TEHRAN – The Iranian Artists Forum (IAF) Cinematheque will screen American filmmaker Errol Morris’ 2025 documentary film “Chaos: The Manson Murders” on Sunday.
Iranian film critic Fatemeh Shahbande will be attending the film’s screening and subsequent review session.
CHAOS: The Manson Murders is an adaptation of the 2019 nonfiction book CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties, co-authored by investigative journalists Tom O’Neill and Dan Piepenbring.
This documentary explores the infamous Manson murders through the lens of a thorough investigation, with the goal of uncovering hidden truths and challenging the conventional narrative surrounding one of America’s most infamous crimes.
In an interview published by Screen International in December 2023, Morris revealed that he plans to begin production on a Manson documentary for Netflix after completing his then-scheduled film, The Pigeon Tunnel. By late January 2025, Netflix officially listed the film with the title CHAOS: The Manson Murders.
The film had its world premiere on March 6, 2025 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City during the Documentary Weekly series. It was then released globally on Netflix on March 7, 2025, making it available to a wide audience interested in true crime and historical investigation.
Critical evaluations of “CHAOS” vary. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 56 percent approval rating based on 34 critical reviews, with the consensus being that although the documentary attempts to unravel the many threads surrounding the Manson murders, it ultimately emphasizes the enduring fascination with the murders rather than providing definitive answers. Metacritic assigned the film a score of 62 out of 100, indicating that reviews from critics were generally positive.
Among the critics, Alyssa Wilkinson of The New York Times found the film convincing, highlighting how Morris shifted focus from the murders themselves to the psychological and manipulative aspects of Charles Manson’s influence on his followers. However, Wilkinson expressed some disappointment that the film adhered to what she described as “the currently established Netflix true crime style,” implying a certain formulaic approach.
Conversely, Daniel Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter criticized the documentary’s pacing and storytelling approach. He described the film as “a story about the need for narrative when explaining the unexplainable”, and lamented that Morris’ approach resulted in a somewhat boring presentation with 45 minutes of “bland regurgitation”.
Charles Manson was a notorious American cult leader and convicted murderer. Born in 1934, Manson was a charismatic figure who led a cult-like group known as the Manson Family in the late 1960s. The group was responsible for a series of brutal and shocking murders in 1969, including the death of actress Sharon Tate and several others. Manson’s ideology, a twisted mix of counterculture ideals and racist hatred, led to the brutal murders. He was arrested in 1969 and sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to life in prison when California abolished the death penalty in 1972. Manson died in prison in 2017.
SAB/