31 Oct 2018

Movie review: Mandy

From At The Movies, 7:32 pm on 31 October 2018

The great dividing question in cinema, in my opinion, is "Do you like scary movies?"

For some, horror films - genre pictures, call them what you like - are pure cinema at their purest and most cinematic - shocks delivered through ominous camera work, creepy sound, and a bare minimum of dialogue.

For other, more timid souls, the idea of being deliberately terrified - and paying for the privilege - is like volunteering to be tortured.

Nicholas Cage in Mandy.

Nicholas Cage: busy in his man shed. Photo: Supplied

Especially when your guide into the House of Horrors is Nicolas Cage

Nic Cage is almost as divisive as the whole scary movies thing. He can be great - remember Adaptation? - he can be awful - Face Off, say, or Ghost rider. He can be both - I loved him in Kick Ass.

But one thing you can guarantee. Cage isn't going to let a little thing like taste or restraint interfere with his performance.

Mandy is Nicolas Cage turned up to 11, but first we need to set up the premise - and the character of Mandy.

No, it's not Cage, it's English actress Andrea Riseborough, normally seen in more high-brow fare on the BBC.

Mandy, the character, is a sci-fi fantasy artist, who's married to lumberjack Red - Nic Cage. They live out in the woods accompanied only by a collection of vinyl records, mostly prog-rock band King Crimson.

The sound track is by the late, great Icelandic movie composer Johann Johannson who tragically died earlier this year.

Nobody unnerved like Johann when he was on his game, particularly as he follows Mandy past a van-full of sinister-looking hippie types.

The Children of the New Dawn are clearly based on American nightmare figures, the Charles Manson family of the Sixties.

The Manson figure - Jeremiah - is played by another English good-sport actor who's prepared to do whatever's required, Linus Roach.

Coincidentally, Roach is the son of Britain's best-known Druid - actor William Roach, aka Coronation Street's Ken Barlow.

However I suspect modern-day Druids are less into acid-fuelled, homicidal orgies and more into nice cups of tea.

Mandy

Photo: Supplied

But I digress. As well as Roach's party of travelling loopies there are even more nightmarish bikers in the background, building up to the moment when Cage busts loose and giving them something to think about.

The rest of us aren't offered much to cogitate on, apart from the mantra "merciful heaven, when will this end?"

The director of Mandy is the gloriously-named Panos Cosmatos, who clearly misses the good old days of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes.

To his credit, Panos has moved heaven and earth to try and bring them back.

Fans of the midnight-horror genre - and there are many, even if they don't get out as much as they should - will no doubt welcome the full-blooded enthusiasm with which Mandy sets out to give its audience a bad time.

Most Valuable Players, I suppose, are star Cage, taking care of the Over The Top part, and composer Johann Johannson providing the deafening bottoms.

But the word "valuable" is a matter of opinion. Mandy reminded me why I go to so few horror films, and own so few King Crimson records.

Get the RNZ app

for easy access to all your favourite programmes

Subscribe to At The Movies

Podcast (MP3) Oggcast (Vorbis)