The Helter Skelter Murders

Trailer—The Other Side of Madness

source: The Other Side of Madness

To enjoy and relate to exploitation films you have to have an understanding of what they are exactly. This genre of film as the name says exploits something. More often than not most exploitation films exploited nudity at a time when it wasn't so prevalent in films. These days you see it within 10 minutes of every made for HBO/Showtime series you find. But that wasn't always the case. But exploitation films were also movies that were almost always made on a low budget with a tight time constraint and focused on whatever was hot at the moment. Thus we had racing films, biker films, horror films and more that were rushed into theaters to capitalize on current trends. And on occasion these films focused on major headlines. Like the film THE OTHER SIDE OF MADNESS. THE OTHER SIDE OF MADNESS was the first film to capitalize on the Manson murders. A number followed like HELTER SKELTER and recently Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. But this movie was the first. And unlike those this one chose not to use name actors and the format most films used. It was its own creation. The film is almost like a documentary using actual new items at the time of the trial to tell the story, not using a narrative structure but combining bits and pieces of past and present at the time. It was made while the Tate/LaBianca trial was going on. The names of various people involve were left out to avoid litigation for the film's director and producer. The film moves back and forth from visits in the court room where the trial is taking place to the actions involved, using the court room scenes to set up what is to come. Shot in black and white the film never offers the extreme gore than many exploitation films of the time did but does project and uneasy amount of violence in the brutal killing sequences. Like many horror films the actual penetrations of weapons are not displayed but can still be imagined in the useful camera techniques that are employed. The use of no name actors in the cast helps preserve that sense of dread rather than watching a well-known star in each role. All in all the film isn't the most entertaining film to sit and watch but it does capture a moment in time when the world was fearful of the unknown, of that "hippie generation" that seemed too different for most. Being made at a time when mistrust and fear was high the film did good money at the box-office and played in grindhouses and drive-ins across the country. This version of the film is being released by The Film Detective and they've done a great job of it here. To being with the film is offered for the first time in a 4k transfer from the original camera negative. They've also compiled a number of extras that make this one worth ordering if you're a fan of true crime or Manson films. These include a narration from producer Wade Williams, an original documentary THE OTHER SIDE OF MADNESS: WITH PRODUCER WADE WILLIAMS, a featurette entitled MECHANICAL MAN: WADE WILLIAMS MEETS MANSON, a 12 page collector's booklet with commentary from award-winning film director Alexander Tushinski, the original theatrical for both films the movie was released as (THE OTHER SIDE OF MADNESS and THE HELTER SKELTER MURDERS) and in the first releasing of this title are selections from the LP the Manson recorded including the songs "Mechanical Man" and "Garbage Dump". As a curiosity piece this is one worth picking up. For fans of the genre it is worth picking up. For fans of exploitation it is worth picking up. And for those who remember the fear of that summer when it all took place, you might want to give this one a watch.

This movie (aka The Other Side of Madness) is not to be confused with the television movie based on the Vincent Bugliosi book. This is a cheaply shot, crudely made documentary-like movie that was filmed while the Manson trial was taking place in Los Angeles. There are some weaknesses, but this is a fascinating movie for anyone who has an interest in the Manson story. First, the negatives: First - for anyone who does not know the story of Charles Manson and his "Family", you may have no idea what is going on. You never hear the words "Manson" or "Tate". You do hear the words "Charlie" and you actually hear the voice of Charles Manson himself singing one of his own songs, "Mechanical Man". After hearing this, it is no wonder that Manson's recording career never took off. Second - there is one long scene of a rock concert in the desert. It has absolutely nothing to do with the plot, except it puts the actors playing Tex Watson and Patricia Krenwinkle at the concert. The rock concert features some full frontal nudity, but mostly from skinny men and overweight women. Third - there is little to no dialogue in the movie. The majority of the words you hear spoken are either off camera or look like they were dubbed in later. The whole movie is in black and white, except for one scene in color, where the actress who is playing Sharon Tate is being filmed in a "My Fair Lady"-type movie. Fourth - the movie has no conclusion. While the movie shows the Tate murders, the movie ends with the killers entering the LaBianca home. These are the negatives, including a cheesy "Keep your kids off drugs" warning that comes at the end of the movie (similar to "Reefer Madness"), but there is one huge positive. I have watched four movies about Manson (both "Helter Skelters" - original and remake, this movie, and Jim van Beber's sickening "The Manson Family"). This movie has probably the most frightening filming of the Tate murders of the four. The only drawback is the actress who plays Sharon Tate (Debbie Duff) can't act. She is beautiful, but looks confused instead of terrified. But the eerie black and white filming of the murders is very powerful. Worth a look for anyone who is interested in this frightening case.

