‘The Resurrection of Charles Manson’ VOD Review
Stars: Katherine Hughes, Josh Plasse, Frank Grillo, Jaime King, Sarah Dumont, Sydelle Noel, Will Peltz | Written by Brev Moss, Josh Plasse | Directed by Remy Grillo
If we’re being honest, there’s probably been enough TV shows, films and documentaries about Charles Manson to last my lifetime and many others. Even Quentin Tarantino got in on the act a few years ago with Once Upon Time In Hollywood but that doesn’t seem to be stopping directors continuing to make them. They are obviously still popular and people think they can add something new and interesting to everything else that has been told. The Resurrection of Charles Manson is the latest movie to try and do that.
This one is a little different because it doesn’t really feature Charles Manson himself, so that title is a little misleading. In it, a couple are putting in an audition tape for a film about Charles Manson. They are staying in an Airbnb in the middle of nowhere and strange things start to occur that are eerily similar to the Manson murders. The main problem I had with the story is it kind of pans out the same way, or a similar way to those murders so it almost feels needless to do it without Manson. A copycat scenario doesn’t really change things.
On the plus side, The movie looks great. The cinematography, especially for any outside shots, looks really nice. The director chose a really good location and uses it to good effect. The director is Remy Grillo – son of Frank Grillo – and he clearly has a good eye for film-making. He’s definitely someone to keep an eye because there are plenty of positives from this début. Unfortunately, he can’t stop this film feeling like many others that have come before it. It has a style similar to many of the Manson movies and it feels like you’ve seen it all before.
As well as Frank Grillo – who is mostly great, when isn’t he?! – the director also gets Jaime King involved, but both of them only have small roles and you wish they’d be in it for longer. Especially Grillo. Katherine Hughes and Josh Plasse are both really enjoyable in what are the lead roles. They work well on screen together and despite their relative inexperience on film, show confidence and charisma. I hope to see them in bigger stuff.
The director plays around with some horror, even if this is not an outright genre movie. He seems to almost experiment with jump scares and building tension when it doesn’t feel completely appropriate for this movie. That’s not to say it doesn’t work though. This is a movie about a group that are looking to kill people, so a couple of kind of clichéd genre moments isn’t really a problem. Unfortunately, I would say due to budget restrictions, much of the violence is off-camera.
I’m sure there are viewers that will watch anything true crime-related and especially connected to Manson, and they might be the target audience here. For many others, like myself, this doesn’t produce anything particularly original but its short run time at least keeps things moving along quickly.
The Resurrection of Charles Manson will be available in the UK on iTunes, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Virgin & Sky Store from 29th May 2023.
