The Manson Family
Dinsdale Releasing | Release Date: October 22, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
5
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Film ThreatGraham 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. Read full review
80
VarietyDennis 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. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger 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. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
See it - if you dare. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Hard, ugly and nasty yet a stylistically vigorous and often insightful piece of work. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The film evokes how homicide became the ultimate orgasm for kids who had turned themselves into zombies of flesh. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc 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. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianMarc 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. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
An acid movie flashback a la Oliver Stone. Read full review
60
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
A film the family might've made themselves: sophomoric, hagiographic, amateurishly strobe-happy, and thoroughly hippiefied. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Seriously gruesome docudrama. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Harrowing and imaginatively made. Read full review
50
The New York TimesDana 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. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland 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. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyScott 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. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
The less-than-persuasive result is like mediocre leftover psychedelic '60s underground cinema. Read full review
12
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
There's no real journalism here, just the sort of appalling revisionism that can turn a bloodbath into a beach party. Read full review
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