Death Scenes 1: Manson Review on DVD from Anthem Pictures!
The history of real life death videos and movies relies on people’s obsession with glimpsing into the unknown. It’s not every day you get to see a corpse. Let’s face it, there’s always a huge gang of rubbernecks wherever a car crash or a scene of violence has taken place. Seems a pool of blood can bring out the gawping instinct in many folks.
From Mondo movies to the ridiculous, Faces of Death series, there’s always one to be found to suit mild and hardcore tastes. Some, such as the extremely fantastic, The Killing of America (see review of The Killing of America here) are intelligent documentaries which serve the news footage, etcetera as a side-line note of illustrations against the powerful message. Others like Faces of Death are funny, they cannot be taken seriously at all. Traces of Death was an interesting series which balanced itself well in its early films. There’s Faces of Gore, Banned in America, all with sequels.
Then there’s the ultra hardcore, Rare: A Dead Person (see review of Rare: A Dead Person here) movies from Japan. The first was the only one of this bleak genre to make me hold my hands up in the air and say, “Whooaa, enough!” (For those who’ve seen it, or read my review, the last section with the little girl… holy fucking shit!!)
In all of this, poor JFK and Budd Dwyer die over and over again through film after film, and we watch Vietnam, then Jim Jones on a constant loop. Charles Manson tends to pop up as well. So let’s see how different Death Scenes 1: Manson can present itself. Beginning with a nice quip about how the actors received top billing on a tombstone, this sounds like it’s going to be a right barrel of laughs. Our introduction shows an eye-blasting montage of suicides, people dropping from high buildings, car wrecks, and more.
We break to see the legendary, Anton Lavey staring at us as a man explains how in the previous film, our head Church of Satan founder narrated all (incidentally, the guy who supplied the soundtrack to this and a few other similar themed documentaries, Peter H. Gilmore, is a high priest at the C.O.S). So, it transpires that this Death Scenes 1: Manson is actually, Death Scenes II in many territories. Nice. Makes sense. I suppose it’s the same as the Italian zombie flicks having random numbers tacked to the ends of them to ship and sell around the world. Part 1 (the real part 1) covered snapshots and such of the twenties, then early Hollywood stars and crime. “But what of the decades that followed?” asks narrator, Harry Wells, in a very professional TV voice. Well, that’s what this one exists for, to show us.
The idea, according to Harry, is to gain a new understanding of the horrors and the bloodshed. He isn’t fooling anyone though. It’s to chuck together some guts and gore for the gawkers passing the tent. Yep, I’m one of them, Harry, so bring it on!
The first chapter chronicles war footage and a look at Ernst Friedrich, we see the standard Hitler and the powerful machines of war in long scenes of footage from WW2, including a fair few corpses. Most can be found in other documentaries, but complied together here, Nick Bougas tries to make a semblance of reason for showing such atrocities again. Keeping it diverse, we move onto heroin trafficking and then massacres throughout the years, until we reach the 1950s and the fast life teens of America crashing on the roads. A few scare tactics public education films showing wreckage, twisted bodies (monotone finger wagging male voices warn us of being reckless on the roads) we move onwards to the troublesome ‘60s and old pals like John and Robert Kennedy make appearances, along with racial and political unrest on the streets. Many names are shown in footage, and then followed by photographs of their dead bodies. Death Scenes 1 (II) takes the route of education like The Killing of America, giving out facts without resorting to using any mad Doctor of Gore bloke chatting nonsense.
A huge detailed segment is given over to the Vietnam War, footage of shootings, corpses being dragged, burned, the usual. Of course, where would any good documentary be without a whole mob of serial killers, shooters and sex offenders showing up for their share of the stage again? The Boston Strangler, Richard Speck, Charles Whitman, and along comes Mr. Manson with his family.
To nearly complete this film, in its penultimate chapter, we turn to the rich and famous, like Marilyn Monroe, Rudolph Valentino, Bela Lugosi and many more. Like a movie version of Kenneth Anger’s two volume, Hollywood Babylon. However, all this steps aside for Death Scenes has what is perhaps the most complete footage (at that time) seen of Vic Morrow and small child extras shocking demises in the Indian Dunes whilst filming Twilight Zone: the Movie.
Director, Nick Bougas, has made a career from documentaries, including one on Anton Lavey, and The Goddess Bunny, the underground legend who also starred in Eric & Shaye (see review for Eric & Shaye here) which also starred myself as the Website Narrator. Death Scenes 1 (II) tries not to capitalise on sensationalism because it takes the education route, as I said before, and it helps. This is probably one of the best that I’ve seen so far in my life, though the war footage drags on a bit too long, to be honest.
Extras are okay. There’s an interview with Anton Lavey who discusses the idea behind who Satan could be, and his own life and background. He also plays some music on his collection of keyboards. This whole part is too short, less than five minutes! A trio of trailers for the Death Scenes series rounds up what is a fairly satisfying show all in all.
Death Scenes 1: Manson stands tall amongst the mass of standard series in this dark morbid genre. It’s not a stereotypical one, throws one or two eyebrow raising surprises along the way, and shows some careful work and decisions have gone into making it overall. Recommended.
AKA: Death Scenes II
Directed by: Nick Bougas | Written by: Nick Bougas, Tom Lavagnino | Produced by: Nick Bougas, F.B Vincinzo, Charles Miller | Editing by: Gordon Pepper | Music by: Peter H Gilmore | Cast: Harold Wells (narrator) Vic Morrow, Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, JFK, Jeffrey Dahmer, Budd Dwyer, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Martin Luther King, John Lennon, Bela Lugosi, Malcolm X, Jayne Mansfield, Lee Harvey Oswald, Richard Speck, Albert DeSalvo, Sharon Tate, Elvis Presley, Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Jack Ruby, Rudolph Valentino, Sirhan Sirhan, Charles Watson | Year: 1992 | Country: USA | Language: English | Color: Color/B&W | Runtime: 1h 22min
Distributor: Anthem Pictures
DVD SPECS:
Aspect Ratio: 4:3, 1.33:1
Region: NTSC R1
Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:
– Interview with Anton Lavey
– Trailers
