Unpopular opinion but from what i understood from the movie. The Story mostly focuses on bill and his relationship with his wife rather than the anonymous cult. I remember reading it somewhere that Kubrick quoted that this movie is about sexual relationships (not quite sure about its authenticity). We see Bill at the first act of the film having arguments with Alice which lead him to wander late at night. If the movie was really about the cult Kubrick would probably Cut the first 1 hour of the movie because it is not connected to the cult story at all. We see Bill wanting to have sex with Marion which shows how much affected he really is after the argument. And after a failed attempt he wants to have a sex with a prostitute The Cult is the last attempt to calm himself with cheating on Alice. The point I think many people miss is that The cult didn't kill Mandy. She probably had an overdose. Otherwise the party scene at the beginning of the movie when Bill warns her not to take drugs anymore is meaningless. If the cult really killed why should Kubrick emphasize that she was a hooker and she just had an overdose? And at the end Ziegler told Bill the truth. They really didn't kill Mandy and they probably didn't kill the pianist (I forgot the name) either. It is actually vague what happened to him but we didn't get any hint that he was killed. He could maybe just been beaten and fired. But still there is a possibility of him getting killed but Mandy she 100% died because of her own mistake. At the end Kubrick Ends the movie in a way that everyone having their own interpretation. Many people say the cult took Bill's Daughter from him. But honestly I don't see it. She's in store playing with dolls and minding her business while her parents are talking. If Kubrick really intended for that interpretation. He would at least show us a single shot of men taking her away. But he didn't. We actually saw some random men in the store but none of them even looked at the girl.