As for the actor who plays charles, being fair he did a good job, the movie leaves a feeling of incompleteness, it is quite missing a lot, in some scenes the montage was so ideal, in others not so much, the narrative somewhat confusing and The end leaves much to be desired. For a characters and a family so controversial, a lot could be done, the characters, the plot, the story were wasted, but a lack of a better script and better direction.
26 Reviews
Silly But Watchable
Merely21 August 2019
Understand this is a SOUTH WALES production and you'll be better off. They try like hell to sound American, but fall short. It would have been better to just make it about anything other than Manson. They have none of the details correct, even for changing up the basic plot.The lead actress reminded me of Kristen Stewart, so that was nice. A Wales murder mystery would be more appealing. They set themselves up for massive criticism. Whatever the case, it dragged me out of retirement for writing IMDb reviews!
MANSON FAMILY MASSACRED.
mmthos19 November 2021
Combines the Manson murders on Cielo Drive with a latter day tenant's ennui trying to make it in the music biz.. The scenes from 1969 are mainly stolen, almost frame for frame, from Jim Van Bebber's 1997 "Manson Family" and an attempted amplification of a single slim anecdote from rocker Trent Reznor's time on the property fails to engage, Our resident songstress is no Nine Inch Nail, more like a chewed stub. I was amazed how slow an hour and a half could go, plodding through that girl's depressing glum fog
Don't bother.
Don't bother.
The South Wales Knife Massacre
TheInevitableHulk5 September 2020
The worst kind of exploitation.
Andrew Jones is rivaling Johannes Roberts for the worst British Horror film director crown and his exploitative eye and sheer proliferation means he is winning the fight.
A keen eye, Jones probably saw that Tarantino was making a Manson movie (or at least a film that featured Manson) and made his own.
A tenuous 90s story, lifted from Trent Reznor renting the famous address at Cielo Drive to record in, binds together a haphazard story about evil spirits and negative energy. Flashbacks aplenty allow for a scenery chewer to shout in a Manson beard at people equally poorly cast. Nothing of the cult, the charisma and complex entanglements of hatred nor the complexities of what need Manson filled in his followers is investigated.
It is about stabbings, and when they come they are...well, hilarious...and that is in-spite of it actually having happened to various people in real life. The acting is so low grade, the framing and composition of shot so botched that the moments of violence create nothing but snigger.
As with all horror hacks the director plunders the classics, the Texas Chainsaw camera snap and whine are stolen here and used without real thought.
As with most sub-generic smut based on true crime there is a coda that features a re-telling of the outcome of the events shown, but the pinnacle of bad taste is the 'tribute' pictures of the actual victims that ends the credit sequence - this is a tribute to no-one. Something so cynical cannot be. While I have many issues with Once Upon A Time In Hollywood at least the title belies the construction, it is a fairy tale that offers the representations of the victims a happy ending after of years of myth making and counter myth. That is doing something different with a story re-told and re-told. This holds no lofty goals rather it appears to scramble for a few dollars falling from the Tarantino tree.
Andrew Jones is to be admired in many ways, he has cultivated a career for himself that few others have but quality seems very low on his list of concerns.
One positive - it is much better than 'Bundy and the Green River Killer', truly one of the worst films ever made.
A keen eye, Jones probably saw that Tarantino was making a Manson movie (or at least a film that featured Manson) and made his own.
A tenuous 90s story, lifted from Trent Reznor renting the famous address at Cielo Drive to record in, binds together a haphazard story about evil spirits and negative energy. Flashbacks aplenty allow for a scenery chewer to shout in a Manson beard at people equally poorly cast. Nothing of the cult, the charisma and complex entanglements of hatred nor the complexities of what need Manson filled in his followers is investigated.
It is about stabbings, and when they come they are...well, hilarious...and that is in-spite of it actually having happened to various people in real life. The acting is so low grade, the framing and composition of shot so botched that the moments of violence create nothing but snigger.
As with all horror hacks the director plunders the classics, the Texas Chainsaw camera snap and whine are stolen here and used without real thought.
