Shock, exploitation, and horror have been comfortable bedfellows for decades. “Cannibal Holocaust,” “I Spit on Your Grave,” and “The Last House on the Left;” there are thousands of examples. While “elevated horror” (whatever that means) is getting its due right now, don’t worry, the horror-thriller “The Haunting of Sharon Tate” is still holding a candle for vile, misguided exploitation. And while the gore and sexuality are far more subdued than the average grizzly B-horror, ‘Sharon Tate’ will still likely leave you feeling disgusted and in need of a long shower.
As the title suggests “The Haunting of Sharon Tate” follows the true story of the young actress Sharon Tate (Hilary Duff), girlfriend of filmmaker Roman Polanski, who was brutally murdered at 26 while 9 months pregnant by Charles Manson and his “family” in August 1969.
Distastefully released on the 50th anniversary year of Tate’s murder (to capitalize in on the conversation which includes the new Tarantino film later this year) a reserved filmmaker might take the tragic subject matter and craft a well-thought-out thriller based on the psychology of Tate at the time and how the murders affected the nation. Director Daniel Farrands, however, is not that type of filmmaker.
In his film, the horrific crimes that befell the pregnant actress and her friends are not only shown in graphic detail, but are shown multiple times, from various points of view, with nary a blood pool or knife wound left to the imagination. What Farrands has crafted, with ‘Sharon Tate,’ is a repugnant exploitation film of the lowest order. Tate’s senseless murder is not memorialized with any dignity or class. Instead, her murder is used for shock value and senseless scares, as if it’s as fictional as teens getting offed in a terrible “Friday the 13th” sequel. Except what happened to Tate and her friends is not fake. It very much happened. And the filmmaker makes sure audiences know this from the beginning.
Utilizing real crime scene footage, photos, as well as real recorded interviews with the perpetrators, Farrands ensures the audience understands that when a young, pregnant woman was brutally murdered it was real, and stressing this fact makes the picture queasily objectionable.
The horrible incident is depicted on several occasions and the opening scene is a POV, one-take, handheld shot of the entire aftermath of the crime, with bloody, freshly-stabbed bodies thrown about. From there, the future victims are introduced, which only makes an already-questionable film far worse.
Haphazardly edited and disjointed— a bold “hold my beer” salvo to the incoherence in that infamous “Bohemian Rhapsody” scene— and poorly acted (featuring terrible Italian horror-esque dubbing for some reason), it’s quite clear the director is quite pleased with himself despite how poor the film is.
Setting up the fact that the actress predicted her own murder a year before it happened (which may or may not be true), the second depiction of Tate’s murder is even more grizzly, with CGI-enhanced blood spatter and grotesque stabbing sounds everywhere. But hey, it’s revealed, after the fact, to be another precognitive dream, so hands are cleaned of culpability, right?
The final act, again believing itself to be so clever, turns the pregnant actress, aware of the killer’s plan, into a typical “final girl,” ready to strike back against her would-be murderers. It’ll make you want to throw out your TV out the window in anger.
The exploitation cinema subgenre has given the world some true gems— Tobe Hooper‘s traumatic “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” for example, but there’s a real fine line of judgment that Farrands does not possess. 45 years ago, Hooper riffed on the Ed Gein murders, but was wise enough to say away from real-life victims.
“The Haunting of Sharon Tate” has no such sense of taste and style, instead relying on the shock value of a scarring, reprehensible crime, repeated ad nauseam in blunt, explicit fashion, to “scare” an audience. Farrands proves he’s no Tobe Hooper, but he might not even be Tom Six. What he ultimately crafts is a terribly foolish movie featuring wooden acting, a disgusting premise, and none of the redeeming qualities that even the most repellant exploitation schlock film might offer. Stay away at all costs. [F]
