Review of Charlie Says (2019) by Kenr — 08 Apr 2020

Charlie Says... is not such a wise title to give a movie that might have been an intriguing expose on some unforgivable murders. It’s also further hampered by the moviemakers spending too much time voyeuristically gloating over the unhealthy sexual indulgences of a bunch of feral hippies (with no mention of the STD’s transmitted between this moronic bunch). This graphic porno approach would have had far more dramatic impact if handled less exploitative. The second half of this movie almost seemed to be made by a different team, less sensationalistic, and a little more worthy in its approach – though, still appearing somewhat emotionally manipulative. I agree that it’s important to pursue redemptive rehabilitation on gaoled sociopaths. But don’t believe that too many results warrant a release for perpetrators of hideously repugnant crimes against humanity (we’ve seen too many examples where this has gone badly wrong). This revisitation of the abominable crimes of Charles Manson and his sick crew, tells us little about the lives of these people before becoming members of his free love hippy farm. It wasn’t only Manson’s evil dominating power alone that turned them into killers. – they were free to leave at any time they wanted but, they didn’t - their own personalities, along with the drugs and perverse sex, also had an appealing hold over these easily-led damaged folk.

Curiosity tends to keep one watching this entry and at times its interesting but overall there’s not a great deal to learn from the sad experience and, it could have been told with less sensationalized over-indulgence or the added implied PC gender inferences to tick another modern Hollywood box.