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Review: ‘Mandy’ Is A Berserk, Genre Busting, Revenge Epic

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Where to even begin? Panos Cosmatos, director of 2012’s genre melting Beyond The Black Rainbow is back with another borderline indefinable movie that is another audio-visual feast for the eyes. And he’s brought Nicolas Cage along for the ride, front and center. Mandy is a movie like few others.

Image via IMDB

The story, set in the Californian Shadow Mountains circa 1983, Red Miller (Nicolas Cage) leads a quiet and comfy life as a lumberjack with his beloved Mandy Bloom (Andrea Louise Riseborough). Their happiness is brought to an abrupt end when Mandy catches the eye of cult leader and drug kingpin Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache) and he decides to take her as his own. In the aftermath, Red has become enraged beyond comprehension, arms himself to the teeth, and vows revenge against Sand, his zealots, and his psychotic minions.

Image via IMDB

That’s as basic a presence as I can provide. Per Cosmatos’ usual style, the film carries a lot of ambiguity and interpretation- and is all the better for it. Though it is definitely far more of a narrative film than Beyond The Black Rainbow and a bit more straightforward, it’s something that needs to be experienced. I was fortunate enough to attend a screening with Cosmatos, Cage, and Roache in attendance, and the director gave us some insight into the creation of the film: He wanted to make ‘the antidote’ to BTBR and he wanted to make a distilled action/revenge movie. He succeeded in both objectives by leaps and bounds. Mandy is aggressive, violent, loud, and angry as opposed to BTBR‘s cold and methodical sci-fi story.

Image via IMDB

In terms of being an action/revenge movie, it checks every box in the genre and makes some new ones. It brings to mind everything from Death Wish, to Phantasm to all manner of influences that blend into something entirely new and beautiful. Featuring a hypnotic score by the late Jóhann Jóhannsson with synth tracks that haunt during the scenes of dread and creepiness and peaks into cries for battle during Red’s quest for revenge.

Nicolas Cage truly shines in the role of Red Miller, and what is assuredly one of the Oscar winner’s best performances on screen. Cage has garnered a reputation for his memorable, over the top scenes, and in Mandy that is stretched to the entire second half of the movie. Red in his domestic and work life is just a guy wanting to live his life and love Mandy, but when push comes to shove, he let’s loose an Incredible Hulk level of rage against his enemies and enacts brutal vengeance against them. Cage’s performance is exemplary, because the sheer tsunami of emotions he unleashes really cements his character and highlights his spree. And as reported previously reported, Cage takes some cues from everyone’s favorite summer camp slasher, Jason Voorhees. Fueled by madness, drugs, and adrenaline, Red becomes a force to be reckoned with and gets fairly creative and brutal with some finishing kills.

Image via IMDB

The villains in the movie stand out in their own ways as well. Jeremiah Sand is a cult leader and former folk rocker in the vein of Charlie Manson, with an emphasis made on his toxic influence and misogyny, lashing out at his followers more often than his perceived enemies. He’s the flipside to Beyond The Black Rainbow‘s main antagonist, the psycho psychologist Dr. Barry Nyle played chillingly by Michael Rogers. While Barry was cold, calculating, and methodical, Jeremiah has a hairtrigger temper, childish tantrums, and lives a hedonistic lifestyle. While Barry dons a cold black suit toward the end, Jeremiah wears a stark white robe when trying to indoctrinate Mandy as ‘his’ property. Though his strung-out ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ act as his main minions, he has some genuinely terrifying allies. A quartet of insane, hyper-violent bikers called ‘The Black Skulls’. Summoned by blood and drugs, they enact Jeremiah’s horrifying will. These four definitely stand-out as antagonists, like a cross between the Hellraiser cenobites, The Plague duo of hitmen from Hobo With A Shotgun, and an Iron Maiden album cover. Needless to say, the fight between them and Red is unforgettable.

Image via IMDB

Which is the only issue I had with Mandy, Red faces off with The Black Skulls and after this excellent set-piece and series of duels, the pacing slows down a little bit… with the exception fo the equally stand-out chainsaw duel. That issue aside, Mandy is everything I could have ever wanted and never realized I would have wanted in such a movie. It is an absurd homage to the 80’s movies where one man can seek justice for a wrong-doing while heaping on an other-worldly experience on top of it. Even if you don’t think it’s your thing, I cannot recommend Mandy enough. It’s a spiritual experience.

Mandy is  now available in select theaters and VOD and will be available on Blu-Ray October 30th. Just in time for Halloween.

Image via IMDB

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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