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58 out of 62 people found the following comment useful :-
I'll be helpful if I can...., 3 May 2005

Author: Benjamin Simko from Portland, Oregon

I'm giving the film a 10/10 because of how I feel about it, but ignore that part of this review. What I'd like to do is help you, the potential viewer of The Manson Family, figure out whether you'd love this movie or hate it. It is a polarizing film, as is obvious from the reviews - no genuinely bad films get such an extreme reaction, positive or negative. The worst movies on earth are the ones where you just feel like your time was wasted. At worst, this film will make you feel like your time was violated - remember that the people who give it one star were motivated to find this web page and leave their comments. Go look up any god-awful Fred Olen Ray movie and see what people say: they give 2 or 3 star reviews. I suggest that the only one-star reviews on this entire site are motivated by being offended, not by the movie being "bad" in any objective sense.

Okay, that said, I think this is a well-made film, which I am prepared to support with evidence. The people who said that this is poorly shot ("the camera doesn't move") are clearly out of their minds. Not only does the camera move (and why would it matter if it didn't?), but the filmic technique is a dead-on mimic of the film techniques of the period it is depicting (late 1960s). This is a low budget, 16mm film, so it doesn't have any kind of Hollywood gloss - it is semi-documentary in it's approach. However, I found it to be stylish and evocative of Vietnam documentary footage, Woodstock (the film), and classic drive-in exploitation movies of the period. Again, this is something you'll probably either love or hate, but it is a calculated decision to look "unprofessional" by modern Hollywood standards.

As far as the content of the film, I think it is mistakenly regarded by some as a "message" film, and by others as an "exploitation" film. I think it is neither, or maybe more accurately, both - this is a "depiction" film, intent on depicting the Manson Family as realistically as possible. Why do that? Because Manson and his "Family" is one of the most sociologically interesting phenomena of the 20th century, in many ways comparable to Hitler and the Nazis. Jim VanBebber made a conscious (even a little heavy-handed, lending a little credence to the idea that this is a "message" film) decision to focus on the "family," the actual killers (Manson himself was convicted of inciting the crimes, not participating). Having read a lot of Manson literature including the Vincent Bugliosi book Helter Skelter, I think that this is the most accurate way I've seen the story told, particularly with the "Rashomon"-esque narration of the participants, where they whitewash their own involvement in the crimes, something that frustrated District Attourney Bugliosi to no end.

Now, how will you be able to tell whether this movie is for you, with all the "VanBebber is a genius" or "this is the worst movie ever made" crap out there? Here's the checklist:

1: Do you like low-budget 16mm horror films? It looks low-budget like Evil Dead or Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original), a look which I find to be raw and immediate, but that's an opinion. The much-debated quality of the acting is exactly in keeping with this style. If, for example, you thought the acting in the Texas Chainsaw was rough and real, you'll probably like this, too.

2: Can you cope with graphic sex, drug use, and violence? The sex is near-X-rated and the violence, though they use 70's-style Karo syrup blood, is intense, grotesque, and on-screen. And really happened to real people, which freaks me out.

3: Do you find the twisted social mores of the Manson family to be interesting? This is not a film about a charismatic leader - it's a film about lost sheep. This type of senseless killing is only committed by people who have lost their empathy, an effect that is all too easy to achieve - it takes a lot less than what Manson did to subvert a person's ethics (see the psychological research of Milgram, Zimbardo, et al).

I thought the film did an excellent job of making an intellectual point at a (mostly) visceral level. The point is that human ethics are incredibly flexible and that hedonism is ultimately selfish, even when the love is "free." My final statement: A person with a (very?) strong stomach who is willing to engage his or her intellect in something that doesn't seem quite worth it on the surface will probably enjoy this movie, and be surprised at how deep the well runs. A crazy gore fan will probably like this movie. Fans of underground and experimental film (esp. Richard Kern fans) will love this movie. Mainstream Hollywood fans will not; non-genre fans will not.

