What is the true story behind ‘Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult’? (2024)

In videos, TikTok dancers associated with 7M Films, like Miranda Derrick, are bubbly and smiling. Is it possible that they are actually in a cult?

According to a civil lawsuit filed March 2023, yes. Robert Shinn, the CEO of 7M, is also the pastor of Shekinah Church. Shinn, 7M Film and Shekinah Church are listed as defendants, among other entities, including Shinn’s wife Hannah Grace.

The lawsuit allege Shinn and other defendants subjected people “to brainwashing, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, manipulation, and exploitation.”

“Shekinah is a cult,” the lawsuit, filed in March 2023, read. “A cult that engages in egregious and despicable illegal behavior.” Later it calls Shekinah “a cult operating under the disguise of a religious institution.”

Shinn, in 2021, when allegations against 7M Films first emerged, categorized them as “false” in a statement provided to the Daily Beast.

The new Netflix docuseries, “Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult,” highlights former members of 7M Films and Shekinah Church, as well as the family members of current members, like Miranda Derrick.

No criminal charges have been brought against Shinn. He has not spoken out about the 2023 lawsuit and did not participate in the documentary.

“There is a man that started a management company, managing some really successful, famous TikTok dancers, and ultimately funneling — maybe (for) lack of better words — into his church,” executive producer Jessica Acevedo tells TODAY.com about the series. “And as we started to investigate it, we realized the story goes much deeper and darker than we could have ever imagined it.”

Are dancers on TikTok really in a cult?

In February 2022, the family of Miranda Derrick posted a video on Instagram speaking out about their concerns her Derrick, and sharing that Miranda Derrick was “not allowed to speak” to them.

Miranda Derrick’s sister, fellow dancer Melanie Wilking, said that she believed her sister and the other dancers in the group, including her husband James Derrick, were “not in control of their lives.” The civil lawsuit filed in 2023 by former Shekinah and 7M Films members describes an environment marked by “brainwashing” to a state of “economic and physical submission” and “abuse.”

While living in Shekinah, people “worked on small allowance,” were “only allowed to eat food provided by Shekinah,” and “were only allowed to make purchases approved by Shekinah,” per the lawsuit. They were also encouraged to donate their income.

Dancers Aubrey Fisher-Greene, Kylie Douglas and Kevin “Konkrete” Davis left 7M in 2022, then joined the 2023 lawsuit. They joined the documentary in real time, documentarians say.

“It’s pretty rare to find a story that’s unfolding in real time like this,” director Derek Doneen tells TODAY.com.

What is Shekinah Church?

Robert Shinn founded Shekinah Church, which predates 7M Fims. He is also tied to multiple other corporations and companies, all listed in the lawsuit, including Shekinah Church, Alpha Plus Realty, RCP Financial Inc. and Imaginating Pictures, the production company behind “Random Encounters,” a 2013 film that stars the former Meghan Markle and credits Shinn as an executive producer.

The 2023 civil suit describes Shinn’s teachings at Shekinah Church, and why cross-complainants, whose confidence in themselves had been “undermined,” were vulnerable to manipulation.

“Robert preached that Shekinah was a member’s last chance into heaven by rapture. During sermons, Robert would say that Shekinah members could leave the church any time, but that members who left, and their families, would not be protected and would instead be prone to ‘spiritual attacks’ or attacks by the devil.”

“He told them they would experience poverty, sickness and death of their loved ones without full submission,” the suit says.

The filing was part of an ongoing lawsuit that began when Shinn sued two former members of his church and moderators of social media accounts that were posting about him and Shekinah Church in October 2022, according to documents reviewed byTODAY.com. All have denied allegations.

Melanie Lee, a former member, described being “brainwashed” after joining the church in a lawsuit.

In 2022, Rolling Stone reported that a former member of the Shekinah Church named Lydia Chung sued Shinn and several other defendants in 2009 for forcing her to turn over $3.8 million in property and assets through “undue influence, mind control, coercive persuasion, oppression and other intimidating tactics … all in the name of God.” She also claimed she was forced to work six days a week without pay. The judge ultimately ruled against her.

"Shinn and the other defendants successfully rebuffed all of Chung’s claims. After a bench trial, the judge ruled in favor of Shinn and the other defendants on all counts,” the Rolling Stone article summarizes

What have 7M and Robert Shinn said about the allegations?

After Miranda Derrick's family spoke out in 2022, a representative for Miranda and James Derrick, 7M, and Robert Shinn denied the allegations that 7M was a cult and characterized the Wilkings’ claims as the result of a family disagreement.

“Miranda Derrick is a successful businesswoman and a loving wife and daughter who cares very much about her family,” the representative said in a statement provided to the Daily Beast in 2022, after their video went up. “While the recent portrayals of Dr. Robert Shinn and 7M Films have been wildly offensive and riddled with inaccuracies, those false claims will not deter 7M from supporting Miranda in whichever endeavors she chooses to pursue next.”

In a statement posted to Instagram in March 2022, a month after Derrick’s family went public with their concerns, 7M Films stated that although Shinn is the pastor of Shekinah Church, there is no business affiliation between the church and 7M.

“It is quite common for a person of faith to own and operate one or many secular for-profit businesses,” the statement read. “You do not have to be a member of the Shekinah Church to be represented by 7M, nor do you have to be represented by 7M to be a member of the Shekinah Church.”

Shinn did not go on the record in the documentary. “I would have given them the same time and respect that I would give anybody,” director Doneen says. That said, there’s a part of me that’s also happy that the attention is on the families and former members, because that is who we wanted to uplift.”

Per the Netflix documentary, the case is set to go to trial in 2025.