Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Docu examines theories for Manson murders; violence, drugs.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Chaos: The Manson Murders
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In CHAOS: THE MANSON MURDERS, famed documentarian Errol Morris looks at the bizarre 1960s cult figure Charles Manson and examines the mystery around how he persuaded his minions to kill for him. Manson was a petty criminal who had spent years in prison. When he got out, he used his widely described "charisma" to collect a group of lost young people on the streets of San Francisco. In 1969, he sent his obedient "family" members to kill everyone in a Los Angeles house that the actress Sharon Tate and her husband, director Roman Polanski, had rented. Tate, eight months pregnant, was slashed to death, as were several friends and an unlucky passerby who happened to be there. When the police caught and charged Manson and three women who killed at his orders, they all seemed without regrets, unapologetic, and somewhat oblivious to their legal fates. Morris is skeptical about theories that loosely tie Manson to secret CIA and other government programs designed to create a cadre of remorseless and memory-free assassins, using LSD and mind-altering techniques. Morris also rejects the theory posited by Vincent Bugliosi, Manson's prosecutor, who wrote Helter Skelter, a bestselling book claiming that Manson was an instigator trying to ignite a race war. Others say Manson, an aspiring musician with a pretty good singing voice, tried to get record producer Terry Melcher (Doris Day's son) to sign him to a record contract. When Melcher didn't, Manson rather haphazardly sent his crew to kill whoever happened to be at the house he thought Melcher lived in, seemingly unaware that Melcher had moved away. Morris doesn't offer his own explanation but rather allows Manson to speak on camera and demonstrate how detached from reality he was.
Is It Any Good?
So many of Errol Morris' documentaries feel essential, while Chaos: The Manson Murders feels like it doesn't need to exist. Part of this is because so much of it seems like indulgent overthinking. Even the visuals feel forced. Morris papers the screen with double images. For example, a crime scene bedroom is shown in a normal color photograph and then that same bedroom is right next to it, the entire photo drenched in red. There's a headshot of convicted killer Bobby Beausoleil, and the same photo is right next to it in lurid red. Why?
Another weird image: a trayful of plastic eyeballs? Why? Morris is always interesting, yet his genius flags here. Morris ponders the theories of the Manson murders and finds them wanting. That feels like an acceptable position. The real question is if Manson was as persuasive and charismatic as everyone says, so able to brainwash people into doing what he wanted them to do, why couldn't he persuade Terry Melcher to sign him to a record label? Would anyone have been murdered if he'd managed to do that?
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how Manson exploited the vulnerability of disconnected youth, mostly female, giving them a sense of family while lending them out for sex and ordering them to murder. What state of mind do you think someone would have to be in to willingly join Manson's cult?
The question remains whether Manson was mentally powerful enough to cause ordinary people to kill without remorse on command or if the people he attracted already had that capability in them. What do you think?
The CIA had a secret program from the late 1950s to the 1960s that used LSD and psychological methods to brainwash people into becoming willing assassins with no memory of their crimes and no remorse. Do you think the erratic Manson was part of that program, as some assert?
Do you believe there is evidence to support that Manson, who sometimes referred to himself as both "Jesus" and "Satan," was trying to incite a widespread race war in this country? Why, or why not?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : March 7, 2025
- Director : Errol Morris
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Documentary
- Run time : 97 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : March 14, 2025
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