Influencer Miranda Derrick said she has been receiving death threats following the release of a Netflix docuseries that alleged she was part of a TikTok dance cult.
“Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult,” which debuted on the streaming service May 29, described Derrick and several other TikTok stars as victims of talent management company 7M Films and the Los Angeles-based Shekinah Church. Both are run by Robert Shinn.
The three-episode series interviews Derrick’s parents, Kelly and Dean Wilking, and sister, Melanie, who is also an influencer. Derrick and Melanie Wilking had risen to social media fame together, but Derrick allegedly became estranged from her family after joining 7M Films, according to the family’s interviews featured in the documentary.
In a video posted to Instagram on Monday, Derrick said that she and her husband — James Derrick — “feel like our lives have been put in danger” after the release of the show.
The docuseries, which featured interviews with various former 7M and Shekinah members, put an immediate spotlight on the social media stars still affiliated with the management company and church, which some documentary participants described as a “cult.”
“Honestly, I don’t understand how my parents and my sister thought that this documentary would help me or would help our relationship in any way,” Derrick said in her video.
Neither Derrick nor her husband participated in the docuseries. Shinn also was not interviewed. The docuseries closed with slides that stated the three didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Since the show’s release, the couple has been followed in their cars, stalked and received hate mail and death threats online, Derrick said. She described messages from people who she said threatened to “gut” her or to “shove [her] in the trunk of [their] car” if they saw her out in public.
None of the members of the Derrick and Wilking families responded immediately to requests for comment.
Representatives for Netflix and Shekinah Church also did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
In an email statement on Wednesday, a spokesperson for 7M Films said that the Netflix docuseries is a "slanderous work of fiction, born from a failed extortion attempt, and invented for the sole purpose of gaining fame and fortune."
Netflix "recklessly provided a global platform to peddle a false narrative that is at the center of ongoing litigation," the spokesperson said, adding that the company will continue to pursue legal action and expects to be "fully vindicated" in court.
In her video, Derrick said she had been meeting privately with her family for the past several years to work on mending their relationship, a development that was also touched on in the docuseries.
“I’ve been loving getting together, laughing, just enjoying each other’s company. And this documentary has made it very difficult to continue doing that,” she said. “And honestly, I think that my parents, my sister have focused so much on this documentary that they’ve forgotten about working on any relationship with me. And that hurts.”
Derrick’s Instagram video post comes a week after she had issued a statement on her Instagram story. She said that she and her family “just don’t see eye to eye at this time,” and that she believes the documentary portrayed “a one-sided story.” She also pushed back on some of the portrayals in the docuseries of her relationship with her family.
“My family didn’t honor the space I asked for and I saw a different side to them I’ve never seen before,” she wrote. “Honestly, it made me mad, frustrated and annoyed that they were being so overbearing and chaotic.”
Derrick said she reached a point where she felt like she was being “harassed,” and that she chose to miss her grandfather’s funeral in Michigan — an incident that contributed to rising tension and confusion within the family, according to the documentary — out of fear they would not let her return to Los Angeles.
“I will add that I would have preferred for my family’s circ*mstances to remain private. I’m forced and feel like I have no other choice but to defend myself because of all of this. I can’t convince anyone to believe anything,” she wrote. “I am just a woman trying to live my life. I am not a victim, I am not in any harm, I am not being abused. I’ve never asked my family or anyone else to ‘help’ me in any way. Respectfully, what I choose to do with my life is up to me.”
Kelly, Dean and Melanie Wilking had first aired their concerns about Derrick’s involvement in 7M in early 2022. After Derrick’s statement last week, Melanie Wilking told "Access Hollywood" that the parties mentioned in the show were “reached out to many times” and declined to comment every time.
She said that it’s “hurtful” to hear Derrick felt “threatened” by her and their parents, but that “at the end of the day I know that who’s talking right now, who’s giving statements right now, that’s not the sister I know.”
“She at some point will know that we’ve done all of this because we love her unconditionally and will do anything for her,” she added, “and I know she’ll know that at some point.”
