MandyFaced with terror, there are those who cry and those who laugh. Mandy is a psychedelic horror film about a lumberjack credited as "Red Miller" (Nicholas Cage), who resides with his artist lover, Mandy Bloom (Andrea Riseborough), in the Shadow Mountains of California. Their lives are simple and peaceful until they are attacked one night by a psychotic cult and trio of semi-demonic bikers, led by the narcissistic Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache). After Red endures a shattering tragedy, he transforms from a soft-spoken guy who makes corny jokes and into a relentless warrior, determined to take revenge at any cost.
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It could be said that no other actor than Nicolas Cage could play the increasingly unhinged Red Miller in Mandy, having developed a reputation for portraying characters at extreme psychological states, including in Vampire's Kiss and Face/Off. Many have said that his casting in Mandy is the role he was meant to play, precisely because that kind of psychological transformation made manifest is at the core of Red Miller. When Red is introduced, he is finishing up a hard day's work cutting down trees with a chainsaw. At this juncture, the chainsaw is merely a tool of his trade; it isn't until later that he turns it into a weapon, used for barbarism instead of in the service of civilization. Red does not look or act like an action hero; he is a bit pudgy, isn't terribly witty, and lacks the force of personality commonly found in the protagonists of other films who must face off against impossible odds. Red is rendered helpless after he and Mandy are kidnapped by Jeremiah and his depraved entourage, and looks absurd after he manages to escape and return home, bleeding all over his tiger-printed night shirt and tighty-whities. It is also atypical for films of this genre that it is in this moment that Red finds his inner reserve of hot-blooded vengeance, bursting into tears in his bathroom in-between downing gulps of vodka, releasing primal screams while collapsing onto the toilet. This moment underscores that Mandy doesn't just blur the lines between tragic horror and absurd black comedy--it gleefully destroys it. The mixture of intense grief and getting liquored up fast evokes two contradictory emotions in the audience--sympathy and humor; is it okay to laugh at this? This tone permeates the rest of Mandy as Red embarks on his quest to utterly annihilate "The Children of the New Dawn", the name given to Jeremiah's flock, courtesy of an earlier title card. Prior to this, the film maintains a mellow--even serene--quality, save for the introduction of the ridiculously over-the-top Jeremiah and company; their first interaction with Red and Mandy is governed by tension and horror. Why then is there such a dramatic shift toward tonal ambiguity at this point? The answer has much to do with how people process trauma. Monstrous terror of the kind Red experiences is thankfully not a regular occurrence in our lives, but triggers an instinctive "fight-or-flight" response, including rapid breathing, muscle spasms, heightened senses, and a racing heartbeat; characteristics paradoxically shared with feelings of excitement and hilarity. In short, our body becomes confused by the experience, and this is why some people confuse anticipation with anxiety, or others may uncontrollably snicker at objectively inappropriate times.
As Red descends further and further into his emotional hell, each confrontation with his adversaries becomes a mix of the ultra-violent and ridiculous. In one scene, he is (again) kidnapped by the three otherworldly dark riders. After escaping the clutches of one, he discovers another watching a pornographic movie while inhaling vast amounts of cocaine. A brawl ensues, and Red manages to slit the throat of his opponent while grappling with him, causing the foe's blood to flow gratuitously over Red's face, who laughs maniacally and mocks his dying enemy. Before leaving, Red grabs a shard of broken glass with a pile of coke on top of it, and snorts it himself with gusto. An old acquaintance of Red's named Caruthers (Bill Duke) previously described these devilish hunters as being forever altered as a result of being given highly potent LSD. When Red finds a mason jar on a kitchen counter after the fight, it is filled with an ominous grey ooze; Red's unexpected choice is to taste it, triggering a hallucinatory event that seems to affect him henceforth. The hunters represent Red's transition from a man whose life was previously stable and into one who is governed by hatred. His first steps toward revenge do not go smoothly because a part of him still wishes to hold on to his humanity. By the end, he wields his self-forged wicked looking ax and crushes skulls with the ease of a trained killer, all but resembling the hunters in form and action. Red's transformation is a metaphor for the high cost that comes with holding on to hatred and grief. Red's grief is profound and fresh, and in the context of the film, his fury is justified. Yet an ominous closing shot at the end of Mandy alludes to how Red's world has forever changed in the wake of this vengeance; life can never go back to the way it was.