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23 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
Gritty and disturbing horror film., 8 March 2005

Author: HumanoidOfFlesh from Chyby, Poland

Jim Van Bebber's "The Manson Family" is an extremely violent and bloody horror film that reconstructs the early activities of the Family and their descent into the Tate-LaBianca killings.Van Bebber mixes this with a contemporary sub plot involving tabloid journalist Jack Wilson's quest to film a documentary on the subject.The film is loaded with plenty of sex and full-frontal nudity.The final third of "The Manson Family" is a grueling nightmare with some of the most sadistic and savage murders ever captured on screen.The acting is generally amateurish,although Marc Pitman is truly impressive as Tex.The photography perfectly captures the hazy sex-and-drug fuelled lifestyle that Charlie and his largely female disciples indulged in on their Californian ranch.The killings themselves are extremely graphic and gory as hell,so I was satisfied.The scene of blood drinking orgy is truly frightening as is the slow progression of Charlie from a peaceful Jesus Christ figure to Satan himself."The Manson Family" is easily one of the most controversial and disturbing horror films ever made.Give it a look.

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28 out of 44 people found the following comment useful :-
Rape Fantasies, 19 August 2004

Author: Jehosaphat Ramirez from Evanston

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Okay, last night, August 18th, 2004, I had the distinct displeasure of meeting Mr. Van Bebble at a showing of the film The Manson Family at the Three Penny in Chicago as part of the Chicago Underground Film Festival. Here's what I have to say about it. First of all, the film is an obvious rip off of every Kenneth Anger, Roman Polanski, Oliver Stone and Terry Gilliam movie I've ever seen. Second of all, in a short Q & A session after the show Mr. Van Bebble immediately stated that he never made any contact with the actual Manson Family members or Charlie himself, calling them liars and saying he wanted nothing to do with them, that the film was based on his (Van Bebble's) take on the trial having seen it all from his living room on TV and in the news (and I'm assuming from the Autobiography and the book Helter Skelter which were directly mimicked through the narrative). So I had second dibs on questions, I asked if he was trying to present the outsider, Mtv, sex drugs and rock 'n roll version and not necessarily the true story. This question obviously pissed off the by now sloshed director who started shouting "f*** you, shut the f*** up, this is the truth! All those other movies are bullsh**!"

Well anyway, I didn't even think about how ridiculous this was until the next day when I read the tagline for the film, "You've heard the laws side of the story...now hear the story as it is told by the Manson Family." Excuse me, if this guy has never even spoken to the family and considers them to be liars that he doesn't want to have anything to do with, how in God's name can he tell the story for them!? This is the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard! The film was obviously catered to the sex drugs and rock 'n roll audience that it had no trouble in attracting to the small, dimly lit theatre, and was even more obviously spawned by the sex drugs and rock 'n roll mind of a man who couldn't even watch his own film without getting up every ten minutes to go get more beer or to shout some sort of Rocky Horroresque call line to the actors on screen. This film accomplishes little more than warping the public's image of actual events (which helped shape the state of America and much of the world today) into some sort of Slasher/Comic Book/Porno/Rape fantasy dreamed up by an obviously shallow individual.

The film was definitely very impressive to look at. The soundtrack was refreshing as it contained actual samples of Charlie's work with the Family off of his Lie album. The editing was nice and choppy to simulate the nauseating uncertainty of most modern music videos. All in all this film would have made a much better addition to the catalogues at Mtv than to the Underground Film Festival or for that matter the minds of any intellectual observers. I felt like I was at a midnight Rocky Horror viewing the way the audience was dressed and behaving (probably the best part of the experience). The cast was very good with the exception of Charlie who resembled some sort of stoned Dungeons and Dragons enthusiast more than the actual role he was portraying. The descriptions the film gave of him as full of energy, throwing ten things at you and being very physical about it all the while did not match at all the slow, lethargic, and chubby representation that was actually presented.

All in all the film basically explains itself as Sadie (or maybe it was Linda) declares at the end, "You can write a bunch of bullsh** books or make a bunch of bullsh** movies...etc. etc." Case in point. Even the disclaimer "Based on a True Story" is a dead giveaway, signalling that somewhere beneath this psychedelic garbage heap lay the foundation of an actual story with content that will make and has made a difference in the world. All you have to do is a little bit of alchemy to separate the truth from the the crap, or actually, maybe you could just avoid it all together and go read a book instead.

All I can say is this, when the film ended I got a free beer so I'm glad I went, but not so glad I spent fifteen dollars on my ticket to be told to shut the f*** up for asking the director a question. Peace.

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12 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Horrifically trippy., 2 September 2005
Author: Golgo-13 from The IMDb Horror Board!

