Customer Ratings & Reviews

Not my favorite Manson film but if you’re a fan you will like it.

The Manson Family has been in the works for around twenty years. With the number of false starts and production delays this film has had over the years, it's a wonder it even got finished, let alone ended up being the bravura piece of horror film making that it is. Through a wide variety of media and timelines (ala Natural Born Killers), writer/director Jim Van Bebber tells the story of the notorious Manson Family, from their humble beginnings through to the horrific murders they committed. The framework for the story is a bit complicated, in that it's about a TV producer making a new documentary on the life of times of the Manson Family, "real" footage of their exploits, "real" interviews of the family in modern times reflecting on those exploits, as well as Manson followers trying to stop the producer from making the show. I placed the words "real" in quotation marks because Van Bebber goes to great lengths to create a verissimilitude within the film, so that everything seems legitimate, even though everybody is an actor and the entire film is fabricated. However, the visceral nature of the vintage Manson family footage (complete with scratches, color timing issues, and psychadelic sixties filmmaking techniques) makes everything seem very real indeed, and the film is most successful during these segments. The framing story of the television producer and the modern Manson extremists, while trying to provide modern day context, comes across as forced, and unfortunately distances the intensity of the "vintage" Manson footage. It takes us out of the moment and reminds us that we're just watching a documentary that this man is producing, which unfortunately lessons the impact of the film a little. Aside from that minor flaw though, the film is a sight to behold and a blazing work of originality. The DVD includes two insightful feature length documentaries about the creation of the film and the horror film festivals it played at throughout its creation. An absence of an audio commentary seems like a missed opportunity, but besides that, the extras on this Special Edition are very worthwhile. If you'd like to see a unique and disturbing horror film that's been in the weeks for nearly two decades, give this film a look. Whether you love it or hate it, you can't deny that it's different!

The Manson Family is a strange yet effective documentary of the supposed "personal" accounts of the members of Charlie's family. In reality it is similar to the movie Natural Born Killers in that it is based around a journalist doing a report on the manson family in present day, using the former members of the family to tell the story. Therefore the movie is presented in interview scences along with flashbacks of the events where a correct account of what actually happened in comparison to what the interviewies are saying. This movie is worht the time and money for several reasons; one it is a decent gorefest for those who seek that, two it provides correct information about the manson family and the events they participated in, third it is a extremely unique way of showing a documentary, fourth and finally is the special feature on the second disk, which is an actual interview with the man himself Charles Manson which shows some of the deranged charisma he has. Overall this is a recommended movie in my book. Thanks for reading the review!