Mandy

Mandy

2018

Director- Panos Cosmatos

Cast- Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache, Bill Duke, Ned Dennehy

           

     Summarizing the film’s plot is mostly useless as it’s a psychedelic, surreal nightmare. For convenience just imagine the original Mad Max filtered through Hellraiser. 

    Red and Mandy (Cage and Riseborough) are a loving couple enjoying a secluded life in the Pacific Northwest until Mandy catches the eye of Jeremiah (Roache), a crazy leader of a hippie cult. Using an unholy artifact, and the sacrifice of one of their cult members, Jeremiah summons a band of demonic bikers who subdue Mandy and Red for Jeremiah’s pleasure. After a night of torture, the cult departs leaving Red to die. However, he hangs on and then sets out on a quest of vengeance.

           

    Mandy is less a story and more a meditation on evil. The visuals, which have the rich palette of Suspiria, are often other worldly. The score, which is slow, grinding Doom Metal, is ominous and foreboding. Mandy is a nightmare where each new horror fades into the next. Like a dream, or a hallucination, there are no hard and fast rules.  Leave your rational, analytic mind at the door and just surrender yourself to the experience.

            

      Not a film for everyone, but I loved it. If you are open to the surreal and aren’t looking for happy endings, then I think you will love it too.