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Here's Another Charles Manson Movie Trailer, This Time Spotlighting His Female Followers

'Charlie Says' asks whether the women were also victims

Here comes another attempt to dive into the minds of some of the most infamous murderers of the past few decades. This time, we revisit Charles Manson and his "family" in the upcoming movie Charlie Says.

Matt Smith stars as the leader of the cultish group, but the story largely focuses on his followers, Leslie Van Houten (Hannah Murray), Patricia Krenwinkle (Sosie Bacon), and Susan Atkins (Marianne Rendón) while they undergo a rehabilitation, of sorts, three years into their imprisonment. Two-time Emmy winner Merritt Wever tackles the role of Karlene Faith, the ambitious grad student who worked with the women through the Santa Cruz Women's Prison Project, which she co-founded.

Directed by American Psycho's Mary Harron, the film's trailer tries to show the more human side of the women who were originally sentenced to death for their inhuman acts, glimpsing their lives with Manson "before the crimes, when everything was about love" and positing that "maybe these women are victims too." Check it out above.

The movie premiered to lukewarm reviews at the Venice Film Festival last September, with many critics thinking the film could have gone even deeper into the mentality of Manson and the women he captivated. Variety noted it "feels like little more than a preliminary throat clear for that upcoming, much higher profile project," in reference to Quentin Tarantino's star-studded Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, due out in July.

Of course, these aren't the only two Manson family films coming out this year. Hilary Duff-starrer The Haunting of Sharon Tate will provide a more imaginative appetizer when it hits theaters in April.

As for this sandwiched Manson murder flick, Charlie Says hits theaters May 10.

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