Cease To Exist depends entirely of footage lifted directly from other Charles Manson and Beach Boy documentaries/specials that were decently edited together to tell the story of the meeting of two families, one of rock, the other of murder.
It's at it's best when contrasting the good time rock and roll of the Beach Boys with the creepy folk music of Manson and his followers. I wish it would have done more to contrast the relationships of Manson with his "family" and the Wilson family.
Too many times it strays away from the story of Dennis Wilson and Charles Manson's relationship with one another and goes into more familiar territory.
My advice to the filmmaker: Film some new interviews with some new, never before heard stories. Get some of the people from the archival footage to repeat some of their anecdotes for your cameras and put it in place of the old. Drop the weak narration from Colin Moneymaker(!) and re-record it with a recognizable voice like Gary Busey or Kris Kristofferson.
I admit that I've seen more than my fair share of Charles Manson films and documentaries, so my review is probably slanted a bit toward the negative. People less familiar with the other films would probably give this a couple more stars than I did.
The list of acknowledgments at the end were incomplete. I noticed portions of The Helter Skelter Murders, Helter Skelter (1976), and even a few frames of Manson Family Movies.
It's at it's best when contrasting the good time rock and roll of the Beach Boys with the creepy folk music of Manson and his followers. I wish it would have done more to contrast the relationships of Manson with his "family" and the Wilson family.
Too many times it strays away from the story of Dennis Wilson and Charles Manson's relationship with one another and goes into more familiar territory.
My advice to the filmmaker: Film some new interviews with some new, never before heard stories. Get some of the people from the archival footage to repeat some of their anecdotes for your cameras and put it in place of the old. Drop the weak narration from Colin Moneymaker(!) and re-record it with a recognizable voice like Gary Busey or Kris Kristofferson.
I admit that I've seen more than my fair share of Charles Manson films and documentaries, so my review is probably slanted a bit toward the negative. People less familiar with the other films would probably give this a couple more stars than I did.
The list of acknowledgments at the end were incomplete. I noticed portions of The Helter Skelter Murders, Helter Skelter (1976), and even a few frames of Manson Family Movies.
