Saban Films
The Haunting of Sharon Tate is based on one of Hollywood’s most famous murder cases in 1969. Sharon Tate was an American model and actress who was married to director Roman Polanski. After returning home from dinner with her friends, she was murdered by the Manson family, a cult that followed the directions of the criminal, Charles Manson. At the time of her death, she was eight months pregnant with her first child with Polanski. The film follows Tate as she is plagued by terrifying premonitions as she sees her worst nightmare come to life.
I didn’t know much about Sharon Tate going into this year. I have heard her name before, but never knew of her death and life. When I saw the trailer for Quentin Taratino’s new film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, I was curious who Margot Robbie was playing. I discovered that she would be playing Sharon Tate and then I researched her a little.
Hilary Duff stars as Sharon Tate, who died at the age of 26, while her husband was away in London. Duff’s performance all around was very wooden and felt generic. When she was experiencing premonitions about her and her friend’s death, she never showcased emotions that felt realistic. Everything about Hilary Duff’s performance felt like acting and nothing more than that. Her accent comes and goes throughout the film.
The other actors and actresses involved in the film were stiff as well. Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, and Abigail Folger were also murdered by the Manson family on the same night as Sharon Tate. The actors and actresses portraying them never added much to the story.
Many articles described Sharon Tate as someone who had visions about people dying before her own death, and the film tries to capitalize on that but it ultimately feels forced. Many times, throughout the film, Tate wonders if she can alter her fate and if she is living in a different universe where she could survive that horrible night. It was a bit off-putting how they handled those scenes because it felt like Daniel Farrands was exploiting Sharon Tate’s visions so he could create a horror film with violent scenes and supernatural moments as well.
The film attempts to explain who Sharon Tate was and some parts of her past with her husband and family. There were only a few instances were Tate was talking about herself to her friends in the movie. If I didn’t research Sharon Tate before this movie, I wouldn’t have known anything about her after this movie.
The Haunting of Sharon Tate takes real-life events and turns them into a disrespectful boogeyman home invasion film. It is okay to take real-life crimes and dramatize them, but filmmaker Daniel Farrands doesn’t care about the scenes he is recreating. Debra Tate, Sharon Tate’s younger sister, has blasted this film for being ‘exploitive and socially irresponsible’ and I can totally agree.
The Haunting of Sharon Tate was overall a terrible film. From the acting to the generic home invasion moments, I never was impacted from the film. Farrands turns a tragic story into an average home invasion film that feels disrespectful to the victims of this crime. I am sure Margot Robbie will give a better performance as Sharon Tate in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood coming out in July.
The Haunting of Sharon Tate has a run time of 1 hour 34 minutes and is rated R for strong bloody violence, terror, and some language.
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“Not a single critic has mentioned anything about the characters in this movie being ghosts so I guess you’re smarter than all of them.”
This statement proves what I think of most critics — e.g., they are mostly frustrated filmmakers and morons. It’s obvious by the end (sorry for spoilers) of this film that the characters were all ghosts.
You obviously didn’t bother watching this film before “reviewing” it. None of the events depicted are supposed to be real, or even based on the crime as it actually happened. Sharon Tate and the other characters are all GHOSTS. They are working out for themselves, karmically, the violent way their lives ended. So to call this a typical “home invasion” movie totally misses the point. We watched it and found it to be suspenseful, engaging and ultimately incredibly moving and sad. This is the rare movie that takes a tragic story based on reality and makes the victims the empowered victors. You really need to pay attention next time you review a film that clearly went right over your head. I give YOU two thumbs down.
Are you sure you watched the movie? You seem to be the ONLY person who believes you’re watching a movie about ghosts. The movie is about premonitions of death. Not a single critic has mentioned anything about the characters in this movie being ghosts so I guess you’re smarter than all of them. This review is pretty much in line with all the others that the movie is cheap, exploitative garbage.
I actually have read a lot of positive reviews about the film and several interviews with the director and cast. So yeah, I think they know more about the film than you do. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand what it’s about when Sharon sees herself and all her friends dead at the end. It’s pretty evident that the story is set in purgatory so it’s not intending to be a true crime reenactment of the actual events. The reason the kid lives in the trailer and not the real guy who lived in it is because he is dead. There’s no one else alive in the world except for these characters, because they are DEAD. My wife and I got it the first time we watched it. I guess it goes to show “most poeple” (like you) are mindless cattle. This was a scary, well made horror film and I already pre-ordered it on Blu-ray. Don’t listen to haters. This one is worth a look.
Okay guys. We encourage comments and conversations here … as long as you keep it civil. If you’re all going to start hurling insults at each other or the author because you don’t all agree on something, we will shut this down. Not everyone is going to see things or enjoy things the same way that you do. (And for the record, the majority of the critical reaction to the movie has been dismal, and not a single review that I read discusses the ghost aspect of it). Let’s try to be kind to each other.
Thanks for checking out my review! I am glad you found it to be suspenseful and engaging. I did watch the whole movie for this review. There can be different interpretations of this movie. I can see why you think the characters are all ghosts at the end, but I viewed it in a different way. That’s the fun in film, they make people think differently than others!