Mandy

Dir: Panos Cosmatos

2018

*****

Have you ever wondered what a grindhouse revenge horror would look like if it were directed by Stanley Kubrick? No, neither have I but now, thanks to Panos Cosmatos and his amazing 2018 film Mandy, I don’t have to. That said, all credit to Cosmatos, he is his own genius here and the Kubrick comparison is there to suggest how good he is without wanting to allude to him either copying or trying to be as good as him – the film is just brilliant and, more importantly, unique. The best and worst films are those where the director has granted him or herself nothing but self-indulgence, Cosmatos clearly knew exactly what he wanted and executed it perfectly. I believe the only thing Cosmatos changed from his original idea was Nicolas Cage’s role as hero rather than villain. It was mutual friend and co-producer Elijah Wood who got the pair together to discuss the changes and after a day with Cage discussing love and the loss of love within the film and those same themes within their personal lives, Cosmatos knew that Cage should be the hero. He would have been ace as the villain also but Linus Roache does a great job and Cage still got to release that special kind of unhinged madness that he’s become famous for. Audiences have suggested that with Mandy Cage is ‘back’ but in truth he never went away. He is however, the best we’ve seen him for a long time in a film worthy of his talents. The film is super simple really. It is an absolute masterpiece but in reality Cosmatos has done just four things: He’s written a simple but effective cross-genre story seeped in nostalgia; made it look stunningly beautiful, cast the perfect actors for each role and hired the late great Jóhann Jóhannsson to compose the score. I say just four things, there is of course more to it than that but these four elements are absolutely perfect and in tune with each other. The film takes place somewhere near the fictional Shadow Mountains in the year 1983. Red Miller (Cage) lives with his girlfriend, artist Mandy Bloom (Andrea Riseborough), in a cabin near the lake. Red works as a logger, while Mandy has a day job as a cashier at a nearby gas station in the woods. She creates elaborate fantasy art, and Red admires her work greatly. They lead a quiet and reclusive life, and their conversations and behavior hint at a difficult past and psychological hardship. Red appears to be a recovering alcoholic, and Mandy recounts traumatic childhood experiences. On her way to work, Mandy walks past a van carrying the Children of the New Dawn, a deviant hippie cult led by Jeremiah Sand (and probably influenced by Charles Manson). Sand (Roache) is struck by Mandy's charm and orders one of his disciples, Brother Swan, to kidnap Mandy with the help of the Black Skulls, a demonic biker gang with a taste for human flesh and a liquid, highly potent form of LSD. At night, Swan drives out to the lake and summons the Black Skulls by blowing a mystical horn. After Swan offers them a low-ranking member of the cult as a sacrifice, they break into the couple's home and subdue Mandy and Red. The two female members of the cult, Mother Marlene and Sister Lucy, drug Mandy with LSD and venom from a giant black wasp before presenting her to Sand. Sand – a failed musician – attempts to seduce Mandy with his psychedelic folk music, telling her that God had told him to take anything he wanted. Mandy ridicules him, leaving him confused and infuriated. Seeking revenge, Sand has Red tied by his wrists with barbed wire and stabbed, then has Mandy burned alive in front of him. After nothing but ash remains of Mandy, Sand and his followers leave. After many hours of struggle, Red frees himself, goes back inside and falls asleep, exhausted and in shock. After waking up from a nightmare, he consumes a bottle of vodka, tends to his wounds, and shrieks in agony, grief, and rage. In the morning, Red fetches "the reaper," his crossbow, from his friend Caruthers (played by the brilliant Bill Duke). Caruthers provides him with freshly crafted arrows and information on the Black Skulls. According to Caruthers, the Black Skulls may have been a group of couriers for a drug manufacturer who were psychiatrically disturbed by a bad batch of LSD, rendering them murderously sadomasochistic. Before Red leaves, Caruthers warns him that his odds of survival are poor. Red forges a battle axe and hunts down the bikers. He is able to successfully run down one and kill him, but he is captured in the process. At their hideout, Red manages to break free and kill the remaining bikers, and he consumes some of their cocaine and tainted LSD, causing him to instantly and severely hallucinate. Seeking out a radio tower he envisioned earlier, Red encounters The Chemist, a mysterious drug manufacturer, who tells him where to find the Children of the New Dawn. At their makeshift wooden church in a quarry, Red kills Brothers Swan and Hanker with his axe and kills Brother Klopek in a chainsaw duel, sparing only the life of Sister Lucy. Traversing the tunnels beneath the church, Red finds Mother Marlene and kills and decapitates her. He then finds Sand, taunting him by rolling out Marlene's severed head. Sand begs for mercy, but Red kills him by crushing his skull. He sets the church on fire and watches Sand's body burn before driving away, envisioning Mandy in the passenger seat of his car, while the landscape behind him now appears fantastical and otherworldly. The eerie question of what happens after revenge is over hangs over the audience and clouds the end credits. It is remarkably different to anything I’ve seen before. I can think of many graphic novels and fantasy novels that come close to it visually but no other film looks this way. Cosmatos uses high grade film and Panaflares - the process of aiming small LED lights into the barrel of the lens to soften the light and make the frame look milky, and the results are nothing short of stunning. The simple scenes, such as characters driving or just lying in bed, are like renascence oil paintings and 80s Heavy Metal album covers all in one. It is 30% psychedelic horror, 30% revenge, 20% nostalgia and 20% homage. However, it is 100% original and is easily one of the best films of 2018 and of the decade.