50 years ago, Charles Manson became a household name when his cult murdered actor Sharon Tate and others. In late 2019, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywoood will offer a new take on that subject matter.

In the meantime, 2019’s The Haunting of Sharon Tate provides its own spin on the events. 26-year-old Sharon Tate (Hilary Duff) appears to lead a charmed life. A rising movie star, she’s married to successful director Roman Polanski and she will soon give birth to their first child.

However, Sharon suffers from terrible nightmares that act as premonitions of her own death. When Charles Manson (Ben Mellish) and his “family” enter the picture, matters get worse.

Call that a spoiler if you want, but given that we all know how this story ends, I don’t think I need to avoid the reveal that Haunting lacks a happy ending. With a factual story like this, the journey becomes more important than the destination – especially since Haunting reveals the brutal murders during its opening credits.

So does Haunting take us on a satisfying dramatic expedition? Dear God no! Instead, it becomes a muddled mess.

As implied by the title, Haunting approaches the subject matter from a semi-supernatural bent, a choice that doesn’t work in the least. While I give writer/director Daniel Farrands some credit for the decision to offer a tone that differs from the crime/thriller orientation the tale normally receives, he can’t make the end result anything other than a clunky collection of clichés.

Given that Farrands has worked in movies for years and that we get other experienced talent, the amateurishness of Haunting surprises me. If you went into the film with no foreknowledge of its cast/crew, you’d expect that it came from neophyte filmmakers.

Nothing about Haunting succeeds. Farrands burdens the actors with stilted, awkward dialogue that never remotely resembles comments humans would actually make.

Not that the cast deserves much better, as they overact across the board. Duff seems eager to put her Disney past behind her but if Haunting offers a hint of her talent, she’ll find it tough to shift to more mature parts.

Duff seems overmatched by the demands of the role, and she emotes recklessly and unconvincingly. None of the others do much to pick up the dramatic slack.

Farrands’ weak script and unfortunate choice to treat the story as a horror movie with a fantasy point of view turn into the film’s biggest drawbacks, though. Tacky, amateurish and barely watchable, Haunting delivers a massive misfire.

The Haunting of Sharon Tate appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a mainly satisfactory presentation.

Overall sharpness seemed good. A little softness crept into the presentation at times, but the majority of the film brought appealing delineation and accuracy.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I noticed no edge haloes. Source flaws were absent, as the movie looked consistently clean.

Like many period films of this sort, Haunting gave us an amber-tinted palette. Some teal appeared as well, but the golden feel dominated. Within those parameters, the hues were positive.

Blacks seemed deep and dark, while shadows showed good smoothness and clarity. Despite some softness, I felt pretty happy with the transfer.

As for the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Haunting, it lacked a ton of ambition. The soundfield focused on music and creepy ambience, though it opened up on occasion, mainly in terms of “jolt scares”. Nothing especially memorable occurred, though.

Audio quality was fine. Speech seemed natural and concise, without edginess or other issues.

Music offered good clarity and range, and effects worked well enough. They didn’t have much to do, but they appeared reasonably accurate. All of this ended up as a perfectly satisfactory soundtrack for this sort of movie.

A few extras appear, and the main attraction comes from an audio commentary with writer/director Daniel Farrands. He offers a running, screen-specific look at history, research and factual liberties, story/characters, sets and locations, cast and performances, music, and related domains.

Overall, Farrands offers a useful chat. While I don’t agree with many of his choices, he explains them well and makes this an engaging and informative piece.

Premonitions runs 14 minutes, one second and includes notes from actors Hilary Duff, Jonathan Bennett, Lydia Hearst, Ryan Cargill, Bella Popa, Pawel Szajda, Tyler Johnson and Fivel Stewart.

The featurette discusses story/characters as well as cast and performances. Some minor insights emerge but this mostly feels like a fluffy chat with the actors.

The disc opens with ads for Mara, The Super and Lizzie. No trailer for Haunting.

As a take on the infamous actions of Charles Manson and his “family”, The Haunting of Sharon Tate fails. It turns the true crome material into cheap, amateurish horror. The Blu-ray brings generally good picture and audio as well as a few bonus materials. Haunting flops.