History Main / HorrorHippies

* One of the early threats ''ComicBook/{{DV8}}'' fought was The Twist, a small superpowered cult-family run by a Charles Manson expy called Menlove, who pushed his young, impressionable charges to commit subversive crimes ForTheEvulz. Further investigation revealed that Menlove was actually a former International Operations instructor who got kicked out for molesting one of his charges... who turned out to be Bliss, who promptly killed him after realizing that he was her abuser all those years ago.

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode ''Recap/StarTrekS3E20TheWayToEden'' features a group of [[NewAgeRetroHippie space hippies]] who dress barefoot in free-flowing tie-died clothes and flowers, sing folk songs, and are led by the charismatic Dr. Sevrin (a pretty transparent [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Timothy Leary stand-in]]). They're a {{cult}} in search of the legendary planet Eden, which [[spoiler:turns out to be uninhabitable thanks to grass laced with acid: [[ThisIsYourIndexOnDrugs no, not that kind of acid]]]], resulting in several deaths.

* The second ''Film/TexasChainsawMassacre'' movie introduces "Chop Top" Sawyer, in patched bell-bottoms, peace sign badges, purple tie-dye, and John Lennon glasses. He's a sadistic, psychotic cannibal just like the rest of his family.
* ''Film/TheWickerMan1973'': The residents of Summerisle are free-love pagans with an affinity for costumes, public sex, and nature. After an entire film of teasing them as child murderers, [[spoiler:it turns out the child, Rowan Morrison, was safe. But it was all a ploy to ensnare Sgt. Howie, who they burn alive.]]

->'''Murdoc Niccals:''' Never trust a hippie.

* One of the many antagonists that [[{{Music/Gorillaz Gorillaz]] had to deal with was a creepy hippy by the name of Wee Jimmy Manson, a LoonyFan of the band that tried to muscle his way into their favor with his wonky guitar music so he could turn it into his own personal cult. He continued to stalk the band for a few years until Murdoc finally had enough, lured him into the floating island prop from the Feel Good Inc music video and had it crash and burn in the El Manana music video - ''while he was still inside.'' And Murdoc brags about the murder because he's a ''cartoon.''

[[folder:Podcasts]]
* The ''Podcast/SickSadWorld'' episode "Cult Classics" deals with well-known murderers Charles Manson and Jim Jones. The former founded a free love-style cult and wanted to start a race war. The latter was a preacher and an outspoken supporter of civil rights who descended into power hunger and ended up killing himself and most of his following.

* A pair of terrorists who dressed and spoke like hippies (replete with frequent usage of terms "baby" and "groovy") used sound-based weapons to go on a rampage at the World's Fair in the ''WesternAnimation/FantasticVoyage'' episode "The World's Fair Affair."

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode ''Recap/StarTrekS3E20TheWayToEden'' features a group of [[NewAgeRetroHippie space hippies]] who dress barefoot in free-flowing tie-died clothes and flowers, sing folk songs, and are led by the charismatic Dr. Sevrin (a pretty transparent [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Timothy Leary stand-in]]). They're a {{cult}} in search of the legendary planet Eden, which [[spoiler:turns out to be uninhabitable thanks to grass laced with acid]], resulting in several deaths.

* As noted above, the TropeMaker that cemented public distrust in hippies was UsefulNotes/CharlesManson, leader of a {{cult}} known as the Manson Family. The Manson Family was composed primarily of young women from middle-class backgrounds, many of whom were radicalized by Manson's teachings, hippie culture, communal living, and a hefty diet of narcotics like LSD. According to group member Susan Atkins, the Family believed that Manson was a manifestation of UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} and that he had prophesied an imminent, apocalyptic race war -- a conflict he named "Helter Skelter", after a song by Music/TheBeatles. They gained international attention after the murder of actress Creator/SharonTate and four others on August 9, 1969. Ironically, most of his fans nowadays aren't hippies, but people on the far-''right'' end of the political spectrum, specifically neo-Nazis of an "accelerationist" bent who believe in overthrowing the system in order to establish their white supremacist utopia, and see Manson's plan as [[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alt-right-charles-manson-atomwaffen_n_5a146921e4b03dec824892e6 a blueprint for their own.]]

* ''film/TheDeathmaster'' (1972) stars Robert Quarry as a ''Film/CountYorga''-esque vampire (with long hair) who takes over a group of hippies for his own sinister ends.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajneeshpuram Rajneeshpuram]], a commune built near the small town of Antelope, UsefulNotes/{{Oregon}}, was founded by the eastern spirituality/New Age guru Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh (aka "Osho") and his followers looking to build their own society. They quickly came into conflict with the residents of Antelope, which culminated in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Rajneeshee_bioterror_attack a mass food poisoning attack in 1984,]] meant to incapacitate voters in the nearby city of The Dalles before an election so that Rajneesh's followers could take over the Wasco County Circuit Court and the sheriff's office. They are the subject of a Creator/{{Netflix}} original documentary series titled ''Wild Wild Country''. These days, the Rajneeshees' former compound has been converted to a Christian summer camp.