As with most sub-generic smut based on true crime there is a coda that features a re-telling of the outcome of the events shown, but the pinnacle of bad taste is the 'tribute' pictures of the actual victims that ends the credit sequence - this is a tribute to no-one. Something so cynical cannot be. While I have many issues with Once Upon A Time In Hollywood at least the title belies the construction, it is a fairy tale that offers the representations of the victims a happy ending after of years of myth making and counter myth. That is doing something different with a story re-told and re-told. This holds no lofty goals rather it appears to scramble for a few dollars falling from the Tarantino tree.
Andrew Jones is to be admired in many ways, he has cultivated a career for himself that few others have but quality seems very low on his list of concerns.
One positive - it is much better than 'Bundy and the Green River Killer', truly one of the worst films ever made.
brutal
briandaniels-438286 August 2019
This latest retread of the manson murders is more interested in following a musician living in the cielo drive house years after the tate murders with just a few long flashbacks to the familiar events of 1969. the film moves at a dreamy pace for the most part and seems to trying to ape polanski films like repulsion and the tenant but then come outbursts of brutal violence which skirt the borders of good taste. the story is like two films thrown together one about a musician losing her mind and the other a period biopic so the tone is all over the map sometimes. but some good acting and convincing violence prevent this latest manson offering from slipping into total mediocrity.
So so bad
paulk-7486312 August 2019
Aweful
devinbrown-1909110 August 2019
One word - Terrible
tboneci9 August 2019
This movie is a disjointed mess.
fluffchop21 July 2021
I didn't really follow the main plot points very well. I fell asleep watching and didn't really care to watch it again the next day. Nothing really happens in the film. It jumps about from past to present and back again. It doesn't really tell the story of anything.
Just As I Thought - Bad
vengeance202 June 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Bought this a while back thinking it might be good, but didn't know who actually wrote & directed it. Low & behold who actually did when I looked on the back of the DVD Cover carefully, Andrew Jones. Very few of his films are good & I stress the words 'very few' because a lot of them are pretty bad.
The film sees a young girl who is an addict but an aspiring singer who is writing he new single in the former & infamous Mansion Family house where a brutal massacre took place there in August 1969,however an even darker revelation is about to be uncovered.
I found the film to be poor. The story is poor, the acting is poor, the characters are poor, the effects are poor, the only good thing was the pacing & runtime at 1 hour 13 minutes, but then saying that the pacing was a bit off in areas.
It's no surprise the film is bad, there's even one scene where the Mansion characters use Toy Retracting Flick Knives you used to get from joke shops when you were kids in the film with the blade slumped to one side. They didn't even try & dub the retracting blade sound effects to make it more realistic. Bad.
Overall, not good. 1/10.
The film sees a young girl who is an addict but an aspiring singer who is writing he new single in the former & infamous Mansion Family house where a brutal massacre took place there in August 1969,however an even darker revelation is about to be uncovered.
I found the film to be poor. The story is poor, the acting is poor, the characters are poor, the effects are poor, the only good thing was the pacing & runtime at 1 hour 13 minutes, but then saying that the pacing was a bit off in areas.
It's no surprise the film is bad, there's even one scene where the Mansion characters use Toy Retracting Flick Knives you used to get from joke shops when you were kids in the film with the blade slumped to one side. They didn't even try & dub the retracting blade sound effects to make it more realistic. Bad.
Overall, not good. 1/10.
the guy playing Manson is awesome
harveygrisham30 August 2019
The story is a bit weird and the two timelines stuff gets a bit confusing at times but the actor who plays manson is so intense and off the chain it helped me overlook all that. if you wanna see manson as a crazy little lunatic putting the fear of god into everyone who crosses him look no further. the actors genuinely look frightened of the guy. makes up for manson being in the tarantino movie for only like two minutes!!
