First off, if you're looking for realism, see Helter Skelter (1976) instead. This movie is not, nor does it attempt to be an accurate retelling of events.The movie focuses on the Manson girl Leslie, and the young juror Perry. Perry is about to get married to a Christian girl, but is having doubts about Vietnam, his faith and the values his father has taught him. Causing him to question if Leslie should receive the death penalty, and if he himself would have behaved differently, had he been in Leslie's position.The movie unfortunately is so badly made, that while it tries to be social commentary it ends up as being a parody. With a parody of a cult, a parody of a murder, a parody of an all American family, a parody of a Christian girlfriend, and a parody of a trial. The only 'real' people in the movie seemed to be Leslie and Perry. But given the subject matter, the meaningless slaughter of innocent people, the joke is either not there or it isn't funny.I would call this movie a guilty pleasure. Kristen Hager and Gregory Smith both deliver a good performance, but they cannot carry the movie all by them self.

Maybe it's my fault for not reading the synopsis before renting, but the title and cover image lead me to believe this was going be a movie primarily about Charles Manson maybe in the vein of "Summer of Sam". What I was hoping to see was maybe a historical account of the events that took place surrounding the "Manson Family", instead it was yet one more movie seemingly priding itself on a sarcastic stab at morals & ideals of a "Christian Nation" when confronted with the horrors of war. The main character is a young boy who was brought up in a Christian home and pretends, & maybe tricks himself into thinking he is a Christian because its what his father expects of him and also what he must be to be with his girlfriend. The film is much more artistic, musical and lighthearted than you would expect for this story. I do not enjoy movies that portray such evil people in a less than negative light and so overall I did not enjoy this movie.

The original title and the dedication at the end of the film calls this Leslie My Name is Evil. Billed as a Horror/expose on Manson the film is actually about a juror who falls in love with one of the girls on trial with Manson...and its a comedy of the blackest sort...actually a pointed satire.Its a very artificial very deliberate film that I admire more than I like. Yea its obvious at times, but its occasionally still intriguing, the final bit where we drift from Manson and his trial to juror at his job making napalm which we then see dropped on people is nicely telling.More an interesting misfire than any sort of hit- I still have to give the film points because I'm curious about how it will play knowing what it is that I'll probably try it again.Its a sort of WTF sort of film.-- Actually I've seen the film a second time since I wrote that and I find it better the second time, when the expectations for the film weren't colored by an out of place title

This movie started out okay. Until it cuts to a scene with the girls sitting out by a fire and talking about how they are from divorced families and looking for a purpose in life. It was so corny and stupid, I had to laugh. The rest of the movie has that feel. I think the guy who played Manson could have pulled it off well, had he gotten a good script to work with. I was waiting to see how they would portray him and knew it would be amusing. Just like how the media portrayed him. It was pretty pathetic how he was presented, like some demonic possessed god-man. In the first scene, he is up on a cross, like that is his normal thing to do. The script for this movie is awful, what were they thinking. It's almost directed like a play, not like a movie. A lot of this is also do to the terrible acting by the girls, some of it is okay, but when they speak, it can get very bad. I liked the real vintage clips that were inserted. A lot of the music was good, I heard The Black Angels, 13th Floor Elevators, good stuff. They portrayed the racist, pro-war conservatives pretty well. I think the movie had some pretty well done scenes. Just failed in executing the characters better, leaving you with a flawed feeling while watching it.