This obscure bush-league production takes many liberties in its illustration of the Manson Family, and the events surrounding the most notorious killing spree in U. S. history. If you can overlook the weaving of facts with fabrications, then you might enjoy this film for its stylistic peculiarities. With deliberately one-dimensional black and white filming, it presents itself in an austere naturalistic quality faintly similar in tinge to THE HONEYMOON KILLERS(1970) . The depicted crime scenarios are surprisingly discourteous, their chaos and brutality punctuated by the film's lengthy lead-in, which is rather reserved and undemonstrative in contrast. I doubt many will defend THE HELTER SKELTER MURDERS as a critically "good" picture, but despite its many easily observable surface blemishes, the innards illustrate an intriguing art-house anti-Hollywoodism, awkward and inexpert though it may be. The anti-drug screen-crawl at the end was strange, added, I suspect, to deceptively ennoble this project with a stirring and purposeful nimbus. Surely this was criticized as ill-advisable and crassly exploitive, racing into production as a horrified nation reeled in the wake of the in-fact events. Odd...but oddly coercive. 5/10.

This was an interesting sit through. It was the very first film to capitalize on the Manson Family murders and was actually being made WHILE the trial was still going on. Though it is surely an exploitation film, it's a lot tamer than you would expect. It isn't gory, and any sexual exploits were the depictions of hippies doing hippie things back in the late 60's. Any exploitation director could've made the whole film about the murders with a lot of blood, women getting their clothes torn off a midst torture, and the killers acting maniacally for shock value but this film... took its time. I'd say it's like if Terrence Malick tried to make Funny Games. The director took time to show the life of the Manson family, but didn't give them an identity or something to care about for them. The killers are given a perfect empty shell of character--they aren't even given names. Obviously the victims aren't named out of respect but the actual members of the Manson family, I believe, aren't given names because they're cold blooded murderers stripped of their humanity. The black and white cinematography really did well to capture the mood, especially during the home invasion sequence. Frank Howard really knew how to use shadows to his advantage to make a dark and depressing event, and made the Manson Family members look menacing. It's really surprising that he never went on to do anything else because for someone obviously having no prior experience, he certainly did show a lot of competence and ambition. I really have to hand it to Brian Klinknett as the lead killer for delivering a crazy and terrifying performance and it's also a shame that he didn't really go on to do anything else. When his character says "I am the Devil, coming to do the Devil's work", I genuinely believe what he is saying. Barely at all did I see an actor seeming like they're just reciting a line. Speaking of great performers with lackluster careers, the music is amazing. Sean Bonniwell supplied songs from his band The Music Machine and wow, their psychedelic blues infused proto-punk is a hidden gem from the 60's and their song "Dark White" should have been a hit but in my research, their marketing was terrible and they broke up in 1969. So I'd definitely seek out some of their music and give it a listen. All in all, it's a very rough film and you should know a bit of details about the Manson Family before watching it, but for a small, forgotten exploitation film, I think it's worth watching.

Not to be confused with the much superior TV movie Helter Skelter made in 1976, The Helter Skelter Murders is an unusual film to say the least. With some footage shot at Spahn Ranch (where the Manson Family lived before their arrest) and Charles Manson himself singing his song "Mechanical Man" on the soundtrack, the movie has a bit of an authentic, albeit bizarre, feel to it. The first half of the film is a weird, disjointed mix of scenes, ranging from rock concert to urban riot, set against the backdrop of the court trial; this part of the movie is not particularly entertaining and is hard to follow at times. Later scenes, such as the one with an actress portraying Sharon Tate on a movie set, are better. The scene recreating the murders in August 1969 is brutal and difficult to watch but from a directorial standpoint is well done; the sequence of events also matches the factual accounts given about the crime, which makes it an even more powerful and disturbing. Helter Skelter Murders is far from a classic; it is a strangely directed film that could have been made better. As it deals with a tragic event and an evil group of people, it is also not easy to watch at times. But anyone who has seen the later TV movie Helter Skelter should watch this movie, as you will see the differences in style and technique and also a different telling of the same event from 1969.

