Summer of 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders.  The level of fascination that The Manson Family has always commanded for almost five decades will spike as this date approaches. A new adatptaion —done properly: accurately, with real depth and from a unique, relatable perspective — will become the definitive work on the subject for many years to come.

“Cease to Exist” is such a project.  It’s the unique, entertaining, and incredibly authentic story of the decent into madness of The Manson Family directly through the eyes Manson disciple —and murderer of all seven of the Tate-LaBianca victims— Charles “Tex” Watson.

Watson’s insider perspective is not only fresh and chillingly intimate, but contains incidents heretofore unknown except by the most die-hard aficionados of the case, including the perceived rip-off of Charles Manson’s song “Cease to Exist” by his friends The Beach Boys (drummer Dennis Wilson introduced Watson to Manson). This incident was the spark setting Manson on his course of Helter Skelter and murderous hatred towards the ‘piggies’. 

Although he committed the vast majority of the violence on those nights, Charles “Tex” Watson’s story has gone mostly untold and unexamined. This is due primarily to the fact that he was not part of Vince Bugliosi’s case –he was fighting extradition in Texas and was overshadowed by the wild behavior of Charlie and the “Manson Girls” during the trial.

Bugliosi made his career prosecuting three women and their schizophrenic puppet master.  His book “Helter Skelter” became the definitive work on the subject while Watson and his account have fallen into relative obscurity.

This is unfortunate, as Watson’s story is by far the best way to understand and witness The Manson Family; the ‘whys’ of its acts, and the ‘hows’ of Charles Manson’s ability able to get kids to commit so fully to him —and to commit such atrocities for him.

“Cease to Exist” follows Charles Watson’s journey from all-star athlete from a small town in Texas; through the fast-paced world of late 1960s Los Angeles where he lives at Beach Boy Dennis Wilson’s mansion; to his assimilation into the Manson Family’s cult of sex, drugs and mind-control; to his personally carrying out the most infamous and brutal killings in U.S. history.

Told from the perspective of a convert before and during his indoctrination and through the crimes, rather than as an after-the-fact police procedural, Tex Watson’s story bears incredible witness to The Family’s journey from adolescent utopia to a cult of hatred and death. Watson’s story—the story of self-destruction of an ‘All-American boy’ alongside the most dynamic decade in US history is not only true, but it is also strange, entertaining, and a terrifying cautionary tale.

As a firsthand witness to many of the defining moments of The Family’s journey to infamy —and the fact that the majority of the violence those nights was committed by him— Watson’s account stands above all others. “Cease to Exist” will take its place with the police procedural “Helter Skelter” in the definitive canon of the Manson Family.

This is not a project attempting to excuse the murderers, nor to deprecate the level of horror committed. We simply want audiences (in addition to being riveted) to gain a new understanding of the story and the era.

Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” was a fantasy, and though it relied heavily upon the massive draw of the Manson saga milieu,  the Family’s role in it was as much of a comic-bookish catharsis as it was inaccurate.   Fun, but not a film that will ever belong in the canon. 

Running a prison ministry for many years, Charles “Tex” Watson does not receive any financial benefit from this production or the book, nor does he have any ability to control how his story is told in it. The producers’ promise to him in exchange for facilitating the transfer of rights for his book was that the story be told so that future young people do not make mistakes similar to his own.

The producers own all rights to the book, and plan to republish it in connection with the production.

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