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* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
** FadSuper villain Angar the Screamer is a stereotypical long-haired hippie whose screams cause people around him to hallucinate [[IKnowWhatYouFear their worst fear]]. Although he supposedly started out as a social activist, he mostly used his powers to commit crimes for personal gain.
** In ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', Frank and Leslie Dean initially look like a pair of friendly aging hippies, but are in fact a pair of alien criminals who also happen to be members of the Pride, a combination between a doomsday cult and an organized crime syndicate.
* The "Father Earth" arc of ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' has the titular Father Earth (a PlantPerson with flowers growing on him) [[GaiasVengeance lead a band of mutants and outcasts from the Cursed Earth to attack Mega-City One]], deeming it responsible for the state of the world. They succeed in breaching the wall, but they get sidetracked into an area containing alien man-eating plants that hypnotize their prey. Father Earth willingly lets himself be eaten by one, believing it's a god.
* In ''ComicBook/ApamaTheUndiscoveredAnimal'', Regina is an AxCrazy hippie chick who runs a cult-like commune in the forests outside of Cleveland. She's spent the past four decades preparing for the return of the Apama so that she and her followers could fight him.

* Unsurprisingly, this trope really took off in {{Exploitation Film}}s around 1969-1971:
** ''Angel, Angel, Down We Go'' (1969) has a hippie rock band move in with a wealthy Hollywood family. The charismatic lead singer of the band seduces the {{lonely|RichKid}}, overweight daughter and then her mother-- and arranges for the mother to have a skydiving "[[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident accident]]". Quickly retitled ''Cult of the Damned'' after the Manson murders; also one of the last films of Jennifer Jones (who plays the mother), giving it a touch of hagsploitation.
** ''The Big Cube'' (1969) also has a touch of hagsploitation, as it's one of Lana Turner's last films. She plays a wealthy woman whose daughter, under the influence of her hippie boyfriend, decides to speed up her inheritance by {{gaslighting}} her with the help of surreptious doses of LSD.
** ''The Deathmaster'' (1972) stars Robert Quarry as a ''Film/CountYorga''-esque vampire (with long hair) who takes over a group of hippies for his own sinister ends.
** ''Film/IDrinkYourBlood'' has a group of asshole {{Hollywood Satanis|m}}t hippies assulting people in a small town; the grandson of one victim and the brother of another decide to deliberately infect them with rabies. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Definitely an improvement.]]
** ''The Night God Screamed'' (1971) has a group of Jesus Freak hippies kill a local preacher and then stalk his wife after her testimony gets their leader jailed.
** ''Sweet Savior'' (1971) was a minor exploitation film about a Manson-esque cult, notable as a pre-Troma credit for Creator/LloydKaufman as producer (and an extra). Troma would later release it under the title ''The Love-Thrill Murders''.

* It's unclear if Krug and his gang from ''Film/TheLastHouseOnTheLeft'' identify as hippies or if they're just shaggy from the road, but they definitely have a Manson family vibe.
* ''Film/TheMansonFamily'' is a dramatization of the UsefulNotes/CharlesManson case, which codified this trope.

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode ''Recap/StarTrekS3E20TheWayToEden'' features a group of [[NewAgeRetroHippie space hippies]] who dress barefoot in free-flowing tie-died clothes and flowers, sing folk songs, and are led by the charismatic Dr. Sevrin (a pretty transparent [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Timothy Leary stand-in]]). They're a {{cult}} in search of the legendary planet Eden, which [[spoiler:turns out to be uninhabitable thanks to grass laced with acid]], resulting in several deaths.
* ''Series/{{Quatermass}}'' presents a hippie-like movement called the Planet People, who are being mind-controlled by a malevolent alien force. Luckily, old people's brains are unaffected by the mind control, so are able to save the Earth from the pernicious influence of hippiedom. This was made in ''1979''.

* Played with in the ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' episode "[[Recap/DuckTales2017S3E4TheLostHarpOfMervana The Lost Harp of Mervana]]." When they discover a strange civilization of hippie merfolk, the ducks immediately jump to the conclusion that they're going to be sacrificed to some monster, king, or god. [[spoiler:There is a monster, but the hippies don't even know about it; they're harmless as they are now. The twist is that living underwater in idleness causes merfolk to turn ''into'' monsters, and their only escape is to return to the surface and build an actual civilization. As Scrooge [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]], the episode's [[AnAesop moral]] boils down to "get a job, hippie."]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' episode "[[Recap/TheVentureBrosS2E11VivaLosMuertos Viva los Muertos!]]" features StockParodies of the [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo Scooby Gang]] named "the Groovy Gang". The Groovy Gang were a group of mentally disturbed amateur detectives that travel the world in a van to solve mysteries that may or may not exist. The group consists of the insane, violent-tempered, and self-righteous leader Ted (based on Fred and Ted Bundy), the weak-willed kidnapping victim Patty (Daphne and Patty Hearst), the angry, feminist-extremist lesbian Val (Velma and Valerie Solanas), the paranoid, jittery hippie Sonny (Shaggy and David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz) and the terrifying, possibly possessed dog Groovy (which may just be Sonny hallucinating him talking, Ted width-holding his meds from him). While the Gang purportedly existed to solve mysteries, Ted never seemed to have a clear definition of "mystery", and, in reality, the Gang seemed to make their living by looting the buildings they would break into during their adventures.

