Critters: A New Binge (2019) Review
The Haunting of Sharon Tate (2019) Review
Pregnant with director Roman Polanski’s child and awaiting his return from Europe, 26-year-old Hollywood actress Sharon Tate becomes plagued by visions of her imminent death.
Published on May 19, 2019
Release date
April 5, 2019
Distributor
VOD
The Haunting of Sharon Tate
Hilary Duff is the leggy blonde fashionista who’s fondly remembered for her role as 'Lizzie McGuire', a relatively successful show from the 90s by the same name created by the powerhouse that is the Disney Channel & ABC Kids. However, unlike her peers Duff has since struggled to transcend from kids' TV into more mainstream adult roles and her recent decision to accept the role of Sharon Tate in 'The Haunting of Sharon Tate' has done her no favours and only accelerated her Hollywood expiration date thanks to an inept performance and a tremendously bad attempt at a mid-Atlantic accent.
'The Haunting of Sharon Tate' is based on the true story of the random massacre of the title character in August 1969 orchestrated by Charles Manson and his cult family. The film struggles to convey the crime with any level of dignity, in part due to the fact that it tries to cater to a very niche underground community who prefer their entertainment to be exploitative with bargain-basement production values. 'The Haunting of Sharon Tate', written and directed by Daniel Farrands, does at times exceed expectations, thanks to Farrands’ engaging direction, but the film’s concept is stretched to breaking point by its repetitive sadistic visions, complete with unnecessary jump scares that fail to have any impact whatsoever.
"Unlike her peers Duff has since struggled to transcend from kids' TV into more mainstream adult roles and her recent decision to accept the role of Sharon Tate in 'The Haunting of Sharon Tate' has done her no favours!"
Farrands’ film was allegedly inspired by tabloid claims that Tate had a premonition that she would die a full year before the Manson family invasion. The starlet’s crude visions of her ill-fated future are vivid with no basic sense of courtesy, and for the main part feel excessive and only there for converting the concept into a feature-length film. Farrands’ screenplay also suffers from many of the same problems that plagued his earlier work, specifically 'The Amityville Murders', which includes weakly-written characters, a cumbersome three-act structure and derivative and predictable plot twists that don’t add much to the overall film.
For a movie that was inspired by true events 'The Haunting of Sharon Tate' fails to weave anything worthwhile into its running time.