Hilary Duff Plays Sharon Tate in Trailer for Controversial Movie About the Manson Murders
Hilary Duff is revisiting the Manson Murders — with a bit of twist.
The 31-year-old actress stars as Sharon Tate in The Haunting of Sharon Tate, a reimagining of the tragic murders that took her life and the lives of four other people in 1969.
“I guess you could say I live in a fairytale, looking at everything through rose-colored glasses,” Duff as Tate says in a black and white interview.
In a reimagining of the night the tragic event took place, Tate appears concerned when two houseguests admit a stranger named Charlie has been knocking on the door and leaving strange tapes behind.
Tate’s sister, Debra, told PEOPLE in February 2018 she was disappointed about the film calling it “classless” and “exploitative.”
“It doesn’t matter who it is acting in it — it’s just tasteless,” she said. “It’s classless how everyone is rushing to release something for the 50th anniversary of this horrific event.”
RELATED: Hilary Duff Transforms into Sharon Tate for New Psychological Horror Film About Her Death
Debra, who was 16 when her sister was murdered by Charles Manson’s cult followers, also commented on what she believed was the premise of the film: A scene in which her sister has a premonition that she and former boyfriend and hairstylist Jay Sebring would have their throats slit — an eerie similarity to how their actual deaths occurred.
She said the dream was false.
“I know for a fact she did not have a premonition — awake or in a dream — that she and Jay would have their throat cut,” she said. “I checked with all of her living friends. None of her friends had any knowledge of this. Tacky, tacky, tacky.”
She added, “It’s a total fabrication.”
RELATED VIDEO: Cult Leader Charles Manson, Whose 1969 Murders Horrified the Nation, Dead at 83
Tate, 26 at the time of her death, was married to director Roman Polanski and was eight-and-a-half months pregnant with their first child — a boy — when she was stabbed repeatedly in her home.
Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski and Steven Parent were also stabbed at the home of the actress, whose blood was used to write on the walls.
Manson died in November at the age of 83. He was serving nine life sentences in California’s Corcoran State Prison at the time of his death.
“I said a prayer for his soul,” Debra said of the moment after she received a call from a prison official informing her of Manson’s death.
The film also stars Mean Girls’ Jonathan Bennett, Lydia Hearst, Pawel Szajda and Ben Millish as Charles Manson.
