Fourteen years ago at TIFF I saw a movie called Leslie, My Name Is Evil (imdb | rotten tomatoes), a heavily-stylized story about Leslie Van Houten, one of the Manson Family cult murderers. In writing this I just noticed that at some point the title of the film had been changed to Manson, My Name Is Evil? Anyway, I’d kind of forgotten about the film since then, until earlier this week when I read that Van Houten had been released from prison after 53 years.

Weird timing for this much Manson-esque news, as we’d also just watched the “Under The Sea” episode of the latest season of Black Mirror, in which a cult presumably patterned after the Manson Family plays a central role. Another funny coincidence: Tiio Horn is in Leslie/Manson, My Name Is Evil, and also in The Trotsky, which we just randomly happened to watch with a friend on Thursday night.

That latest season of Black Mirror, by the way, was mostly excellent, especially the one featuring Podrick Payne.