Macabre...ish Horror Review: Mandy
Mandy, 2017/ 121 min. Set in the 80s, Red (Nicolas Cage) and Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) live a reclusive and quiet life in the mountains, in a cabin by a lake. Red is a logger and Mandy, by day, is a cashier and otherwise she’s an artist, she creates elaborate fantasy art and Red is her biggest fan. They each have their own troubled history.
On her way to work one day, she passes a van carrying a cult, Children of a New Dawn, headed by Jeremy Sands (Linus Roache). He decided he wants her and sends one of his followers, Black Swan, to retrieve her, with the help of an otherworldly, demonic biker gang with a taste for human flesh. Later that night, Black Swan (Ned Dennehy) goes out by the lake and summons the gang, The Black Skulls by horn. After Black Swan promises a low ranking member of the cult for payment, the gang breaks into the cabin and subdue Mandy and Red.
Two female members of the cult drug Mandy
with a mix of LSD and venom from a black wasp before presenting her to Jeremy Sands, leader and failed musician.
He tries to seduce her with his psychedelic music and tells her that God said he can have whatever he wants. To that Mandy laughs at him, hard. Stunned and infuriated, Sands, in a rage, screams at her and his disciples to stop looking at him. Seeking revenge he stabs Red and burns Mandy to death until she is mostly reduced to ashes.
After the cult leaves, Red escapes his bindings, barbed wire by the way, and in shock he drinks and wails in his suffering.
Once out of his shock, he retrieves his crossbow, forges a battle axe and goes hunting cultists and demonic bikers. And at some point Red turns into an antihero and starts killing them off one by one.
This is a Canadian and American produced action horror movie with lots of recognizable names. The Black Skulls remind me of Pin Head and the Cenobites.
The cinematography is very 70s, early 80s feel...trippy and psychedelic, lots of purple and orange and moments of animation. Also this movie is violent and graphic, with a very fantasy feel mixed in with the realism. It feels like a live action graphic novel.
Expect male frontal nudity, violence, fight scenes and torture. This movie is crazy and a rough watch and bleak but with some excellent fight scenes and nice effects. And Nicolas Cage is great! If you enjoy Tarantino’s movies, you’ll likely like this.
It offers English, French and Hungarian audio and English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Hungarian, Norwegian and Swedish subtitles. As well as behind the scenes and deleted scenes.
Did I mention crazy?..
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