Married to filmmaker Roman Polanski, actress Sharon Tate is a rising star who's about to have her first baby. Plagued by terrifying premonitions, Tate sees her worst nightmares come true when she encounters members of the Manson Family cult.
This is the second movie to come out this year to do with the Charles Manson cult murders that occurred 50 years ago (the other being Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time...in Hollywood), and yet it is this film that feels abhorrently disrespectful. The film is directed by Daniel Farrands, who has done documentaries around the Scream, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th franchises, but it's this latest trilogy of dramatic adaptations that come across as in poor taste and exploitative (the previous one the Amityville murders, and the next on the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson).
This is a real event that occurred to real people, so when the exact details are unknown, the idea of using their names and likenesses and forming a fictional scenario of what could have happened is disrespectful. Creating a story influenced by the murders is one thing, but when you are putting forth a representation of a real person you need to be tasteful, and splicing real footage of the actual person and murders into your film is not how you go about it.
But I digress. As far as the actual technical components of the film go, there is some really nice cinematography on display. Beyond that, this film is an absolute clusterf*ck. The majority of people that would watch this film, know who Sharon Tate is, and know what happened. The film itself tells you what happened, then shows you the results of a graphic reenactment of the final scene as you Googe Streetview around this horrific murder scene before jumping back in time by three days. Less than five minutes into the film and we've been told twice what happened.
The remainder of the film is composed of Hillary Duff (playing Sharon Tate) wandering around the house waxing lyrical about fate and having nightmare premonitions that she is going to be murdered. Literally, 90% of the film is watching the murders happen before Duff wakes up screaming and crying in bed. This occurs on so many occasions that it loses all impact, and you no longer care about the characters by the end. The entire premise is based on one interview Sharon Tate had done a year before the murders claiming she had dreamt her friend Jay Sebring was killed, and Farrands has used it to turn the tragedy into the latest addition to the Final Destination franchise.
Duff does her best, but with an inconsistent accent, uninspired dialogue, and a general look that seems like she's forgotten she is no longer in a Disney show, she is, no doubt, going to be blamed for the failure of this film, thanks to being the one recognisable face in the cast. All of the dialogue is horrendous, however, with every character spouting off every type of death-forecasting drivel that you can think of, and spend every moment--that they aren't being slaughtered in graphically accurate premonitions--putting forth the notion that they were aware that they were at risk for several days ahead of time and did nothing at all... It prevents the audience from caring about any of the people on screen.
The exterior shots had such poor audio that it needed to be dubbed over in post, and it was done poorly. Almost as poorly as the choppy editing, which felt the need to change many of the shots into slow motion to pad out the runtime (because it certainly didn't add any dramatic effect to the events of the story at all). CGI is also very low budget, with any instance of moving blood standing out so vividly that it would fit in with the Spartacus TV series or 300 franchise.
The final act is simply breathtaking. Never before have I seen an act that made me feel so uncomfortable watching it. It had nothing to do with the level of violence. It was simply the inaccuracy of it all that leaves you feeling uneasy. The Haunting of Sharon Tate uses premonition as a means of allowing a set of murders to be played out multiple times for shock factor while using figures in the background and poorly synced loud noises to startle the audience into thinking they are watching a horror.
The ethical position of this film is more discussion-worthy than the film itself. Let down by a perverse direction and low-quality production values in every aspect (apart from the general cinematography which was done well), The Haunting of Sharon Tate is a travesty.