Dir. Jim VanBebber, 2003, USA, 95 mins
Cast: Marcelo Games, Marc Pitman, Leslie Orr, Jim VanBebber
Jim VanBebber's film The Manson Family has almost become (in some horror film circles) as shrouded in folklore legend as the 1969 Tate/La Bianca killings on which it is based. The censor-baiting subject of anti-Christ figure Charlie Manson and his murderous 'family' in some ways explains this notoriety, but much of it is due to the film's incredibly long gestation period - principal photography began way back in 1989, but was not completed until 2003 due to financial hardships mainly brought on by VanBebber's refusal (as the blurb would have it) "to compromise the ultimate portrait of the American nightmare".
The Manson Family uses the fictitious TV show Crime Scene as a device to frame the narrative of the near-mythic events of the summer of 1969, that saw the Family descend from peaceful, drugged up, free love hippies to violent, paranoid "creepy crawlies". The bulk of the film is made up of recreated prison interviews with members of the Family, and often hokey, prolonged reconstructions of their orgies and drug taking. The interview sections are often the strongest parts of the film, mainly because of Marc Pitman's strong performance as Tex, the now reformed, but once ultra-violent lynchpin of the gang. These 'interviews' throw up the film's most interesting aspects, shedding light on the bizarre intra-Family politics that were the underpinning of their downfall. However, the few strong performances only serve to show up acting that is for the most part terrible, wooden and reminiscent of a bad and over-enthusiastic school play.
VanBebber's movie is a choppy mess, jumping between the various representations of the family and the under developed Crime Scene device which is coupled with the even more ill-conceived, horribly clichéd and dated, nineties nihilists that worship Manson and who seem to live in a Pantera music video (a number of which VanBebber directed during this film's lengthy hiatus). The two sections simply do not gel together, and are a very weak attempt at examining the impact the Manson Family killings had on the American psyche.
The film is exploitation, pure and simple, and attempts to force it to actually mean something only serve to weaken it as entertainment. The free love sex orgies that dominate the film's first reel have a Russ Meyer cartoon sensibility for what the sixties meant, and the dialogue throughout is often as equally poor.
The last 30 minutes are the real splatter horror section of the film, consisting almost entirely of bloody re-enactments of the infamous, shockingly vicious Helter Skelter killings. It's pure, cheap, exploitation gore, and is, you sense, what the main body of this film's audience will want to see. It is in these scenes that VanBebber's directing seems at its most able and confident, wringing out as much tension and splatter as he could out of his meagre budget (and bottles and bottles of ketchup). This is clearly what he does best - though there is a high level of distastefulness watching a gleeful romp based on real killings (including the pregnant Sharon Tate) that detracts massively from any entertainment value.
Perhaps The Manson Family's worst crime is that it is often very dull. Somehow it depicts one of the twentieth century's most notorious icons, Charlie Manson (played by the tame, uncharismatic Marcello Games), as a lacklustre personality that you can barely imagine inspiring adulation, let alone commanding so much fear and power.
VanBebber's film really represents a wasted opportunity - by trying to be a historical document (or scrap book) and exploitation flick he really achieves neither.
Paul Nash
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