Based on the novel 'The Family' by Ed Sanders, this is one of three films in which Charles Manson featured in 2018, and a film about the Moors Murders would complete a trilogy by director Mary Harron beginning with 'I Shot Andy Warhol' depicting women provoked into irrational violence by an unwarranted infatuation with a weird control freak (Brady and Manson both had in common with their idol Adolf Hitler that they possessed the egotism and disdain for convention of great creative geniuses but not the actual creativity).

There's a surprising amount of God talk by Manson and his coven, and for once the current fashion for swaying steadicam photography suits the lack of balance shown by this unholy trinity of impressionable young ladies.

Or maybe not. Sometimes when you get into a cult ... well I don't think I have to explain cult mentality. But the movie does a great job explaining a lot of things. And while I don't know how accurate the depictions are shown here to what actually happened, this is for sure way closer to what Tarantino came up for Once Upon a time ... but QT did not look for authenticity of course.

Also this focuses on some of the women who got entangled with ... Charlie (Manson). The drama feels real, because the consequences of the actions taken were real. It's not an easy movie, especially when you think about the amount of misinformation and also ignorance that has been seeded into certain people. Now some might say that even presidents can aquire a cult following ... not to compare anyone or anything and not saying, I'm saying that ... The movie does speak for itself and how ridiculous being a sheep is, but also how easy it is to fall into a trap like that (very difficult to get out of it)

Not to be confused with the series of children's safety cartoons in the 1970s called Charley Says, this looked interesting because of the leading actor and the real-life subject, directed by Mary Harron (American Psycho). Basically, set in the early 1970s, Leslie "Lulu" Van Houten (Hannah Murray),Patricia "Katie" Krenwinkel (Sosie Bacon),and Susan "Sadie" Atkins (Marianne Rendón) were part of the Manson Family cult and are imprisoned for their involvement in the Tate and LaBianca murders. They are being held in the Special Security Unit at the California Institution for Women. Lulu, Katie, and Sadie are unusually gentle, polite, and welcoming, in contrast to what is expected of murderers. The film flashes back to Lulu's introduction to the Charles "Charlie" Manson (Matt Smith) and the Family at Spahn Ranch in Los Angeles County, California. Catherine "Gypsy" Share (Dayle McLeod) brought Lulu as Charlie was looking for new recruits. Katie becomes Lulu's mentor and explains Charlie's and the Family's beliefs. Being a group of hippies, they often indulge in free love, sex, drug use, and are happy and loving to each other. Returning from the flashback, Karlene Faith (Merritt Wever),a University of California, Santa Cruz, thinks that Lulu, Katie, and Sadie have been brainwashed. Charlie often sent the women to hunt through dumpsters for food, often watched Family members having orgies, and made all the rules for the group. Lulu witnessed Charlie being callous when female members became emotional or exhibited pain; he explains his philosophy that members of his group should let go of materialistic culture, submit, and leave behind their egos and hang ups. In various scenes, Lulu is chastised for questioning the inconsistencies in Charlie's mandates. Charlie believes that some passages in the Book of Revelation refer to him and that he will become a prophet during a revolution caused by the race war. Karlene tries to get the three women to think rationally instead of believing what Charlie taught them. They are not able to do so. In another flashback, Charlie thinks that he is going to be a rock star. But record producer Terry Melcher (Bryan Adrian) watches Charlie and his back-up singers perform and is not impressed. Charlie is angered and, later that evening, he beats Sadie. Charlie's focus shifts from music to violence and decides to kick-start the race war by killing some white people and blaming the killings on African Americans. He orders Sadie and group member "Tex" Watson (Chace Crawford) to go to the Terry Melcher's old house, now occupied by actress Sharon Tate (Grace Van Dien),to kill the residents. They are accompanied by Katie and Linda Kasabian (India Ennenga). After the Tate murders, Charlie orders Katie, Tex, and Lulu to murder supermarket executive Leno LaBianca (Dan Olivo) and his wife Rosemary (Jackie Joyner). Following Charlie's teaching, Tex believes that they can become invisible at will. Karlene wants to get Lulu, Katie, and Sadie back to the way they were before meeting Charlie Manson, but realises that as time goes by, knowing what they did and it being wrong will torment them for the rest of their lives. In the end, Lulu realises that the murders did not bring a revolution and were all for nothing. Also starring Suki Waterhouse as Mary Brunner, Annabeth Gish as Virginia Carlson, and Kayli Carter as Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme. Smith nails the American accent and is convincingly intense as the infamous cult leader, the other performances are fine. I was expecting this film to be perhaps more violent or exploitative, it certainly portrays the 1960s free love hippy culture the Manson Family were part of, and it does convince you that the women were victims of insane teachings of Manson are convincing, so while it is slow and not very exciting, it is an alright biographical drama. Worth watching!