Channel 4’s Marilyn Manson: Unmasked makes for horrifying but essential viewing
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Harrowing documentary deftly points out the systems that permit figures such as Manson to go for decades unchecked. “The lines between acceptable hedonism and criminal conduct in music have always been extremely blurry,” says Jason Newman, news director for Rolling Stone, in Channel 4’s gripping three-part documentary, Marilyn Manson: Unmasked. It is exactly this “blurriness” that the musician born Brian Warner is said to have manipulated in order to carry out sickening abuse and assault of multiple women over his decades-long career (he denies all of the allegations against him).
![[Marilyn Manson pictured in 2019]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/07/18/14/People_Marilyn_Manson_38276.jpg)
With his deathly white makeup, jet-black hair and provocative lyrics, the US shock rocker had always courted controversy. But in 2021, his former partner Evan Rachel Wood, known to many as the star of the hit drama series Westworld, accused him of psychological, physical and sexual abuse during their three-year relationship. Channel 4 sets out to investigate – through testimony from his accusers, as well as those who worked with and for him over the years – the man behind the mask and whether it was this “character” that helped him evade scrutiny for so many years.
![[Marilyn Manson with Evan Rachel Wood in 2007]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2021/05/01/09/newFile-1.jpg)
From the first episode, it is made abundantly clear that Warner’s magnetism and charm played a huge role in his success. “He was very charismatic and I was drawn to that,” superfan Jennifer Pavao recalls. She is instantly likeable – one of those people who always seems cheerful – as she details how she struggled to fit in when her family moved to Florida. It was only when she stumbled upon Warner’s band, Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids, after they formed in 1990, that she felt as though she’d found her tribe.
