The Manson Family
User Score
4.4 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 9
  3. Negative: 5 out of 9

Review this movie

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. ByronG.
    May 31, 2005
    2
    This was the bloodiest film I'd ever seen. I had to turn it off a few minutes before the end, I just couldn't take anymore killings. I watched most of it, though, and I belive it failed to offer the viewer any genuine understanding of its characters' motives, even and especially those of Manson himself. It was not clear whether the "interviews" were staged or with the real people involved, as they are today. It also didn´t explore Manson´s links to the theology (if you can call it that) of the Process Church and to Scientology. The imagery was brutal and extreme, but mostly unnecessary for the intelligent viewer. It left me feeling upset, but without really understanding why all of this happened - if there wasn't a social / historical aspect to the theme, it would be just a second-rate excuse for more exposure pornographic and viloent imagery. Definitely a must-miss. Read a book about cults instead.… Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
56 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 17 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 17
  3. Negative: 3 out of 17
  1. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Graham Rae
    100
    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.
    Read full review
  2. Variety
    Reviewed by: Dennis Harvey
    80
    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.
    Read full review
  3. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    60
    A film the family might've made themselves: sophomoric, hagiographic, amateurishly strobe-happy, and thoroughly hippiefied.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »