Who thought this was a great idea? What man thought to turn the very real murder of Sharon Tate into a cheap horror movie? Sometimes, I see trailers and just let out a sigh, close my eyes for a bit, and pretend like I can escape from the pain this world wants to inflict about me.
This Daniel Farrands creation doesn’t look like it is going to honor Sharon Tate (played here by Hilary Duff) in any way, shape, or form. In fact, it looks like it is just glorifying and exploiting the horrific nature of her murder, which was my exact fear with the forthcoming star-studded Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Sharon Tate’s murder isn’t for your horror kicks. She was brutally murdered, as was her unborn child, by the hands of Charles Manson’s crew.
So … The Haunting of Sharon Tate is definitely in poor taste.
Let me, for a second, give you a better alternative idea: if this must be made, make this movie without using Sharon Tate’s name. This is a real-life horror story that many lived through. They were there when the reports came out about Tate and what happened in her home. They remember “Helter Skelter” being written in her blood on the walls. It would be easy enough to tell a story about a tragic actress and a murderous cult without using the names and likenesses of real people, some of whom are still alive.
We don’t need some cheesy horror movie to bring the Manson murders to life in 2019. Once Upon in Hollywood is reportedly focused what it was like in Hollywood during the era of Sharon Tate—giving her life and work an agency outside of her gruesome murder. This movie? That seemingly focuses on her foreboding “haunting” before she was killed? No thank you.
From this trailer, it seems like Sharon is trapped in some Groundhog Day-like dream where she keeps dreaming of her own death and if that’s the case, again, no thank you. There are just some things you don’t turn into a cheap shot at money. You may be able to slap Sharon Tate’s name on something and people are going to want to watch it, but that doesn’t mean this ever should have been greenlit.
Giving the victims their time and a voice should not include making their story into an overt torture porn horror movie. If this movie ends up being good (which I honestly doubt from this trailer), then I will apologize. Right now, however, The Haunting of Sharon Tate seems to focus solely on the few days before her murder, complete with spooky circumstances, and then will show her gory death in a very horror film-like manner.
Let The Haunting of Sharon Tate teach us a lesson: victims are not here for your thrills. We like consuming media like The Ted Bundy Tapes or even Once Upon a Time in Hollywood because of the information about real-life events they’re providing for us—context matters.
The Haunting of Sharon Tate doesn’t seem as if it isn’t giving us any new information. Instead, it appears to be an attempt to monetize a gruesome murder in order to give audiences “a good scare,” and how about we don’t do that now or ever?
(image: Saban Film/screengrab from YouTube)
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