Hollywood death tour guide Scott Michaels takes us on a lively, thorough, and illuminating exploration of the infamous Tate/LoBianco murders committed by the notorious Manson Family. I think I know a lot more than the average person about the crimes, but this documentary still keyed me in to things I could never have discovered otherwise. I absolutely, positively recommend this film to anyone who has an interest in Charles Manson.
SHARON TATE AUTOPSY OHOTOS MOVIE
Even Jack Nicholson and the movie "Grease" somehow get tied in. No aspect of the crimes or lives of those involved goes uncovered.
"Cease to Exist" is featured in this film, which went on to be a Beach Boys tune. If you haven't heard Manson's music, you should. but if you have read as much Manson material as I have, this is actually quite a treat. There is some interesting background on Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski. The film is different from other documentaries - it actually spends little time on Manson at all, focusing more on the victims and the various houses they lived in and places they worked. Though, it did not stop me from looking for flaws.
As I entered into the film looking for flaws, that struck me a bit personally. opens with a disclaimer saying that there are so many different theories that some people will find something about this film they disagree with. The Manson family is covered, as are many, many others topics that may be of interest to Manson scholars. This is a documentary about the Charles Manson murders, but also about the hobbies of the man who is obsessed with celebrity deaths. the documentary even shows some apartments that Tate lived in when she arrived in Hollywood as well as other locations that she and Polanski stayed at. It's still interesting to see these places and how they stand today. Coming forty-years after the actual events, obviously a lot of things have changed so nothing looks exactly the same. One of the most interesting things this documentary does is has Michaels pretty much give us a tour of the events. A warning should also be given because actual crime scene photos are shown and obviously they are quite graphic.
The stuff dealing with Sharon Tate is always hard to listen to simply because she was pregnant and there are some pretty graphic discussions about her baby and how it could have been saved had medical attention gotten to the body faster. A current coroner in Los Angeles sits down over the death reports and gives us the details of all the wounds and which ones might have been the fatal blows. A large portion of the running time talks about the careers of the victims, what they were doing the day of the crimes and of course we also look at the killers and how the crimes were committed. I'm sure most people going to this film are already going to know the details of the crime so they might not enjoy sitting through them again.
This is an extremely uneven documentary and there's no doubt that it was cheaply produced but I think there are enough interesting things here to make it worth viewing especially for those interested in the crimes. The Six Degrees of Helter Skelter (2009) *** (out of 4) Scott Michaels, the creator of the website Findadeath, hosts this documentary, which goes through the details of the crimes committed by Charles Manson but the highlight is the tour of the actual locations.