Helter Skelter: An American Myth (Season 1)

"Helter Skelter: An American Myth" (2020) is a true-crime documentary series directed by Lesley Chilcott — stream it online on iFILM. The headline is familiar: Charles Manson, a commune in California, the murders of August 1969. This series argues that version leaves out most of what actually happened.

Chilcott gathered first-person accounts from people who lived inside the Family — including Dianne Lake, who joined as a teenager — alongside archival footage and photographs that hadn't surfaced before. The focus sits less on the crimes than on the machinery behind them: how a charismatic drifter built that kind of grip over dozens of people, and why they stayed.

As the tagline warns: you think you know this story. Probably not as well as you think. Watch "Helter Skelter: An American Myth" (2020) online on iFILM.