The Other Side of Madness (1971) – Frank Howard.

'The Stuff was going round pretty heavy, and we were ripped!!!!!!!!'

With scenes shot at the infamous Spahn Ranch, produced as the epoch-defining trail was ongoing, Frank Howard's Flashback-y exploitation classic is a Monochromatic Manson biopic that is arguably more authentic than most. Manson, with the exception of Ed Gein is one of True Crime's most popular boogeyman, their evil machinations proving influential upon the grislier iterations of contemporary horror/exploitation. I regard organised religion as being cults acceptable to the mainstream, whereas, the maniacal offshoots tend to provide stronger material for the creators of darker genre content. David Koresh and L. Ron Hubbard were demonstratively real nutballs, while Jesus's hocus pocus remains an unsubstantiated fantasy. Charlie Manson began as a monstrously flesh and blood historical villain, but is now more often luridly presented as the most fearsome figment of Manson's vainglorious self- mythologizing rhetoric. It is fascinating seeing the mad messiah of the psychedelic-era coldly captured on stark B/W film, the heady, mind-bending content is groovily provided by an especially far-out selection of heavy fuzz nuggets, including Manson's very own folk oddity 'Mechanical Man'. 

While the Manson Family's vile murder spree is abhorrent, this turbulent era's profoundly inspirational musical and cinematic evolutions remain enormously compelling. A quality film-maker can successfully recreate a 70s milieu, but The Other Side of Madness maintains a vibrancy, and authenticity that the passing of time has been unable to dilute. It is disturbing to note that Charlie was partially right, Helter Skelter is manifestly upon us, but he was wrong about the instigator of our doom, missing the callous ministrations of big business plutocrats, our imminent demise shall be comfortably Deliveroo'd directly to our front doors. Manson was a dismal, racist troglodyte, and if he had been around today, he would have been hungrily snapped up by the shady hedge-fund manipulators, hiding in plain sight at the very top of the pyramid. In conclusion, The Other Side of Madness holds up remarkably well, and the cat who delivered the chilling 'I'm the Devil, and I'm here to do the Devil's work!!!' did so with eerie verisimilitude.