Sophia Maddox goes on a quest to understand a murderous relative she didn’t know she had
Year: 2026
Certificate: 15
Imagine one day learning that your grandfather was the face of evil himself – Charles Manson, the killer and cult leader with a swastika tattooed on his face, who died in 2017 while serving a life sentence. That’s what happened to Sophia Maddox, who co-directs this documentary about a discovery that upended her sense of identity. Sophia had always thought of herself as a good person, but is there something in her blood that could override that?
Maddox has always been very close to her father, who also struggles with his genetic legacy – but this documentary is very much about Maddox and her struggle with the impact of that information, as she tracks down those who knew her grandfather. It’s a unique perspective from which to come at what amounts to a profile of Manson, and some of the people she meets are extraordinary, including a mysterious figure called ‘Black Wolf’ who gives her hundreds of his phone calls with the cult leader to unpick.
It’s later on, though, that this film about breaking generational cycles really takes a turn – as the focus comes back to Sophia’s relationship with her father, which has always been intense. Ultimately, it challenges the very idea that a person can truly be a monster. (105 minutes)
