The Manson Massacre

The Manson Massacre was originally released under the title The Cult in 1972, and used advertising materials that downplayed its association with the Manson murders; a trade advertisement characterized the film as "so close to the Manson story...  it's scary!"^[2] The film screened in March 1972 in Clovis, New Mexico, as a double bill with The Brazen Women of Balzac [de].^[2]

It later was released as The Manson Massacre in the summer and fall of 1976, with screenings beginning in Boston on August 4, 1976.^[3] It was subsequently released September 3, 1976 at various theaters and drive-ins in the Delaware Valley.^[8] At some drive-ins, the film was paired as a double bill with Tender Flesh, and as a triple bill with Twitch of the Death Nerve and Psychic Killer.^[8] The film opened in Los Angeles on October 22, 1976.^[4]

The film received some criticism upon its 1976 release, and was banned from being shown Maryland along with Snuff due to its depiction of sex and violence.^[9]

Mike McPadden of Crime Feed wrote of the film: "By way of sloppily arranged depictions of a nonprofessional cast engaging in fake-looking orgies and faker-looking gore murders, The Manson Massacre conjures the notion of a "movie" only in the fact that it's shot on film and, remarkably, once played to paying audiences in theaters. Makee K. Blaisdell plays Manson stand-in Invar, a monk-robed occult guru who sleeps in a coffin and cohabitates with five young women. They get freaky — and not just by driving around in a hearse (although they do that). They also engage in group copulation, grave robbing, and even the shoplifting of sex toys."^[5] Film scholar Ric Meyers deemed it "a poor excuse for a film,"^[6] while Stephen Thrower noted it as "inaccurate and unconvincing" in its depiction of the Manson killings' aftermath.^[7]

• The Manson Massacre at IMDb