Different take on the Manson mythology
coreycunningham5 August 2019
For a movie with Massacre in the title you expect a lot of violence going in and this delivers on that with a plethora of brutal stabbings. Some are very disturbing because they just go on and on and knowing it really happened to real people makes for grim viewing. For an obviously low budget movie there are pretty solid performances and everyone looks the part but the story does change the known version of the real case and includes a lot of conspiracy theories as part of the plot here. The story is told in two different time periods and there is a lot of new age stuff in both which borders on pretentious at times. But after seeing countless Manson movies playing out the exact same way I welcomed a different take on this subject.
One star because they won't let you give it zero!
OldGeezer91617 August 2019
A series of bloody fictional murders & nothing about the real crimes until a series of informational screens before the credits. A lot of mystical nonsense, I guess about a woman who bought one of the murder houses decades later wondering if it is haunted in some way. Confusing when it keeps jumping time. When a movie title appears to be about historical events you expect at least some degree of accuracy even though in Hollywood it usually seems verboten to portray things just the way they happened. I watched two movies about the BTK killer. Having lived in Wichita through all this, I was very familiar with the facts. One was unusually accurate with the lead looking & sounding so much like Rader it was creepy. The other was like this. Just used the BTK name & a series of completely made up gory crimes. I don't know why I didn't just turn off this film. Maybe it was just such a train wreck I couldn't look away. I don't review mediocre series & movies. Only the great ones & the real stinkers. Probably seen worse movies; just can't think of one right now!
So horrible
tazkarts13 July 2020
Absolutely dreadful.
sianclement-5787929 April 2022
Feels more like watching a school project than an actual movie. I honestly couldn't tell if it was satire or not at first.
Some of the acting had me cringing so hard it hurt my teeth, it felt like they were just given their lines moments before shooting and just went with the first take.
Don't waste your time.
Some of the acting had me cringing so hard it hurt my teeth, it felt like they were just given their lines moments before shooting and just went with the first take.
Don't waste your time.
That's seventy minutes I'll never get back!!!
anthonyesposito7515 April 2020
Oh where to begin: I watched this movie (if you could call it a movie) not long after watching The Haunting Of Sharon Tate which believe it or not, was far better than this but had received a lower IMDB score. The latter starred Hilary Duff.
The acting in this is just awful and wooden. Nobody in my opinion stood out. Normally when watching a movie even as bad as this one, there is a standout performance. The closest one you could was Ciaron Davies as Manson himself but that still lacked a lot for me. It's like a group of ppl got drunk one night and said I have a good idea.
The best thing about this movie was the facts after the movie had finished and just before the credits. if you can wait that long. But I'm sure the facts are easily obtainable online..
The acting in this is just awful and wooden. Nobody in my opinion stood out. Normally when watching a movie even as bad as this one, there is a standout performance. The closest one you could was Ciaron Davies as Manson himself but that still lacked a lot for me. It's like a group of ppl got drunk one night and said I have a good idea.
The best thing about this movie was the facts after the movie had finished and just before the credits. if you can wait that long. But I'm sure the facts are easily obtainable online..
This movie is abysmal, and it offends me.
Duke_Dragonborn20 October 2020
a new take, but the wrong one
LetsReviewThat2624 April 2022
This film could've been an easy 5 or 6 stars but the plot was all jumbled and I don't think the separate three time lines worked in the end. If it had just stayed with the manson part of the story it would have been better off. In the end im only giving this three stars because I liked the actor that played manson. Also lee bane is in this and he was alright to.
They need to stop
vsnsfmt15 March 2022
Geopathic Stress & Subtle Energy Within, Outside & Beyond
AceTones29 November 2019
This movie is pivotal in highlighting the extremities of The Manson Family Massacre.
As movies goes, it's not the best movie, but this slow paced drama is not as bad as some Reviewers make out. The movie is unlike all other Charles Manson movies, in the sense that it acts as a buffer to put forth a 'not guilty' defence plea for The Manson Family, for peace time crimes against humanity. Watch the movie! Enjoy the movie! Discuss it and/or research it.