Director Panos Cosmatos' Mandy wears its inspiration on its sleeve, namely its affection for the horror movies released in and around the time in which the film is set: 1983. (His earlier film, Beyond the Black Rainbow, is also a send up to this style of filmmaking, and is set in the same year.) This is evident in the set design, but especially in the music, courtesy of a synth-heavy musical score by Jóhann Jóhannsson (tragically, his last), and in its opening credits, set to the mournful "Starless" by King Crimson; Mandy herself favors Mötley Crüe and Black Sabbath t-shirts. Although shot digitally, Mandy uses anamorphic lenses that give the film the look and texture of a vintage, B-movie horror flick of yesteryear. The antagonist, Jeremiah Sand, is a Charles Manson-esque monster; his failed career as a folk musician prior to becoming a cult leader is a nod to this. With his long, flowing blonde hair and mixture of arrogance and mania, Jeremiah Sand recalls many loathsome villains from films of this genre; even his name is likely a nod to Julian Sands, who portrayed the eponymous antagonist in Warlock. Much of the experience of watching Mandy has to do with the tone and feel of the film; it feels like the earlier works of John Carpenter, especially The Fog, or even David Cronenberg's Scanners. The plot of Mandy seems incidental to the vivid, hallucinatory scenes that make up the film, including a pair of animated nightmare sequences. This approach to telling a story where the plot takes a backseat recalls lesser known films from the era including The Visitor (1979), The Ninth Configuration, and The Keep. The pacing of the film is deliberately surreal, even in scenes that would be otherwise innocuous--like when Jeremiah outlines his plans to possess Mandy to his majordomo, Brother Swan (Ned Dennehy)--recalling the works of celebrated surreal auteur, David Lynch. Other bizarre moments seem to have no place in the plot proper, adding to the strange experience of Mandy, like when Red and Mandy are sitting around the TV eating dinner while watching a bizarre advertisement involving a "Cheddar Goblin" (Paul Painter) regurgitating macaroni and cheese on enthusiastic kids. When Red returns home from his first kidnapping, the telenovela that is playing on late-night television awkwardly diffuses the severity of Red's trauma. Even the brief inclusion of Caruthers exists for the sole purpose of exposition, and for Red's subsequent reclamation of a crossbow dubbed "Reaper". But this event justifies Red's future encounter with "The Chemist" (Richard Brake), who was purportedly responsible for exposing the hunters to the tainted LSD, as well as the release of a caged tiger that is implied to represent Red's primal spirit. Elements of the strange and unusual are the lifeblood of Mandy, as well as a genuine enthusiasm for the cult classics that preceded it, surviving as though through sheer tenacity like Red.
Recommended for: Fans of a bizarre and vivid instant cult film, emphasizing a hallucinatory cinematic experience that embraces the legacy of those horror movie classics of yesteryear. Yet beneath the psychedelic skin of Mandy is a metaphor for post-traumatic stress and grief in the way that someone like Red can be driven to insanity, becoming like the monsters he hunts in the process.
