The Resurrection of Charles Manson
In prison for over forty-five years from his conviction in March 1971 until his death in 2017, the “insane influence” of cult leader Charles Manson apparently continues after his death, aspiring actress Tianna Williams admitting to her boyfriend Mitch Combs that the script she is reading which sympathetically attempts to understand the belief Manson’s followers had in him as a prophet is “silly” but saying that the part calls to her.
The unspoken understanding that it is possibly because of the death of her former fiancé Ben, Tianna is determined that her self-taped audition should be perfect, and finding an available and affordable house in the Yucca Valley to rent for the weekend she and Mitch head out, she dressing the part and digging a grave for the camera, but encountering a strange sun-crazed man in the desert Mitch begins to have misgivings about their isolation.
Presented as a mystery thriller where the disjointed jigsaw of characters and scenes should come together to form a picture disturbing and surprising, The Resurrection of Charles Manson is directed by Remy Grillo from a script by Brev Moss and There’s No Such Thing as Vampires’ Joss Plasse, also playing Mitch alongside Me and Earl and the Dying Girl‘s Katherine Hughes as Tianna with Stoker Hills‘ Vince Hill-Bedford seen in flashback as Ben.
The premise apparently simple and the cast all good in their parts, particularly Hughes as the conflicted Tianna trying to negotiate impossible decisions, the problem is that those pieces do not fit together as well as they might, the early individual scenes almost playing like audition pieces themselves rather than part of a coherent whole, not helped by the lack of distinction between past and present and the resemblance between Mitch and Ben, Tianna quite definitely having a preference in her type.
Running to less than an hour and twenty minutes, The Resurrection of Charles Manson cannot be accused of being overlong but there is a question of whether any material which might have smoothed over the clunkier developments of the plot or expanded the motivations might have been trimmed out, the timely intervention by Mitch’s police officer sister overly convenient rather than organic and the devotion to Manson presumed rather than questioned.
The neo-Manson cult planning a resurrection which is more than symbolic led by the enigmatic Robert, The Purge: Anarchy’s Frank Grillo is a presence who commands attention even without a sharp suit which matches his orange camper van but the attempted switch from thriller to horror lacks the groundwork to support it, the beautifully shot desert expanses and backlit clouds which fill the wide sky never quite enough to distract from the frustrating dysfunctional family drama playing out below.
The Resurrection of Charles Manson is available on digital download now
