Mary Lynn will be appearing in this Sunday's CBS feature film of "Helter Skelter!" as Squeaky Fromme, one of the spooky women in the Manson clan.

The last time TV dramatized "Helter Skelter" was in 1976 - only seven years after pregnant actress Sharon Tate and many others were butchered by Charles Manson and his fanatic followers.

Close to 30 years later, "Helter Skelter" is back in an equally haunting incarnation.

The original CBS miniseries dealt largely with the trial, especially on the who, what, where and when of the killings.

The new three-hour CBS movie is mostly about the why.

It ends the night before the trial begins, with prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi (Bruno Kirby) visiting Manson (Jeremy Davies) in jail.

We follow Manson and his band of whacked-out worshipers as a convert (Clea DuVall as Linda Kasabian) is welcomed to the fold and indoctrinated in its weird ways. Manson claimed to be the son of God - and as a Christlike father figure and lover, his antic, manic energy drew many followers into his vortex.

Through Linda's eyes, we get the chance to understand Manson's appeal without at all sympathizing or empathizing with him. "I feel disposable," Linda tells him, sobbing, in one of their first moments together. "You think I don't know what it feels like to be looked through?" Manson asks her. "To be thrown away?"

But as she falls under his spell, he raises the stakes.  At first, she accompanies Manson and a few other members of his "family" on a "creepy crawl," in which they slip into the homes of sleeping people and rearrange their furniture, steal things and leave puzzling proof of their visit. 
Before long, though, she's on a creepy crawl that's so creepy, it's murder.

Writer and director John Gray makes the first half about the escalation of violence. The second half is about the way the crimes were linked and solved, and about Bugliosi's insistence that the only way to convict Manson was to understand his motives and beliefs.

Gray shows restraint twice. When we first come upon the violence, it's sudden and we don't dwell on it. Later, as witnesses fill in details, more compete and horrifying versions are presented.

The other triumphs in this "Helter Skelter" are in the casting and the acting.

Davies, who played Upham the interpreter in "Saving Private Ryan," is a fiercely convincing Manson.

And almost all the spooky women in the Manson clan are played by recognizable TV actresses.  Joining Mary Lynn are Marguerite Moreau ("Smallville") who plays Susan (Sadie) Atkins; DuVall is in "Carnivale." Allison Smith, is Patricia (Katie) Krenwinkel, and shockingly different than when she's seen as Mallory on "The West Wing."  Whitney Dylan as Sharon Tate, John Pleshette as Krenwinkel's father, and Marek Probosz as Roman Polanski are also riveting, though in smaller roles.

From start to finish, this "Helter Skelter" is a creepy crawl. And in this case, that's meant as a compliment.

-Information - HELTER SKELTER