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.

Released in 2009 and directed by Michael Dorsey, "Six Degrees of Helter Skelter" is a micro-budget documentary that examines the Manson family and the infamous Tate/LeBianca murders that shocked the world in August, 1969, bringing to end the idealism of the hippie movement. Host Scott Michaels visits more than 40 locations in Southern California as he goes into detail about the victims, their murderers and Manson's ties to the Hollywood elite.

Charles Manson was a decent singer/songwriter and the documentary includes (a snippet of) one of his songs, "Cease to Exist," performed by the Manson family. Although he wasn't anything phenomenal, Manson had a real shot at making it, but his narcissism, paranoia, and general malice toward everything destroyed it. He ruined everything he touched, everyTHING and everyONE. He wreaked havoc on dozens, no hundreds, of lives, probably thousands. And his psychopathic acts were the death knell of the good side of the counter-culture movement. Technically, a psychopath is not actually insane. These types simply have no conscience. Hurting & killing people, doing horrible things and wreaking havoc on society doesn't bother them in the least.

Costing only $200,000, this documentary is not a polished production. It's only a couple steps above a typical Youtube video and mostly consists of Michaels visiting the many locations and elaborating details in a freeform manner. He often throws in interesting side bits here and there. Some people criticize that he tends to ramble and sometimes stumbles over his words, but I understood everything he was saying perfectly and appreciated his casual, non-rehearsed, fact-oriented delivery. Micro-budget or not, the film is very informative and takes you to the actual locations of the infamous crimes, combined with a lot of stock footage of the people and events. For a documentary, it fulfills its purpose.

The film runs 103 minutes.

GRADE: B-

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.

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.

This is a documentary about the Charles Manson murders, but also about the hobbies of the man who is obsessed with celebrity deaths. The Manson family is covered, as are many, many others topics that may be of interest to Manson scholars.

opens with a disclaimer saying that there are so many different theories that some people will find something about this film they disagree with. As I entered into the film looking for flaws, that struck me a bit personally. Though, it did not stop me from looking for flaws.

The film is different from other documentaries -- it actually spends little time on Manson at all, focusing more on the victims and the various houses they lived in and places they worked. There is some interesting background on Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski. Many other tangential connections... but if you have read as much Manson material as I have, this is actually quite a treat.

If you haven't heard Manson's music, you should. "Cease to Exist" is featured in this film, which went on to be a Beach Boys tune. No aspect of the crimes or lives of those involved goes uncovered. Even Jack Nicholson and the movie "Grease" somehow get tied in.

I absolutely, positively recommend this film to anyone who has an interest in Charles Manson. I think I know a lot more than the average person about the crimes, but this documentary still keyed me in to things I could never have discovered otherwise.