I saw a midnight screening of this movie in Chicago last night, and had to fight very hard to stay awake. The idea of a remarkably vulgar stop motion musical about Charles Manson isn't such a bad one in and of itself, and there's about a ten minute stretch after the opening sequence that's really quite funny. However, once the novelty of seeing explicit puppet sex wears off, it's not shocking, it's not offensive, it's not subversive, and and it's not funny - it's just boring, and there's a good hour left to go. Once you've established that the real agenda is to shock and offend by any means necessary, it's hard to find anything really offensive. One or two of the songs is kinda catchy, in that "here's a show tune written by the drama teacher from the local high school," Guffman-esquire sort of way, but most are instantly forgettable. About the only thing to break the monotony of puppets trying their hardest to be shocking and offensive is when they take breaks to let Charlie do some ranting - and then it's even more boring. The movie even jokes about how dull Manson's rants would get, but makes you sit through them anyway. The live action sequences from the 31st century at the beginning and end seem pointless - could the guy in them even read in the first place? Would he sit through all of Helter Skelter if he could? I'm not sure which kind of people are going to get a thrill out of this - some might see Manson's scenes and feel really rebellious, like they're questioning authority and "seeing something they don't WANT me to see." Who's the "they," exactly, that would find this so threatening? While there's a segment of the population that will always be ready to object to people seeing violent and/or naked puppets, you can disturb those people just as much by watching CNN - and that would be a much better way to spend your time than watching puppets try to offend you.