Director Jim Van Bebber finally got his low budget Manson picture released. Was it worth the wait? Sure, if you're interested in the case, that is. From what I can gather, the film is fairly accurate with its portrayal of events, actions, and even some dialogue. Van Bebber does take some liberty though, showing a few things that were only suspected in the real case. I guess that's to be expected. Anyway, the movie basically shows the story from the Manson Family's point of view, complete with faux interviews, tied together with a running subplot of a modern TV station putting together a documentary on Manson and his followers. Obviously, it is a very violent and disturbing movie, not shying away from the drug use, orgies, or murders. The shot of his three female followers with shaved heads, coming down the courtroom stairs, is a haunting one. The movie as a whole is not great, though I did find it intriguing, horrifically trippy, and ultimately tragic. It's a shame that some youths still look up to the guy, even wearing shirts with Manson's picture on it. The two DVD set includes two feature length documentaries and a short interview with Charlie Manson. Boy, is he out there.

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
A Campy Film For Sure, But It's About Time Someone Showed What Silly Weirdos the Family Was., 30 July 2007

Author: tonymurphylee from USA

**1/2 out of ****

By golly, it's about time that a film about the Manson Family wasn't made to be more of an event then it really was. I mean sure, it is very tragic that those people died, I always will mourn for their families and them, being that they were innocent people who did not deserve to die, but the family isn't something that should be really feared. When you really break it down, the members of the cult were not smart people. They didn't ask questions as to what was the purpose was for murdering all those innocent people, they didn't see Charlie as someone who should not be taken seriously, and they didn't even know who they were murdering. They were very foolish people, and they should be anything but feared. I don't understand the rationale of someone who finds the incident of the cult to be so shocking. I mean sure, it's shocking that these people actually went out and committed these murders, but they were just a group of people who had obviously lost too many braincells. That is why I thought this was a good movie. Because it is honest, shows the incident from the evil side, and does it in a responsible and realistic manner.

The film structure consists of the members of the family being interviewed in jail about what they did. We briefly see Charlie as the ringleader and we see him as a foolish looking funny man who mostly doesn't know what he is talking about. The film builds up to a Roman Polanski's MACBETH style third act in which the family goes on their killing spree, but by the time they begin to do these things, the audience realizes that these people don't have any rationale except for hate, and they gradually became blinded by it and began thinking that they were doing something of purpose, which they were certainly not.

I don't recommend this to the casual movie goer. People who rent this thinking that it's just a horror film are wrong. This is not just a horror film. This is an extremely disturbing, gruesome, tasteless, and senselessly brutal film that just so happens to depict an honest representation of the family. People who will see this film will wonder if it merits any purpose. Indeed, it may not. That is not the point though. The point is that Mario Vanbebbler wanted to make the most realistic version of The Manson Family as possible, so even though the film may not be good, I am happy to say that he has succeeded in doing exactly what he wanted. That is something I greatly admire, and that's why I like this film.

Not Rated. Adults only. contains explicit violence and sexuality, and drug use.

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8 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent depiction of the Manson Family!, 27 January 2007

Author: dollpenguin from United States

I just watched this movie last night, and wow! I have read several books about Manson, and was surprised at how this movie mostly stuck to the facts, and still created a dramatic and frightening film about the disintegration of the Family, and the murders that took place over two nights in 1969. The direction is excellent and the editing is top-notch for a film with this budget. I was reminded of Natural Born Killers throughout many sequences in this film. I cannot believe that this film hasn't garnered more attention.

The numerous depictions of drug use and sexual freedom are very realistic and accurate. The hallucinatory scenes are a visual feast. I give this movie a well deserved 10 because it never slows down, and will surely become a cult-classic for fans of disturbing and/or violent cinema. Some of the scenes of blood and gore seem fake, but real death scenes often look just as fake because they are so in-your-face with the gruesomeness and violence. This film takes no prisoners and fans of violent horror will certainly be satisfied.

A warning to the squeamish..this film is vile, bloody, and chock full of sex, drugs, rape, nudity and very graphic violence.

