Produced by Wade Williams (presumably well before his famous forays into film collecting) and directed by Frank Howard, this ultra-low budget exploitation docudrama was originally released in 1971, on the heels of the Manson trial, under its initial title The Other Side of Madness. After the success of the Helter Skelter TV movie with Steve Railsback in 1976, the film was retitled and re-released as The Helter Skelter Murders to capitalize on the revived fascination for all things Manson. Mixed with seemingly unrelated rock concert footage staged for the film and the flashback re-enactments of the gruesome crime on Cielo Drive, the movie builds a crude, unsettling power of its own in its unvarnished, amateurish approach.
“…a perverse little work, both beautifully filmed and constructed. Shot in stark black-and-white… the pic almost attains the type of unflinching realism found in gems like The Honeymoon Killers and In Cold Blood. And it’s all the more chilling due to its unhysterical, matter-of-fact tone and minimalistic use of soundtrack music… we’re introduced to Charlie’s ‘Family’ from the inside out, using minimal dialogue… while allowing the images to tell the story of alienated, bored youth finding solace at Charlie’s ranch (while ingesting enough acid to turn their brainpans into tapioca pudding).” – Steven Puchalski, Shock Cinema
Marc Edward Heuck discusses The Helter Skelter Murders on the New Beverly blog.
