Steve Pulaski 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.

phoenixashes33 I'm a horror fan. I have a pretty high tolerance for gore, violence, and disturbing material. I have seen practically every movie made on the subject of Charles Manson. That being said, I was completely disgusted by this revolting, over the top, horrific "film" that really should be classified under snuff p*rn. The violence, nudity, and gore is continuously shoved down your throat in an attempt to shock and repulse you. In my opinion this is the product of a talentless director that is so obviously leaning on the shock value in order to compensate for his lack of artistic point of view. This crappola is such an insulting and degrading exploit of the people who were involved and who died. I barely finished watching it and promptly broke it in half and threw it away (wouldnt even look at the second disc). If you like to watch this kind of crap and on a human level NOT be disgusted and disturbed that, not only are we capable of horrendous acts like this, but some one wants to film it and make money off of it in the name of "entertainment", there's something seriously wrong with you. I guess thats who this sh*t is geared toward.

tonymurphylee **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.

mhulsing 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.