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8 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
brilliantly wrought mix of "Easy Rider" and "Natural Born Killers", 9 July 2005

Author: Jonny_Numb from Hellfudge, Pennsylvania

Underground cult filmmaker Jim VanBebber performs quite a striking feat with "The Manson Family," his long-labored epic on the most popular crimes of the last century--his film is neither police procedural nor rank exploitation, but a dog's-eye view of the hippie commune Charles Manson (played by Marcelo Games) presided over, and the brainwashed followers who carried out his horrific bidding. This territory has been mined--both directly and indirectly--in cheap splatter flicks and glossy TV movies, but VanBebber's tale is a kaleidoscopic hallucination drawn from fact that, incredibly, condemns The Family and their crimes while presenting them in graphic detail (the film has its fair share of orgies, drug use, and countless stab wounds), and remaining impartial throughout (he cleverly allows The Family's testimony to indict them). The film comes off as having a generally bitter tone toward the drug-fueled hippie culture in general. In a way, if Manson's followers brought an "end to a generation," its falseness would have brought its demise soon enough. While "The Manson Family" is filled with so many characters and quickfire edits it is often difficult to recall names, VanBebber makes the faces of the perpetrators and victims memorable, to the point where expressions and voices cause us to react, not the marquee names of the murderers themselves; reenacted with a total disregard for human morality (which is, after all, the mentality under which it occurred), the murder scenes possess a hallucinogenic terror (Pantera singer Phil Anselmo has a vocal cameo as 'The Voice of Satan') and intimacy that puts "The Manson Family" on par with Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Salo: 120 Days of Sodom." In that classic, politicians and other men of power take a handful of children hostage at an isolated villa at the end of World War II, subjecting them to all variety of sadistic sex, torture, and murder; "The Manson Family" reverses that concept and examines the malleable minds of the have-nots in the hands of a man who was, at his core, a phony spouting philosophy no less riddled with B.S. than any of the other prominent acid-heads of the 1960s. Stylistically, VanBebber uses his experience directing shorts and music videos to give "The Manson Family" a strong feeling of documentary reality--a variety of film stock is employed to hammer down period accuracy (for both 1969 and 1996), interspersed with neon images of LSD sizzling inside heads and interview footage shot on video and grainy film; even the sped-up scenes of a modern-day Family plotting the demise of a TV producer possess an eerie, not-quite-earthbound silent film quality.

In the end, "The Manson Family" avoids beating a dead horse and instead brings the crimes to light from a fresh perspective. It would be hard to say I "liked" the film--it is a harsh, escalating nightmare that plays by its own rules and is frequently disorienting, but is ultimately as hypnotizing as a guru preaching his unique philosophy to the flock.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
much emphasis on the meaning/meaningless of words, 12 January 2007

Author: christopher-underwood from Greenwich - London

Many years in the making this is, if ultimately rather sad and depressing with a confused ending, an involving documentary style depiction of what life may well have been like within the notorious 'family'. At the beginning there is a fair mix of youngsters held together largely by sex and quasi religion. Largely it's the girls that talk of Jesus whilst disrobing and the men of, f***ing. Fuelled by dope and acid they go their merry way for a while but then interestingly Charlie reckons a mix of blood and death will keep the group alive. And so it does but always of course spiralling hell bent towards the inevitable, 'helter skelter'. The best and worst of the hippie movement is depicted here in what was essentially it's death throws. Bebber makes considerable play on the racist slant to the 'family' belief structure and their fear of a black takeover, none of which have I been aware of before. Very interesting with lots of gore and bare flesh with much emphasis on the meaning/meaningless of words, gullibility and the mighty power of the promise of sex and violence.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Mad Manson, mad to miss it, 13 September 2006

Author: FilmFlaneur from London

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.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Another fascinating slice of nihilism from Van Bebber, one of the most uncompromising filmmakers out there, 29 March 2007

Author: TimothyFarrell from Worcester, MA

15 years in the making and it was probably worth the wait. Just like Jim Van Bebber's previous feature film "Deadbeat at Dawn", "The Manson Family" is a film plagued by budget limitations but a fascinating and creative experience. Van Bebber is one sick man, but that doesn't detract from the fact hes one of the most energetic and uncompromising filmmakers working in horror films today.

Being a fan of "Deadbeat". I eagerly awaited his next project, "The Manson Family". I was certainly not disappointed. Sure, the same flaws that where in "Deadbeat" are here as well, such as a rather poor pacing and some awkward supporting performances. Still, both films manage to convey a fully convincing portrait of grimy nihilism and in the end, the minor flaws don't really detract. The cerebral trip mockumentory style brings to mind "Natural Born Killers", which is all the more impressive considering Van Bebber didn't have the backing of a major studio. The lead performances are quite good, even managing at moments to elicit sympathy for the family members (who're presented as pawns for the evil Manson). And for gore fans, you certainly won't be disappointed. The last half hour is wall to wall blood and guts. "The Manson Family" isn't perfect, but fascinating and original. Judging from the other comments, this seems to be a real love it or hate it experience. (7/10)

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