The Manson Family (2004)

Of all the highly publicized American murder cases of the 20th century, the massacres committed by cult leader Charles Manson's followers in 1969 are probably the most infamous. Despite never personally killing anyone, Manson is still often seen as some kind of embodiment of evil and thus an object of constant curiosity. Several films have been made about "The Family" over the decades, one of them being Jim Van Bebber's semi-mocumentary finally released in 2003 after having been in production for nearly 15 years.The frame story of the warped cinematic trip takes place in 1996 when a TV reporter named Jack Wilson (Carl Day) is preparing to interview the incarcerated Family members for his program. Some kind of strange modern followers of Manson have sent him a videotape and are not going to leave their interference at that. The bulk of the film consists of faux-interviews with the Family members and psychedelic flashbacks of scenes from the time preceding the murders. The interviewees Leslie, Bobby, Sadie, Patty and Tex seem to regret their actions, while Manson himself is only seen in the flashbacks as portrayed by Marcelo Games.Instead of a clear, tightly-written plot the jumpy movie favours a fragmented sensory mindf**k kind of approach to its subject. The film's exploitation roots become highly evident during the long home video-like flashbacks illustrating the interviewees' memories full of hazy drug use and gratuitous nudity and sex. The lighting is mostly very richly coloured in red or blue, creating a fittingly otherworldly feel to the scenes of cult bonding under the influence of the charismatic Manson who is seen entirely through the eyes of his followers: he doesn't speak much and remains a distant character throughout. The intentionally grainy, worn-out and damaged look of the film (not only the flashbacks) strengthens the alienating atmosphere as well.At times the film effectively captures the distressing, insane state of mind that the Family members can be imagined to have been in. The Devil worshipping orgy is a highlight among the bizarre scenes, but the colourfully lit final massacres testing the audiences' tolerance to excessive gore are a must see for any fan of hard horror too. The prolonged knife violence and maniacally laughing killers are pretty much what people (or at least me) are looking for in sleazy trash movies like this one anyway, so in that sense Van Bebber and Co. have achieved their goal with flying colours. Perhaps some of the acting is not the most realistic ever, but I cannot consider that a major flaw in a film that is so heavily focused on the effects of brainwashing and not being in touch with one's regular self.In a way The Manson Family is a relative of Oliver Stone's controversial media satire Natural Born Killers (1994), but ultimately comes across as sleazier and more nihilistic since the satirical aspect is less pronounced. I am not sure if the filmmakers have taken a lot of artistic license with the presentation of how the actual events took place; in the end it doesn't even matter since the movie never strives to be an accurate portrait of Manson as a person. As an examination of disturbing group psychosis it works enjoyably and is recommended to those into exploitative true crime stories.

Great intense movie found this film utterly amazing. I'm a sucker for exploitation cinema and would love the film for it's intensity alone. But this one manages to add many layers and unique qualities. Basically the film allows a certain amount of chaos in it's structure, especially at the beginning, but out of that arises a film that is strangely enough very coherent in the final (very strong) impression it left on me. A few things that stand out are the way in which the film has the period charm that belongs to sixties movies, not only in the feel of the colors and lightening but especially in the way the actors display a certain amateurish (by lack of a better word) enthusiasm, which could easily become tacky, but it doesn't. All actors portray perfect acid-heads. Especially the female actors manage this very well. There's lots of violence and nudity. All is very well timed and it comes in brilliant doses and one final appropriate over-dose. The modern day punky Mansonites add a nice underground feel to movie as well and allow the structure of the film to be broken open. I've read this film would not be for everyone. Yeah, I guess you could say that, but what does it mean? It probably helps when you are a sixties/seventies exploitation enthusiast but if you're not I would still advise you to see it as a work of film art that is not easily compared to anything else. It's raw and violent but is positive in it's creativity.

Directed by Jim van Bebber, also responsible for related items such as the disturbing Necrophagia: Through the Eyes of the Dead (2002) a collection of gruesome music videos, as well as the violent cult classic Deadbeat at Dawn (1988). The Manson family is similarly disturbing, more so in fact as it is based on true events. The film is very well edited construction of supposed interviews with Family members, news footage and dramatic reconstruction, much of which is more convincing than one might expect through its careful mimicking of 70's shooting colours and style - process enhanced by the 15 years it took in production. None of the principals are well known, which adds to the documentary feel. Oddly enough Marcelo Games (who also appeared in Deadbeat), playing Manson himself, has little charisma, although he manages a fair enough resemblance to Charlie. This is no real disadvantage however as, for the most part the film concentrates on the Family members, rather than their bloody messiah, showing their increasing acquiescence to both cult and violence. The notorious Tate killings are convincingly and chillingly re staged, looking reasonably accurate in their portrayal of a frenzied event which effectively ended the peace & love generation's 60's dream.Van Bebber's film is notable in the way in which it uses jump cuts, short scenes, mixed shooting media and the like to recreate the stoned, psychotic experience of events, very impressive in a low budget film of this type. Less effective is the modern day framing device, in which TV men plan a documentary around the 25th anniversary of the horrific events (perhaps providing the 'source' of the main film, although this is never made entirely clear), face a band of modern day druggie anarchists, as well as final killing due this strand which, in the light of a just seen massacre, is something of an anti climax. Some of the several sex scenes at the Family's farm seem gratuitous, which suggest the exploitation background of the makers but there is no reason not to take this as, overall, a serious work. Strong stuff, uncut in the UK by the BBFC too, as taken from the unrated US edition and available in a well filled 2 disc edition at a very reasonable price.

Jim VanBebber brings a refreshing 70's exploit-film quality to even his most recent endeavors. His films are often hit-or-miss (even within a single film...) but I do like his "style".THE MANSON FAMILY is basically VanBebber's retelling of the Manson Family and their activities, leading up to the Tate-LaBianca murders. Nothing that you haven't already seen/heard about, except for some good ol' sleazy sex scenes and some exceptionally gruesome murder re-enactments...VanBebber doesn't really bring much new to the table in his retelling - except for his style, which was enough to keep me interested. Not a "great" film by any means, but apparently relatively "accurate" based on what I know of the Family and their crimes. VanBebber throws in a weird side-story about a bunch of Charlie-obsessed teens that doesn't necessarily need to be there - but most of his films have a kind of disjointed quality that I guess I've become used to. If you want to see a more "graphic" and exploitive Manson Family film, rife with tits, ass, and gore - this is the one for you...7.5/10