As the title suggests, it focuses almost solely on the famous murders in the Tate house - interspersed with flashes of the preliminary court hearings and flash-backs to life on Spahn Ranch. These scenes at the ranch have an authentic kind of feel - due to a mixture of stuff (supposedly) being shot on the actual location and the film's own low-budgetness that works in it's favor... the actors all look and act like lost kids (although all are much better looking than the majority of the real Family members). The "documentary" footage the film purports to have seems isolated to one scene - a pretty good one, though: the hippie-rock-jam in the desert.. a real far-out scene, man... It's good and some of the Family actors wander in and out of it to connect it to the rest of the film. But that's it as far as documentary footage goes. The settings, however, have authenticity and a sense of place that give a good, if limited, glimpse into the L.A. of the time. The look of the film, in general, is really inspired - beautifully shot with many creative choices that, sometimes, get a little TOO arty... but, for such a seemingly low-budget movie - it does have a really polished look. (And a great soundtrack.. well scored and with good period-rock - including Manson's own recording of "Mechanical Man"...) It does, however, have some major flaws - the hardest to get past being the complete lack of characterizations... not one person has a personality. No one is developed - not even Charlie. This leaves us with a film we can only look at - there is no one to feel for - even the victims are only that: bodies that get victimized. In a way, it's interesting - we don't need or want to feel a human connection to these killers - but, by stripping all human-ness from everyone all we can do is watch. There's very little to FEEL, here - save a creepiness in the playing out of the murder scene. It is brutal and flatly played - and, maybe, that was part of the point in the film... it does have a strangely haunting quality to it. There's the real-ness of the settings and Family group, the disquieting night drives up the canyon - headlights on a dirt road - and the bleak, almost real-time playing out of the murders, themselves - that linger after it's over. Also, the unfamiliarity with any of the actors - none of whom seem to have done any thing other than this - give it an even creepier, too-real quality. There's a feeling that the filmmakers were trying to show a kind of "facts as they're known" at a time very close to the actual events - when not all the facts were really known. This adherence to what, supposedly, happened; combined with it's lack of characterization and lack of scope outside of just the night of the murders - leave the film somewhat one dimensional and, ultimately, drains it's emotional impact.

As someone who has studied this case from beginning to end, this movie is completely flawed. It sticks only to the facts when it serves the purpose of being completely sensational. The beginning is a mix of jumbled scenes that seem to have no correlation to each other with the exception that it has the actor playing Charles Manson reiterating Manson's 'isms' to ad nauseum. "Cease to exist". "Death to the piggies". This type of garbage used along with Manson's own music makes this movie too disturbing for words. The depiction of the actress Sharon Tate, one of the most famous of the seven Tate-LaBianca victims, is depicted here as a screen goddess. The Waltz number in this movie is laughable, suggesting that due to her 'star-status' Sharon Tate deserved what she got living so high on the hog, as it were. That the victims lived high and that is what this movie does to the detriment of the memory of the victims: Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Voytek Frykowski, Steven Parent, Leno LaBianca and Rosemary LaBianca. It makes the viewer who is not acquainted with the facts think that this is the truth of what happened, when it only sketches the truth with one outrage after another. The movie shows in graphic detail what was done at Miss Tate's home, taking almost a full half hour of the movie to do so. Almost the time it really took to commit five homocides then leave the scene of the crime. Mercifully it stops short of going into the murders of Leno and his wife, Rosemary. All one sees is a street sign that tells you it is the street where the LaBianca's lived and the murderers walking up the lawn to a house that bears again, only a vague representation of the house on Waverly Drive. It is told in black and white for the most part which gives it a scary feeling when you watch it. The only time it adds colour is when we see the 'revered' Sharon Tate playing the part of an Ingrid Bergmanesque 'Anastasia' arriving at a grand ball where a handsome 'Prince Charming' leads her in the dance. This scene is used again when we are forced to see it intercut between the dead actress and the live 'Anastasia' dancing at the ball. Where this movie botches its facts it tries to cover with shock value nonsense. It has a scene where victim Steven Parent is stopped in his car before arriving at the gate, and there is an agonizing few moments in which we see the actor playing Tex Watson taunting the young man before he shoots him to death. Again, no facts and big on propaganda. So do I suggest you see this movie? No. If you can get the video or see the superior 1976 version with Steven Railsback as Manson and George DiCenzo as Prosecutor Vincent T. Bugliosi, I highly suggest you do. If only to get the real facts of the case, and to get the memory of this one out of your brain. Disturbing. Disgusting. Forgettable.

I am the "Smug Whitness" and wanted to tell all viewers that it was a great time doing this movie, meeting the Director from Los Angeles, and watching how it all comes together. I started as a secretary to Wade Williams who is the producer and prime financier, then found myself doing some acting that I had never done. Granted, I wasn't that good but the scenery at the rock concert is worth seeing. We filmed it in an old rock quarry outside of Kansas City and it was a whole day of drugs, wine and buses of people being brought in from the big park in KC called Loose Park. We had put out fliers all over ahead of time so there were plenty of hippies that showed up for the free food and fun !Later, watching the "dailies" to see how it all looked after the filming was interesting and educational. Some few months later, I moved to Hollywood and really wanted to feel a part of the movie business but then realized so do millions of others. But, I met my future husband of now 28 years who is the son of a TV producer who worked with Bob Barker on Truth or Consequences and later moved back to KC.