I have read Vincent Bugliosi's book,"Helter Skelter," about the Sharon Tate-La Bianca murders in August 1969. The narrator and producer, Scott Michaels, certainly knows the macabre part of the story especially with it's locations. The documentary is an independent one more focused on the locations of the murders, the victims' and murderers residences. Charles Manson was the mastermind behind the crimes. There is no question about that. The narrator brings viewers to Los Angeles, California and areas of interest to the crimes. We don't' hear from anybody else mostly except Ron Hale who bought Jay Sebring's house. There are gruesome photographs of the crime scene. The film tells the story about how the Manson family went from crazed, drug hippies to cold-blooded murderers. There are connections between Manson and Hollywood music industry. Los Angeles seemed less built up back in the late sixties. Many of the homes are still there except the Tate-Polanski house on Cielo drive. This documentary showed several locations.

If you're expecting a movie, I wouldn't say you found the right film. This is more of a documentary. I liked this a lot because I learned some stuff that I didn't know. Of course, I'd like to verify the things I've learned just in case they're not 100% spot on. But it is entertaining and educational nonetheless. The Manson Murders have fascinated me ever since I started to learn, and the book shown inside the film, titled 'Helter Skelter', is a book I am looking forward to purchasing. I give this film a 7 because I learned from it and absorbed information from it, but I couldn't give it a 9 or a 10 because at times it felt a little too slow pace. But that's just me. I would have liked to see more Charles Manson, but others, like yourselves, might not want to. If not, this is your film. Again, pretty good film. Not the best, not the worst. Good.Educational.

Hollywood death tour guide Scott Michaels takes us on a lively, thorough, and illuminating exploration of the infamous Tate/LoBianco murders committed by the notorious Manson Family. Among the stuff covered in this incredibly comprehensive documentary are autopsy reports (the inevitable crime photos of the victims are quite graphic and upsetting), background information on all the victims, visits to primary locations (the journey to the desolate godforsaken desert town of Battarat where the Barker Ranch is located proves to be genuinely eerie; ditto a late night walk down the street the killers went down on the anniversary of the murders), Manson's abortive recording career (we get to heart Manson sing the creepy ditty "Cease to Exist"), and connections to everything from the movie "Grease" to the folk-rock group The Mamas and the Pappas. Moreover, Michaels goes out of his way to debunk certain popular urban legends about Manson (for example, Manson couldn't have auditioned for The Monkees because he was in jail at the time). Michaels makes for an extremely enthusiastic, passionate, and engaging host. Recommended viewing for true crime buffs.

The Six Degrees of Helter Skelter (2009) *** (out of 4) Scott Michaels, the creator of the website Findadeath, hosts this documentary, which goes through the details of the crimes committed by Charles Manson but the highlight is the tour of the actual locations. This is an extremely uneven documentary and there's no doubt that it was cheaply produced but I think there are enough interesting things here to make it worth viewing especially for those interested in the crimes. I'm sure most people going to this film are already going to know the details of the crime so they might not enjoy sitting through them again. A large portion of the running time talks about the careers of the victims, what they were doing the day of the crimes and of course we also look at the killers and how the crimes were committed. A current coroner in Los Angeles sits down over the death reports and gives us the details of all the wounds and which ones might have been the fatal blows. The stuff dealing with Sharon Tate is always hard to listen to simply because she was pregnant and there are some pretty graphic discussions about her baby and how it could have been saved had medical attention gotten to the body faster. A warning should also be given because actual crime scene photos are shown and obviously they are quite graphic. One of the most interesting things this documentary does is has Michaels pretty much give us a tour of the events. Coming forty-years after the actual events, obviously a lot of things have changed so nothing looks exactly the same. It's still interesting to see these places and how they stand today. the documentary even shows some apartments that Tate lived in when she arrived in Hollywood as well as other locations that she and Polanski stayed at.