The new Charlie Says trailer highlights Matt Smith going from doctor to Manson. Best known as the eleventh incarnation of Doctor Who in the decades old series of the same name, Matt Smith stars as Charles Manson in the new horror-thriller, Charlie Says. The story focuses on the dysfunctional relationship that convicted criminal cult leader Manson cultivated with his female followers prior to, and leading up to the notorious Manson family murders of 1969.
The brutal murders perpetuated by the Manson family punctuated the end of the 1960s and its hippie ethos of free love, drugs and peace. After forming his “family” with a dedicated pack of idealistic men and women, Manson was able to convince his followers to commit a series of murders. Of these murders, possibly the most infamous was the home invasion and murder of five innocent people – one of which being Sharon Tate, wife of filmmaker Roman Polanski, who was eight months pregnant at the time. Manson and several of his followers were sentenced to lengthy prison terms as a result, with Manson dying in prison in 2017.
The first trailer for the new film Charlie Says has arrived courtesy of Fandango, showcasing the relationship that Manson fostered with his female followers. Today Manson is all too well known as the violent, manipulative abuser and criminal that he was, but as the new trailer shows, Manson’s key focus appears to have been the numerous women he deceived and brainwashed. Check out the trailer below:
As of this writing, Charlie Says will mark the third Charles Manson/Manson family film due for release in 2019, with the other two being horror slasher The Haunting of Sharon Tate and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood - though Tarantino has previously insisted his film isn’t about Manson, but rather the year 1969, which was dominated by the horrific news of the Tate murders. With this sort of output in a single year, one could be forgiven for assuming that the death of Manson has kicked off a compulsion in Hollywood to further tell this twisted, awful tale. If that’s the case, then Charlie Says director Mary Harron, who was responsible for the 2000 cult-hit American Psycho, looks as though she’s set to try a different perspective - that of the women who committed themselves to Manson.
The stories of Manson and the Tate murders have maintained their notoriety for decades, due to the severity of the senseless crimes. This upcoming August will mark the 50th anniversary of the killings, and with that comes the troubling realization that rather than fade with the passage of time, the name Charles Manson seems more common than ever. It’s a difficult task to tell the tale of who Manson was and what he believed without risking the glorification of the Manson family and their ruthlessness. Hopefully Charlie Says will offer something more than a thinly veiled slasher film looking to profit off a tragedy.
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Source: Fandango
