Review of The Manson Family (1997) by Marios P — 15 Jul 2010

Someone needs to arrest Jim Van Bebber for his savage crimes against film fanatics, not because he beats viewers over the head with a never-ending onslaught of in-your-face brutality, blood-soaked violence, or rampart adult themes, but arrest him for only making just two full-length films, a handful of shorts, and some music videos.

Ven Bebber is just too damn talented to be doing a project here and there! Anyways, after breaking through with the ultra-violent and cool as hell Deadbeat at Dawn, Van Bebber followed it up with shorts and music videos until FINALLY gracing us fans with his second feature film, nearly 16 years later, The Manson Family, though one would suspect this film was made around the same time as his first in the late 80's.

The Manson Family packs a helluva Grindhouse/Exploitation style punch to the gut as it presents the re-enacted exploits of Charlie and his loyal followers of drug-induced, sex-crazed, violent hippie power entourage, presented by way of fake documentary filmmaking, or mockumentary.

There's an eerie wrap-around story concerning modern day maniacs fueled by drugs and violence who prey upon the video station where employees are watching said documentary, but that's just a small shedding of cinematic celluloid compared to the actual film, which seems to best be described as an Oliver Stone in his heyday only with 100 more times the LSD injected into his brain to give off such a spastic array of often times incoherent scenes wrapped together and soaked with ultra-violence, lots and lots (and LOTS) of sex & nudity, and an especially haunting amount of drugs and the disarray they cause on these group of outcasts.

Charlie's followers (especially Marc Pitman's intense interpretation of Tex Watson) are the real highlighted focus of this film, but when it does focus on old Manson himself (played nicely by Marcelo Games), it's impressive.

There's a lot of build-up to the most infamous violence, but when it gets there, it's jarring and squeamish enough to make you almost happy it took awhile to get to that point! Excellent film, but seriously, Van Bebber.

..do more shit!