I have known about the Tate-Labianca murders for a long time, probably way longer than I should. When I was a little kid, my cousin Keri stayed with us for a bit and had a book report for school that she chose to do on Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry. Bugliosi was the lead prosecutor on the Manson family case, and there I was at about five or six years old, hearing about this crazy murderer Charlie Manson. To be fair, Manson has always been in the public eye. The news and entertainment media LOVED him, as can be evidenced from the hundreds upon hundreds of news items found if you simply Google his name.
It’s now 2019, which means that on August 9th, it will have been 50 years since Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkle killed Sharon Tate, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, and Steven Parent under Manson’s instructions.
The thing is, most of us know a lot about Manson and “The Family.” There are two films entitled Helter Skelter, one a tv movie from 1974 and another an independent film from 2004. Additionally, there’s Manson, My Name is Evil —a 2009 film that focuses on Family member Leslie Van Houten. There are scores of other films or television shows that directly speak about Manson or The Family, or were very heavily influenced by them.
“We don’t often hear about things from the victim’s perspective, and that is where The Haunting of Sharon Tate differs from most of these Manson Family films…”
We don’t often hear about things from the victim’s perspective, and that is where The Haunting of Sharon Tate differs from most of these Manson Family films. We only ever see Charles Manson in this film a few times. If that throws you off the trail of wanting to see this, then sorry, but it really shouldn’t. The film focuses on the budding actress and wife of not-yet-creepy Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate. Sharon had starred most famously in Valley of the Dolls but also appeared in a handful of other films and television shows.
the fact that you gave a positive review to this piece of garbage completely undermines your credentials as a critic. In face, what are your credentials? Your press credentials should be pulled immediately. Ugh
If you thought that this was a good film, then you may want to consider another pursuit. This film was an abomination and should never have been made, Go to Rotten Tomatoes and read the reviews from the “Top Critics” and maybe you’ll get a clue.
This review is on rotten tomatoes.
This is a stinker. Badly acted, badly staged, badly lit and really distasteful.
John Moraga: I enjoyed this film too for many of the same reasons. Every now and then Hillary Duff really manages to pull something off (“Stranger”), and this is one of them. In my opinion this film, and the director’s cut of “London Fields,” are two of the most vastly underrated of recent years. Can’t help wondering what’s behind it…
Who paid you to write this review? The movie was not only tasteless, but the acting was atrocious. Shame on you for leading people into spending money and time to watch this. It was truly horrible.
This was an intense, moving and gripping film. The audience I saw it with were shocked and some even moved to tears at the end. I was impressed by Hilary Duff’s performance. I suspected that because of the change in narrative something was up and there would be a twist ending, which there was. Having the entire movie set in Purgatory, after the murders took place, and telling the story from the point of view of Sharon and her friends as trapped spirits was, I felt, inventive and very creative. I enjoyed seeing the Manson cult getting what was coming to them. I liked the ending where Sharon and her friends were set free and walked down the road to heaven or whatever the afterlife would now take them. Brilliant and touching film.
Before things go down Sharon and Jay have a conversation when she asks him whether he thinks their fates are pre-determined. Jay says this: “I think there’s infinite choices, infinite realities. We’re probably living out different versions of our own story for… who knows? Probably forever, at least until we get it right”
They replay this conversation at the end of the movie, so the director wanted to make sure we get what the movie is about. I believe that the dreams Sharon has are memories from alternate realities where the murders have already taken place, but through the dreams she gets the chance to make different decisions, so they can survive. I also like how Sharon at the end in an interview excerpt says: “I guess you could say I live in a fairytale world, looking at everything through rose-colored glasses. I probably always will”. Almost as if the director was telling the audience: I know that these murders did happen and Sharon Tate and the others are not with us anymore. But I would like to believe that our reality is only one of many, and in an other reality they are alive and well. You might say this is like believing in fairytales, but that’s just the way I am.
Are you kidding, This was a terrible film. Check out Rotten Tomatoes and read the reviews from the “top Critics”.