Wow, I love Hilary Duff, but this felt almost insulting.

The Haunting of Sharon Tate was born from an interview Sharon Tate did before her death saying she was having nightmares / premonitions about being murdered. She moves into a home and is staying there with her friend Jay, Roman Polanski’s friend Wojciech, and his girlfriend Abigail. They’re slowly introduced to the Manson family by two of the cult followers passing Sharon and Abigail on a hike, Charles being seen around the property and Sharon finding some of his music records and listening to the songs.

I’m going to skip most of this movie because it doesn’t really matter and jump to the night of the murders. The way this movie plays out the murders is that the group actually survive, they are able to overpower the Manson family and escape. But once they believe they have escaped the group are presented with a huge police presence on the house and their bodies lined up on the floor outside under white blankets. It is revealed the group did not survive after all and are in fact ghosts. The ghost of Sharon walks to the blankets and picks up the body of her child, this is where the group walk away.

Now this, this is where I found the movie to be insensitive. That night must’ve been horrific for the group and the family and friend’s pain and torture they must’ve gone through afterwards must be unlike anything else. So to then tell the story as if they survived is just wrong. To me, it reads as if the group didn’t do enough to try and save themselves and that there was a possibility that they could’ve lived.

What the Manson family did was and still is horrific and I think, only happening 50 years ago, is still quite a fresh horror story especially for how high profile it is. Not only was the story line quite hard to watch the actors chosen to play the group was…interesting to say the least.

I felt Hilary Duff did not portray Sharon very well, and to cast Jonathan Bennett as Jay it felt like a Disney reunion. The use of jump scares almost dulled the horror factor of the actual murders and overall I did not enjoy it one bit.

This is one movie I am definitely not recommending. What do you think?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding