as well as recently unearthed videotapes inside the FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit.
The three-part series will be available to stream on Netflix on March 22.
