Charles Manson Superstar (1989)

For forty years, Charles Manson has survived most of his life in what he calls 'the hallways of the all ways,' the reform schools, jails and prisons that have been his home and tomb. His ... See full summary »

Director:

Nikolas Schreck

Writer:

Nikolas Schreck

Stars:

Charles Manson, Nikolas Schreck, Zeena LaVey

Cast

Cast overview:
Charles Manson	...	Himself
Nikolas Schreck	...	Narrator (voice)
Zeena LaVey	...	Narrator (voice)
James N. Mason	...	Himself

Storyline

For forty years, Charles Manson has survived most of his life in what he calls 'the hallways of the all ways,' the reform schools, jails and prisons that have been his home and tomb. His thought was born in the hole of solitary confinement, apart from time and beyond the grasp of society. In his cell, he created his own world and speaks his own language: he has concluded that there is only the mind. This DVD will relinquish to you the extreme story of the killer of all killers: Charles Manson. From convincing his followers to move into the desert to train for the apocalypse, to leading a murderous crew through a string of devilish murders, you will see and hear from Manson himself of how he created a preconceived terror based on his philosophy of life. Manson claims that the so-called 'straight' world outside of prison is but an inverted reflection of the underworld in which he has lived. To him, the reality that presidents and law-abiding citizens accept begins in the hermetic ...

---

Plot Keywords:

charles manson | prison | murder | apocalypse | racism | 

---

Genres:

Documentary | Biography | Crime

---

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 September 2002 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Death Valley National Park, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Holywood Productions, Video Werewolf

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Since this film was released in 1989, director Nicholas Schreck has made the following corrections in an insert for the DVD release: - The Polanski residence was in the Los Angeles community of Beverly Hills, not Bel-Air. - According to Anton LaVey's wife Diane, it is unlikely that the described ritual performed by the Church of Satan took place on August 8, 1969. - Anton LaVey had no connection with the production of the film Rosemary's Baby. - Kenneth Anger has accused Bobby Beausoleil of stealing the print of the film Lucifer Rising. Beausoleil claims that Anger could not afford to pay the film's lab cost.

---

Connections

References The Vampire's Ghost (1945)

User Reviews

Good idea sunk by poor execution.

As one long fascinated by the Manson story, watching this documentary movie was a mostly disappointing exercise. The slightly somnambulistic narrative is based on some painfully dodgy research (for example, a woman who is most definitely not Manson's mother is shown, despite what the soundtrack implies), and an equally unfortunate tendency to get rather 'cosmic', in the sense of trying to create an air of malevolent apocalyptic convergence and doom. To this end we learn from the opening preamble that 'the time-grid we know as August 8th to 9th has always been a magnet for events of savage purification'. The narrator lists the bombing of Nagasaki and the inaugural meeting of the KKK, but suddenly runs out of legitimate examples and offers such desperate toe-curling makeweights as the birth dates of Ed Gein and Unity Mitford, and the 1985 LAPD announcement of their pursuit of the Night Stalker serial killer. Thus he proves that the time-grid we know as August 8th to 9th hasn't been a magnet for events of savage purification at all. On a positive note, it is good to see the actual geographical areas in which the original events took place. Thanks to the makers for driving around the LA hills with the camera out of the window. Anyway, we're here for more than just some ultra-cheapo graphics and a stoned-sounding narrator reading out a b minus high school essay, because a large percentage of 'Charles Manson Superstar' is taken up with exclusive prison interview footage with the man himself. Don't get too excited, though. Speaking entirely in vague generalities, Manson has only one thing to say and that is 'I'm an old man. I don't want to talk about my crimes and I don't need the world's attention on me, so I'm acting the crazy-man so that you'll just go away and leave me alone.' Over the decades many a journalist has taken the pilgrimage to go poke Manson and see if he bites, and all they get is the same 'crazy Charlie' show. Ask him something specific and at best he replies with a foggy metaphor. At worst he just starts into one of his elaborately pointless rants and ends up moving the viewer to tedium. True, there are moments when one can discern the sort of sinister persuasiveness, charisma and even the fatal personal charm which could conceivably convince a group of damaged and drug-messed followers to commit bloody murder, but he's on screen far too often blathering away unchecked and the forced familiarity soon breeds contempt and eventual disinterest. Which, one is tempted to believe, is exactly what Charles Manson desires.