As Red descends further and further into his emotional hell, each confrontation with his adversaries becomes a mix of the ultra-violent and ridiculous. In one scene, he is (again) kidnapped by the three otherworldly dark riders. After escaping the clutches of one, he discovers another watching a pornographic movie while inhaling vast amounts of cocaine. A brawl ensues, and Red manages to slit the throat of his opponent while grappling with him, causing the foe's blood to flow gratuitously over Red's face, who laughs maniacally and mocks his dying enemy. Before leaving, Red grabs a shard of broken glass with a pile of coke on top of it, and snorts it himself with gusto. An old acquaintance of Red's named Caruthers (Bill Duke) previously described these devilish hunters as being forever altered as a result of being given highly potent LSD. When Red finds a mason jar on a kitchen counter after the fight, it is filled with an ominous grey ooze; Red's unexpected choice is to taste it, triggering a hallucinatory event that seems to affect him henceforth. The hunters represent Red's transition from a man whose life was previously stable and into one who is governed by hatred. His first steps toward revenge do not go smoothly because a part of him still wishes to hold on to his humanity. By the end, he wields his self-forged wicked looking ax and crushes skulls with the ease of a trained killer, all but resembling the hunters in form and action. Red's transformation is a metaphor for the high cost that comes with holding on to hatred and grief. Red's grief is profound and fresh, and in the context of the film, his fury is justified. Yet an ominous closing shot at the end of Mandy alludes to how Red's world has forever changed in the wake of this vengeance; life can never go back to the way it was.
Director Panos Cosmatos' Mandy wears its inspiration on its sleeve, namely its affection for the horror movies released in and around the time in which the film is set: 1983. (His earlier film, Beyond the Black Rainbow, is also a send up to this style of filmmaking, and is set in the same year.) This is evident in the set design, but especially in the music, courtesy of a synth-heavy musical score by Jóhann Jóhannsson (tragically, his last), and in its opening credits, set to the mournful "Starless" by King Crimson; Mandy herself favors Mötley Crüe and Black Sabbath t-shirts. Although shot digitally, Mandy uses anamorphic lenses that give the film the look and texture of a vintage, B-movie horror flick of yesteryear. The antagonist, Jeremiah Sand, is a Charles Manson-esque monster; his failed career as a folk musician prior to becoming a cult leader is a nod to this. With his long, flowing blonde hair and mixture of arrogance and mania, Jeremiah Sand recalls many loathsome villains from films of this genre; even his name is likely a nod to Julian Sands, who portrayed the eponymous antagonist in Warlock. Much of the experience of watching Mandy has to do with the tone and feel of the film; it feels like the earlier works of John Carpenter, especially The Fog, or even David Cronenberg's Scanners. The plot of Mandy seems incidental to the vivid, hallucinatory scenes that make up the film, including a pair of animated nightmare sequences. This approach to telling a story where the plot takes a backseat recalls lesser known films from the era including The Visitor (1979), The Ninth Configuration, and The Keep. The pacing of the film is deliberately surreal, even in scenes that would be otherwise innocuous--like when Jeremiah outlines his plans to possess Mandy to his majordomo, Brother Swan (Ned Dennehy)--recalling the works of celebrated surreal auteur, David Lynch. Other bizarre moments seem to have no place in the plot proper, adding to the strange experience of Mandy, like when Red and Mandy are sitting around the TV eating dinner while watching a bizarre advertisement involving a "Cheddar Goblin" (Paul Painter) regurgitating macaroni and cheese on enthusiastic kids. When Red returns home from his first kidnapping, the telenovela that is playing on late-night television awkwardly diffuses the severity of Red's trauma. Even the brief inclusion of Caruthers exists for the sole purpose of exposition, and for Red's subsequent reclamation of a crossbow dubbed "Reaper". But this event justifies Red's future encounter with "The Chemist" (Richard Brake), who was purportedly responsible for exposing the hunters to the tainted LSD, as well as the release of a caged tiger that is implied to represent Red's primal spirit. Elements of the strange and unusual are the lifeblood of Mandy, as well as a genuine enthusiasm for the cult classics that preceded it, surviving as though through sheer tenacity like Red.
Recommended for: Fans of a bizarre and vivid instant cult film, emphasizing a hallucinatory cinematic experience that embraces the legacy of those horror movie classics of yesteryear. Yet beneath the psychedelic skin of Mandy is a metaphor for post-traumatic stress and grief in the way that someone like Red can be driven to insanity, becoming like the monsters he hunts in the process.