The Six Degrees of Helter Skelter

I have read Vincent Bugliosi's book,"Helter Skelter," about the Sharon Tate-La Bianca murders in August 1969. The narrator and producer, Scott Michaels, certainly knows the macabre part of the story especially with it's locations. The documentary is an independent one more focused on the locations of the murders, the victims' and murderers residences. Charles Manson was the mastermind behind the crimes. There is no question about that. The narrator brings viewers to Los Angeles, California and areas of interest to the crimes. We don't' hear from anybody else mostly except Ron Hale who bought Jay Sebring's house. There are gruesome photographs of the crime scene. The film tells the story about how the Manson family went from crazed, drug hippies to cold-blooded murderers. There are connections between Manson and Hollywood music industry. Los Angeles seemed less built up back in the late sixties. Many of the homes are still there except the Tate-Polanski house on Cielo drive. This documentary showed several locations.

As someone with a slight knowledge of the actual details of the Tate/LaBianca murders, there is much to learn from this documentary. And the writer and narrator have apparently studied the events and those involved quite thoroughly. In fact they almost provide more background on the murder victims than Manson and his "family." Some of it seems non essential so you must have patience for the actual murder events to properly unfold. Also, as was said by another reviewer, the very beginning seems to be nothing more than an opportunity for the narrator to sell his tour business and himself. Throughout the rest he guides us to various locations in California in relation to Manson and the murders, during which he provides a substantial amount of anecdotal, personal commentary. Luckily for him he is amiable enough but i did find myself wishing for a more properly produced documentary for which the budget obviously would not allow. Or maybe it was intentionally written that way. Regardless, there were plenty of genuinely creepy moments on location and enough information to keep me interested.

You might expect SIX DEGREES OF HELTER SKELTER to be another bland rehash of the facts, dates, and events of the Manson Family murders. Instead, it's a fresh, insightful documentary full of interesting history, as well as some fascinatingly bizarre, coincidental details and odd minutia.

If you're intrigued by The Family and their exploits, then you'll want to add this to your information stockpile...

The Six Degrees of Helter Skelter (2009)

*** (out of 4)

Scott Michaels, the creator of the website Findadeath, hosts this documentary, which goes through the details of the crimes committed by Charles Manson but the highlight is the tour of the actual locations. This is an extremely uneven documentary and there's no doubt that it was cheaply produced but I think there are enough interesting things here to make it worth viewing especially for those interested in the crimes. I'm sure most people going to this film are already going to know the details of the crime so they might not enjoy sitting through them again. A large portion of the running time talks about the careers of the victims, what they were doing the day of the crimes and of course we also look at the killers and how the crimes were committed. A current coroner in Los Angeles sits down over the death reports and gives us the details of all the wounds and which ones might have been the fatal blows. The stuff dealing with Sharon Tate is always hard to listen to simply because she was pregnant and there are some pretty graphic discussions about her baby and how it could have been saved had medical attention gotten to the body faster. A warning should also be given because actual crime scene photos are shown and obviously they are quite graphic. One of the most interesting things this documentary does is has Michaels pretty much give us a tour of the events. Coming forty-years after the actual events, obviously a lot of things have changed so nothing looks exactly the same. It's still interesting to see these places and how they stand today. the documentary even shows some apartments that Tate lived in when she arrived in Hollywood as well as other locations that she and Polanski stayed at.

I was very excited to see this film. The story of Charles Manson is very interesting to me. I had a very hard time making it past the first few minutes of this film. The narrator delivers the information so hastily, and with out any discernible order. He just babbles on incessantly. I will give him credit, he is passionate about the story he is telling, but is overly excited and somewhat unable to be followed. There's a wealth of information here, but its piled upon its self in such a way that it is nearly impossible to sort it. Parts are better then others, but i was very disappointed in the film. I feel that if someone who had better public speaking skills, and better delivery, this could have been a very good informational film. The narration jumps around, and is full of information that does not relate to the story line being discussed at that point.