The spin on this movie 'suggests' that a rotational shift in planet Earth's movements, as well as movements beneath the Earth's crust, 'can' cause or create potentially dangerous situations resulting in a power surge - whether that be a rise in the earthy/earthly type of disaster, such as earthquakes, sink holes, tsunami's or excessive weather conditions, or a rise in the human type of disasters like mass Killings & shootings or an unfathomable wave of knife crime. Magical, mystical & momentous events are usually recorded as strange occurrences rather than disasters, but it may be a disaster to the individuals concerned.
The connecting power lines 'can' cause atmospheric disruptions & frictional changes within any hemisphere - ie: the brain and the universe. This can result in climate change, mood swings, strange occurrences etc. It's no different to the general consensus of astrologers, that a personality type 'can' be different, indifferent, opposite or similar to another personality type, depending on the position of the planetary system. That being the case, the question is does Charles Manson really deserve the title of being called 'America's Most Notorious Serial Killer'?
As August 1969 veers towards becoming January 1970, did that unseen disturbance of climate change - ie: anxiety & anticipation of what a new decade will bring, rear its ugly head, the way it always does as we exit the 20'teens' to enter the 2020s, did that shift cause a malfunction within Charles Manson and The Manson Family'? You only need look as far as British Politics to answer that question. Brexit! BrExit! BREXIT! Britain's Exit from Europe! Politicians have been assaulted, murdered, ousted from office & some have even had to step down from office due to BREXIT Need I say more? What of the offenders?
In peace time, are we humans really capable and guilty of murdering each other, when it is/was too much to bear during war time, or is there an unseen force that causes our DNA to malfunction.
Charles Manson & The Manson Family Massacre remains in the limelight as a 'high profile' case. It's not a 'cold case', an unsolved mathematical equation or a murder mystery, it's just too bizarre to be real. That leaves it open to interpretation for the movie makers.
Thank You!
As movies goes, it's not the best movie, but this slow paced drama is not as bad as some Reviewers make out. The movie is unlike all other Charles Manson movies, in the sense that it acts as a buffer to put forth a 'not guilty' defence plea for The Manson Family, for peace time crimes against humanity. Watch the movie! Enjoy the movie! Discuss it and/or research it.
The spin on this movie 'suggests' that a rotational shift in planet Earth's movements, as well as movements beneath the Earth's crust, 'can' cause or create potentially dangerous situations resulting in a power surge - whether that be a rise in the earthy/earthly type of disaster, such as earthquakes, sink holes, tsunami's or excessive weather conditions, or a rise in the human type of disasters like mass Killings & shootings or an unfathomable wave of knife crime. Magical, mystical & momentous events are usually recorded as strange occurrences rather than disasters, but it may be a disaster to the individuals concerned.
The connecting power lines 'can' cause atmospheric disruptions & frictional changes within any hemisphere - ie: the brain and the universe. This can result in climate change, mood swings, strange occurrences etc. It's no different to the general consensus of astrologers, that a personality type 'can' be different, indifferent, opposite or similar to another personality type, depending on the position of the planetary system. That being the case, the question is does Charles Manson really deserve the title of being called 'America's Most Notorious Serial Killer'?
As August 1969 veers towards becoming January 1970, did that unseen disturbance of climate change - ie: anxiety & anticipation of what a new decade will bring, rear its ugly head, the way it always does as we exit the 20'teens' to enter the 2020s, did that shift cause a malfunction within Charles Manson and The Manson Family'? You only need look as far as British Politics to answer that question. Brexit! BrExit! BREXIT! Britain's Exit from Europe! Politicians have been assaulted, murdered, ousted from office & some have even had to step down from office due to BREXIT Need I say more? What of the offenders?
In peace time, are we humans really capable and guilty of murdering each other, when it is/was too much to bear during war time, or is there an unseen force that causes our DNA to malfunction.
Charles Manson & The Manson Family Massacre remains in the limelight as a 'high profile' case. It's not a 'cold case', an unsolved mathematical equation or a murder mystery, it's just too bizarre to be real. That leaves it open to interpretation for the movie makers.
