The Manson Family (2004)

Let's be realistic.

Fantastic!

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Jim Van Bebber's The Manson Family is a grotesque masterpiece. A cornucopia of sex orgies, bloodiness, senseless, unjustifiable violence, and prolific drug use for good measure. It's quite contrary to what one has likely seen and heard about the Manson family murders up until this day, which comes heavily from the news, reporters, and eye witnesses to the madness. Rarely publicized and explored is the point of view of the actual "family" members, those who worshiped the elusive Charles Manson as a Christlike figure in the face of uncertainty.Before watching the film, I was sure to do two things. One is acquaint myself with Van Bebber's personality and view on cinema. The other is watch several of Van Bebber's nineties short films. I watched four films by the director and found them all to be rewarding in some way. Just from the first few minutes of one of Van Bebber's shorts, I fell in love with his grindhouse-style qualities immediately. In an interview I watched, the man himself stated that his charm may be a bit indifferent now that gory, graphic horror films have dominated the genre. "Underground has become mainstream," Van Bebber states in an interview, and mentions how "the Eli Roth phenomena" has effectively made underground films not as incredible or as unique as they once were.Nonetheless, The Manson Family is a nasty, mean-spirited shocker, and it's all the more surprising that those traits lead it to work so well. I did probably the best thing I could've done to prepare for the film that wasn't research the Manson family; it was acquaint myself with Van Bebber's guerrilla style of filmmaking with four of his shorts that were released on DVD years ago.Van Bebber's style can be summed up as relentless and renegade. Relentless in the regard that the amount of violence and graphic content never seems to be enough and the man is always trying to make a story as extreme as it can be, and renegade in the sense that, for the time, it was very different from the kind of horror films seen in America and it still is today in some ways. Even as torture porn climbs the box office when it has the opportunity to, the cheap quality of Van Bebber's audio and video recordings can only be replicated and never duplicated. The home-movie quality of his shorts is the one trademark he still has in 2013. You can bring as much fake blood as you want to the party; I dare you to shoot something on film in the style of August Underground or My Sweet Satan with as much depravity and gore.The Manson Family does what a mockumentary on America's most brutal family should, which is show the sickness and horrifying violence the group of people unleashed upon their victims. It offers no catalyst, justification, reason, or psychological analysis as to why they committed such atrocities, other than that their self-absorbed, cocky, drugged-out nature got the best of them. When there's not vicious murder occurring on screen, there's a sex orgy or a series of disjointed video showing the weirdness of the group as a whole.The culture the Manson clan supported and practiced was the hippie culture, which was smoke enough pot and drop enough acid until it all comes clear to you before you lose it - then repeat. Van Bebber shows this by infusing the film with dizzying episodes of sex, drugs, drug-fueled rage, inexplicably graphic scenes of murder, peer-pressure, and questionable brainwashing techniques. The scenes - as hard as they are to watch - are very professionally captured and boldly detailed. Van Bebber uses extreme, graphic detail in these sequences, which will be the basis of viewer's praises and complaints.The final half of the film is devoted to the Tate/LeBianca murders, which have gone on to be well-known and discussed even to this day. Van Bebber's choice to show them in horrifyingly explicit nature is probably for the best, as it surprisingly evokes sympathy for at least some characters in the film. I felt the same sort of silent, sustained awkwardness watching these scenes as I did for Faces of Death, the iconic film that features several vignettes of reportedly authentic death sequences. How does one exactly respond to scenes of this nature? Van Bebber began directing the film in 1988, but numerous budget constraints and the loss of financial backing by investors caused him to delay the project often. He screened numerous rough cut scenes and incomplete footage at several festivals (which often would surface the black market as bootleg versions) until 2004 when Dark Sky Films assisted Van Bebber financially to complete the film and release his film Deadbeat at Dawn and his numerous short films.Should The Manson Family have been made or was it better left incomplete? Some will say it is one of the foulest, most reprehensible films they've ever seen. Others will certainly regard it as a depraved masterpiece in cinema. I'd like to show this to the same group of people who call the most recent PG-13 ghost movie as the scariest film they've ever seen. This is where I cease telling you my opinion and you're left with a choice to make on whether or not to watch this film; just know I haven't described the half of it.Starring: Marcelo Games, Marc Pitman, and Leslie Orr. Directed by: Jim Van Bebber.

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.

I watched The Manson Family with hope of it being a good movie as well as broadening my horizons about the mass-murder family, as I knew very little about them.Well the turn-out was that it did the second part (a little bit) but the first part it failed miserably as the movie was atrocious.From watching The Manson Family I know a little more than before. The family are a little like the Devils Reject's although nastier and crazier. This film has to be one of the weirdest and craziest films I've seen along with house of a 1000 corpses.The director Jim Van Bebber, has to be the worst around and receives my nomination for creating one of the worst films I have ever seen.I wish I could give the film some credit, but I physically can't. I know the movie is based on a true story, so the film can only go with what happened, but come on, they could of made it better. Take Wolf Creek for example, it was based on a true story just like The Manson Family although there was a difference - it was good!Before I finish, may I just laugh at the people that actually think the manson family was good. I have read other reviews, and some people have gave it a 10, and said they have only give it a 10 because of the event, and what happened. I CAN'T Believe THESE PEOPLE! A good bit of advice to them would be to STOP, think and watch the movie and ask themselves "is the movie good? is it actually worth the watch" - NO! Fair enough, an extra point or so, seeing that the film is based upon a horrific event, but I won't accept people giving it 10's!Summary: probably one of the worst 90 minutes I have spent to date. - 2/10

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