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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

64
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69
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U2 3D
59
We Are Wizards
55
What Just Happened?
89
Man on Wire
85
Slumdog Millionaire
84
Momma's Man
84
Christmas Tale, A
84
Happy-Go-Lucky
83
Trouble the Water
83
U2 3D
82
Tell No One
82
Rachel Getting Married
82
Frozen River
82
Let the Right One In
81
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
79
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
78
I've Loved You So Long
77
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
75
Pool, The
73
Girl Cut in Two, A
72
I Served the King of England
71
Frost/Nixon
70
I.O.U.S. A
69
Ashes of Time Redux
69
Fear(s) of the Dark
68
August Evening
68
Hunger
67
Synecdoche, New York
64
Appaloosa
63
JCVD
63
Eden
63
Changeling
62
Duchess, The
59
We Are Wizards
57
Special
57
Sixty Six
56
Religulous
55
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
55
What Just Happened?
54
Battle in Seattle
54
Good Dick
53
RocknRolla
51
Morning Light
50
Breakfast with Scot
47
How About You
47
Choke
46
Dukes, The
43
Tru Loved
43
Gardens of the Night
41
Cthulhu
40
Igor
40
Other End of the Line, The
34
My Name Is Bruce
34
Otto; or Up with Dead People
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
31
Hounddog
30
Guitar, The
28
Fireproof
27
Lake City
26
House of the Sleeping Beauties
26
Filth and Wisdom
xx
Dostana
xx
Black Balloon, The
xx
Let Them Chirp Awhile
xx
Local Color
xx
Nobel Son
xx
Extreme Movie
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Manson Family, The
Dinsdale Releasing
MPAA RATING: Not Rated
Starring
Marcelo Games,
Marc Pitman,
Leslie Orr,
Sage Stallone,
Maureen Allisse,
Samuel Turcotte,
Amy Yates,
and
Jim Van Bebber
For the first time a motion picture accurately, honestly and openly explores the Manson family's life prior to the infamous murders. (Asmodeus/Mercury Films)
| GENRE(S): |
Horror
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Jim Van Bebber
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Jim Van Bebber
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: April 26, 2005
Theatrical: October 22, 2004
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
95 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Film Threat
Graham Rae
The actual performances during the film range from excellent to somewhat amateurish, but this amateurism is easily absorbed by the sheer power of the imagery on display.

80
Variety
Dennis Harvey
Its own mythology aside, this flamboyant, graphic and disturbing quasi-docu reenactment of a notorious chapter in U.S. counterculture life is a fascinating if peculiar accomplishment.

75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
This is not a "horror" film or an "underground" film, but an act of transgression so extreme and uncompromised, and yet so amateurish and sloppy, that it exists in a category of one film -- this film.

75
New York Post
V.A. Musetto
See it - if you dare.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
Hard, ugly and nasty yet a stylistically vigorous and often insightful piece of work.

67
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
The Manson Family, with its attention to historical detail and chronology, is more effective and disturbing than those grade-Z shockers: It's a genuine look at unmitigated madness and evil. Needless to say, don't bring the kids.

67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
An acid movie flashback a la Oliver Stone.

67
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Van Bebber's film is tough, difficult, sporadically brilliant cinema, to be sure, and I doubt he'd have had it any other way. And as strange as it may sound, neither should the audience.

67
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
The film evokes how homicide became the ultimate orgasm for kids who had turned themselves into zombies of flesh.

60
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
Seriously gruesome docudrama.

60
Village Voice
Michael Atkinson
A film the family might've made themselves: sophomoric, hagiographic, amateurishly strobe-happy, and thoroughly hippiefied.

50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Harrowing and imaginatively made.

50
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
Finally, though, Mr. Van Bebber seems more interested in recreating the grainy look of scratched 1970's film stock than in reflecting on the horrors he depicts, making this a difficult sell for all but the strongest stomachs among connoisseurs of vintage gore.

50
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Van Bebber is out to capture the mood of a generation-long bad trip and succeeds with unnerving accuracy by telling the story within the family circle.

30
LA Weekly
Scott Foundas
The movie is monotonous, and by the time it gets to its climactic re-enactment of the Tate-LaBianca killings, it seems little more than the heir to "Survive!, The Zodiac Killer" and other unsavory 1970s horror cheapies that tried to turn a quick buck on real-life tragedy.

30
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Crust
The less-than-persuasive result is like mediocre leftover psychedelic '60s underground cinema.

12
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
There's no real journalism here, just the sort of appalling revisionism that can turn a bloodbath into a beach party.


The average user rating for this movie is 4.0 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
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