Thank You!
New perspective on an old story
jimmysack-1514621 August 2019
The Manson thing has been done to death so it was refreshing to see a different perspective on this tired material. Instead of the same old story we've seen a million times before this movie shows us two stories decades apart but both sharing in common the effect of Charles Manson directly and indirectly on those who lived at the Cielo Drive murder house. The inventive writing helped me over look the low budget shortcomings of some of the movie and the weaker performances were compensated by the intensity of the actors playing the Manson family. A more interesting viewing experience than watching yet another dull remake of Helter Skelter.
Not my cup of tea.
pjherington-5932221 August 2021
One of the more original Manson movies
eatmybrains30 August 2019
So many movies about Manson follow the same well worn path but this takes an entirely different turn and in between some low budget clunkyness and occasional less than stellar acting it stumbles across some surprisingly innovative moments of writing and directing. I expected an exploitation movie and while it does have some questionable taste (the endless stabbing of the victims in the Tate murder scene is horrible) there are some thought provoking ideas presented which I really didn't expect from a movie of this kind.
Interesting variation on the Charles Manson story ...
parry_na13 November 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Andrew Jones' prolific North Bank Entertainment here features the notorious Charles Manson (an effective Ciaron Davies) and a young, ex-drug-addict singer/songwriter Margot Lavigne (Brendee Green) who decides to move into 10050 Cielo Drive to record her new album. This is, of course, the address where the Manson murders were committed in 1969, 23 years before Lavigne's story takes place.
The story is an interesting fusion of fact and fiction and demonstrates once more Jones' skill at telling an intimate tale in an economic but powerful manner. In some ways this might be his most polished film yet; certainly there are many interesting directorial flourishes used to demonstrate Lavigne's state of mind in some scenes. Although the interiors seem to be the same as those visited in some of his other projects ('The Utah Cabin Murders' most recently), there are plenty of aerial shots and panoramic views of Cielo Drive, Spahn Ranch and Loss Angeles to convince us this isn't really produced in Wales, UK! It does this fairly convincingly, although some of the accents are less successful.
Brendee Green is excellent in the central role as the troubled singer, as is Ciaron Davies as Charles Manson. Davies improvised many of his lines, with only the over-use of 'mother27; as a singular term of abuse suffering from a certain repetition. These performances make up for those less-polished efforts in lesser roles, although it is great to see Jones regular Lee Bane as Gary Hinman and Lee Mark Jones as hilarious TJ, who has a brief meeting with Lavigne before rushing off for 'a wazz'.
There's lots going on here. But for the most part, we know who is who and what is what, although the flashbacks might have been more clearly sign-posted. This is an interesting and unique take on the Manson story, and leads us to believe his influence might never come to an end. My score is 7 out of 10.
The story is an interesting fusion of fact and fiction and demonstrates once more Jones' skill at telling an intimate tale in an economic but powerful manner. In some ways this might be his most polished film yet; certainly there are many interesting directorial flourishes used to demonstrate Lavigne's state of mind in some scenes. Although the interiors seem to be the same as those visited in some of his other projects ('The Utah Cabin Murders' most recently), there are plenty of aerial shots and panoramic views of Cielo Drive, Spahn Ranch and Loss Angeles to convince us this isn't really produced in Wales, UK! It does this fairly convincingly, although some of the accents are less successful.
Brendee Green is excellent in the central role as the troubled singer, as is Ciaron Davies as Charles Manson. Davies improvised many of his lines, with only the over-use of 'mother27; as a singular term of abuse suffering from a certain repetition. These performances make up for those less-polished efforts in lesser roles, although it is great to see Jones regular Lee Bane as Gary Hinman and Lee Mark Jones as hilarious TJ, who has a brief meeting with Lavigne before rushing off for 'a wazz'.
There's lots going on here. But for the most part, we know who is who and what is what, although the flashbacks might have been more clearly sign-posted. This is an interesting and unique take on the Manson story, and leads us to believe his influence might never come to an end. My score is 7 out of 10.
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