The Haunting of Sharon Tate will leave you with more questions than answers. Not the ending you'd expect, the film lacks substance in the basic sense but throws a curve ball during it's finale.
“Based on one of Hollywood’s most chilling murder cases, this spellbinding thriller follows 26-year-old actress Sharon Tate (Hillary Duff), a rising star about to have her first baby with her husband, director Roman Polanski. Plagued by terrifying premonitions, Sharon sees her worst nightmares come to life with the appearance of Charles Manson and his deadly cult.”
The Haunting of Sharon Tate is entirely based on an interview she had a year prior to her death in which she had a nightmare of her and friend Jay Sebring being killed. This premonition she has drives the entire plot of the film, as she continues to have nightmares of people entering her home and killing her and her unborn child. Released around the time of the 50th anniversary of the brutal murders, the film has been denounced by Sharon Tate’s sister as being highly exploitative, an opinion widely accepted by critics of the film.
There has been a strange fascination with serial killers as of late, with inside looks and specials captivating binge-watchers attention with attractive actors portraying these horrific murderers. As much as I’m fascinated myself with the aspects of some of these crimes, there is a fine line between wanting to understand the reasoning behind something to prevent it from happening again, and just trying to utilize it for entertainment purposes. As much as I’d like to believe The Haunting of Sharon Tate is the former, all signs are pointing to the latter.
As it is one of the most infamous Hollywood murder cases connected to Charles Manson, a name synonymous with death and murder, the fate of these people in the film should be expected. However, there is an aspect to this film that’s quite different, so if you are interested in seeing this film I wouldn’t read on as it will contain spoilers to the ending. That being said, instead of succumbing to the fate of Charles Manson and his cult, the film takes another direction: Sharon Tate sees the murders and her and everyone in the house is able to fight back and kill their attackers. It’s a weird sort of revisionist history/alternate reality type of story that is hard to put your finger on, and also quite hard to digest. Reading about this film before seeing it, I immediately thought of Inglorious Basterds and how Quinten Tarantino had Hitler and his closest advisors suffer a horrendous fate, obviously much different than what truly happened. In a sense, I found myself enjoying the ending a bit, glad to see Sharon Tate and the others fighting back and getting a chance to save themselves in the midst of such evil atrocities. The ending is also up to interpretation, as Hillary Duff looks down upon the body of herself, she repeats the line that’s shoved down our throats during the entire film: “Do you think we’re a slave to our own destiny?”. That’s the theme of the film, but it uses these murders to tell the story, and although there is a visual sense of justice, that’s just not what happened and runs the risk of angering the ones involved.
Despite the controversial nature of the plot and the ending of the film, looking at it apart from all of that I wasn’t impressed by anything about the production at all. Pacing is mind-numbingly slow, acting is sub-par, with Hillary Duff having moments of really good acting and then moments of terrible acting. In defense of Duff, it’s more of the writing being abysmal than her delivery. Up until the very end of the film, it really is hard to maintain your attention because of the pacing.
Is this exploitative? It’s really not my place to say. I did think it had an interesting ending, one that I do think the victims would appreciate, but does that take away from the tragic true life events that have affected countless people? Each viewer will have to make that distinction for themselves if they want to take on the arduous task of viewing this film in its entirety, a feat in itself.
Video
The Haunting of Sharon Tate is presented in 1080p High Definition Widescreen 2.40:1. The transfer shows no signs of defects of any kind, presented in a classic way and given a touch of age to the film, with grain and subtle lighting effects making colors look a bit muted. It gives the film an interesting look to say the least, adding to the experience.
Audio
The audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. The track sounds fine, with some really impressive moments that overtake the surrounds. Most of the sound will come in the form of dialogue, but there are some really cheap sound-related jump scares and tension building moments that are although impressive in technical scope, are eye-rolling in the horror genre.
Special Features
A couple of extras on the disc are available for those interested in learning more about the unique choices taken by the filmmakers. These include:
- Audio Commentary with Writer-Director Daniel Farrands
- Premonitions: The Haunting of Sharon Tate
The Haunting of Sharon Tate, for me, was a perplexing journey of loathing and intrigue. It’s not a biopic, it’s not quite a horror film, but a weird blending of the exploration of fate, choices, and how these things take us on a journey to an unescapable conclusion. Or do they?