The general interpretation of the Hippie Movement often borrows heavily from various sources from the Flower Power Movement and Music/JohnLennon. Pacifism, free love, multiculturalism and tie dye in the face of authoritarian conformity. "Make Love Not War". What pop culture tends to forget was that the Hippies were a counterculture movement. There was a lot of activism going on, and [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized not all of it was sitars and sit-ins]]. People got hurt, people died, and everyone with a political incentive against them would latch onto these "indiscretions" and milk them for all they were. Pop culture would take the negative stereotypes that were spread and would [[{{Demonization}} demonize]] hippies, creating various evil examples in fiction.

Horror Hippies often spawn from {{Commune}}s, many of their bad ideas swimming in a petri-dish of [[DrugsAreBad brain-cooking narcotics]] until they turn from quaint little clubs to horrifying {{Cult}}s, all under the service of a charismatic [[TheSociopath sociopath]] that would lead them to revolution. This "revolution" usually involves kidnapping innocent people, [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape]], [[SerialKiller murder]], [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]] and InsaneTrollLogic brought to boil by a [[Creator/AndyWarhol Warhol-Factory's]] worth of mind-bending drugs.

* The TropeMaker that cemented public distrust in hippies was UsefulNotes/CharlesManson, leader of the {{Cult}} known as the Manson Family. The Manson Family was composed primarily of young women from middle-class backgrounds, many of whom were radicalized by Manson's teachings, hippie culture, communal living and a hefty diet of narcotics like LSD. According to group member Susan Atkins, the Family believed that Manson was a manifestation of UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} and that his prophecies were reliable concerning an imminent, apocalyptic race war- said conflict he named "Helter Skelter", after a song by Music/TheBeatles. They gained international attention after the murder of actress Sharon Tate and four others on August 9, 1969.
* Speaking of misuse of rock & roll, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" was a line from "Subterranean Homesick Blues" by Music/BobDylan. It was claimed by a bunch of bored, upper-middle-class kids who got "radicalized" and, eventually, committed at least 25 bombings as ''Film/TheWeatherUnderground.''
* And, sticking with the rock theme, what has been identified as "the end of the Summer of Love" is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altamont_Free_Concert The Altamont Free Concert]]. What was to be the "Woodstock of the West" ended with considerable violence, damage, and four deaths. And what was to be a straightforward tour documentary of Music/TheRollingStones turned into the primary evidence of the whole sordid affair, ''Film/GimmeShelter.'' [[HarsherInHindsight "It's just a shot away,"]] indeed.
* The Symbionese Liberation Army was mostly hippies, inspired by their "Field Marshal Cinque" to get into premeditated murder, bank robbery and, most infamously, the kidnapping of Patty Hearst.
* While [[DownplayedTrope not a serial killer or a cult leader]], Creator/HunterSThompson was a revolutionary and instigator, often causing so much trouble in his life that associating him with the free-loving stereotypes of TheSixties would be an exercise in futility. Such antics include pranking religious fanatics that lived next door to him in Big Sur by nailing a wild boar's head to their door and decorating its entrails on their car, sending a deer heart and a recording of animal noises to Creator/JackNicholson as a prank birthday gift (causing Jack - who had a stalker at the time - to hide in his basement until the police arrived), spent two years with the Hell's Angels, was a very vocal gun owner and the many, many colorful soliloquies he had to describe how much he hated UsefulNotes/RichardNixon. The exact number of alleged things on his list of accomplishments that actually happened is still vague to this day.
* UsefulNotes/JimJones was another infamous figure from the hippie movement, a self-appointed minister and Marxist activist who recruited peace-and-love types to join his {{Cult}} the Peoples Temple, eventually establishing the "Jonestown" compound in Guyana. Their horrifying end in a [[KillEmAll mass murder-suicide]] cemented Jonestown as the TropeCodifier for ApocalypseCult, not to mention DrinkingTheKoolAid.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajneeshpuram Rajneeshpuram]], a commune built near the small town of Antelope in UsefulNotes/{{Oregon}}, was founded by the eastern spirituality New Age guru Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh and his followers looking to build their own society. They quickly came into conflict with the residents of Antelope which culminated in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Rajneeshee_bioterror_attack 1984 mass food poisoning attack]]. They are the subject of a Creator/{{Netflix}} original documentary series titled ''Wild Wild Country''.