Mandy Review/List of 10 Deranged Midnight Movies

                                                                           4,0
 

   

Mandy (2018)

Panos Cosmatos

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache, Bill Duke, Olwen Fouéré

Length: 121 min

Country: US, Canada

Mandy is a face-melting, eye-popping, hair-burning satanic creation, tinged with bright scarlet blood, saturated with profound darkness and filtered through neon lights. Cosmatos turned a pretty straightforward revenge tales into a mesmerising kaleidoscope of horrific beauty.
It's like going through the pages of a burned and damaged pulp novel or zapping obscure tv channels after the watershed on heavy drugs.
With its opening credits in red font, a God-view of a timber field and the sublime King Crimson's "Starless" in the background, Cosmatos immediately set the haunting anti-clerical mood of its film.
It's clear, from the start that we are in the hands of an aesthete, heir of visionary masters as Lynch and Tarkovski, as well as, distasteful horror exploitation directors as "the wizard of gore" Herschell Gordon Lewis.
Set in the 1980s, it follows lumberjack Red (Nicolas Cage) and his lover, the ethereal metal-head Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) living a peaceful existence in a remote house in the forest. This idyllic scenario is shuttered when a sadistic cult enters the picture. The leader of this cult is Jeremiah Sand (A fantastic Linus Roache), a cruel and insane man who brings to mind Dennis Hopper with its aerosol cannister in Blue Velvet (1980), as well as, a wild Iggy Pop getting naked on stage.
This dreamy imaginary soon turns into a Lynchian hallucinatory nightmare of a deranged mind. Just to give you an idea, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are demoniac bikers made of metal and blades with a giant phallic dagger between their legs.

Nicolas Cage is perfect as a heavy metal bloodthirsty avenger, and it's hard to imagine that this film would have worked out without such a cult and ambiguous figure at its core (I might even forgive him for what he did to The Wicker Man). Mandy's high contrast aesthetic and especially the latest (and sadly last) transcendental score from Icelanding masterful composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, are what elevates the film above any average revenge thriller. Delving into dark black metal and experimental ambient music, Jóhannsson creates a harrowing orchestra of despair and even love.
Similarly to the recent Nicolas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon (2016), Mandy is an over-stylised, over the top, overtly violent neon delirium which is hardly every one cup of tea. Many argue that Mandy is another case of style over substance. Probably true, but I cannot help to be grateful that in our modern age we can still witness these raw and unpolished Midnight Movies.  Its self-awareness and self-indulgence, its vivid imaginary and visceral power, and its sweet tenderness and gory violence make Mandy one of the greatest cinematic oddities of the year. Watch it on a big screen if you dare.

Movies you might like if you like Mandy: 

Blood Feast (1963) by Herschell Gordon Lewis

The Evil Dead (1981) by Sam Raimi

Inland Empire (2007) by David Lynch

Lost River (2014) by Ryan Goslin

Neon Demon (2016) by Nicolas Winding Refn

Niche List of the week

10 Deranged Midnight Movies

The Midnight Movie became a cinematic phenomenon in the early 70's when small theatres started late-night screenings of non-mainstream bizarre creations. Films like the acid western El Topo was screening at the Elgin Theatre in New York City, aiming at building a cult audience for counterculture films.

After the success of Rocky Horror Picture Show, Midnight Movie almost became a synonym of camp. All these films refused conventional ideas of beauty and taste. They were often over the top, often distasteful and often surreal. Low budget B-Movies became for the midnight moviegoer charming delights. Deformities, body horror, gore, fetish, violence, drug use, hallucinations and coprophagous drag queens are just a few examples of what to expect from a late night screening. It's going to get weird.

• Freaks (1932) by Tod Browning

Maybe the first Midnight Movie, Freaks started getting a cult audience in the 50's when it was shown on late-night TV. Browing's circus horror is a misunderstood masterpiece of the grotesque, as impactful now as it was in 1932. Shocking, powerful and affirming it's an incredibly human and modern film. "One of us!" 

• Night of the Living Dead (1968) by George A. Romero

This low budget, poorly acted and not a particularly scary film is without a doubt one of the greatest and most influential horror films of all time. Romero created the zombie genre, a genre that is churning movies or tv shows every week. Night of the Living Dead is surprisingly bleak and subversively political. 

• El Topo (1970) by Alejandro Jodorowsky

Jodorowski's take on the western genre is an intense, grotesque, mystical and disturbing journey that you won't easily forget. A film filled with symbolism, unsettling imagery, surreal elements, which made it an instant cult. John Lennon and Yoko Ono's favourite. El Topo is more than a Midnight Movie, it's an experience. There is nothing quite like it. 

• Pink Flamingos (1972) by John Waters

Pink Flamingo is easily one of the ugliest, vilest, most putrid film ever made and it's proud of it. Walter's attack on "good taste" stars underground transvestite Divine as she plays a woman competing for the title of " Filthiest Person Alive". Not for the faint of heart or stomach. 

• The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) by Jim Sharman 

Rocky Horror Picture Show's cultural impact is immense. Tim Curry's most memorable role, as he plays transvestite scientist Dr Frank-N-Furter. As this wasn't enough...it's a fantastical nonsensical transgressive musical! This movie's the definition of kitsch. 

• Hausu (1977) by Nobuhiko Öbayashi 

Hausu has been described as Scooby Doo on acid, as a gonzo hallucinatory horror comedy with cats, as a hysterical vortex of madness. The truth is, there is no way to describe this Japanese haunted house oddity. If you think there is the weirdest film than Hausu, you are just wrong. One of my all-time favourite. 

• Eraserhead (1977) by David Lynch

A one kind masterwork from Lynch's sick mind. A visually unpleasant nightmarish experience that you don't need to understand, but experience. Remarkably the weirdest surrealist film about the fear of parenthood (I think). Shot in dilapidated industrial settings, Lynch created a haunting movie with a memorable haircut.

• The Evil Dead (1981) by Sam Raimi

Nevermind the terrible acting, clumsy effects. This is undoubtedly one of the greatest and funniest cult classics from the 80's. In a rented cabin in the woods a group of college students find a  mysterious book. They unleash a demonic force from the surrounding forest.  

• Mo-The Boxer's Omen (1983) by Kwei Chih-Hung

Oversaturated colours, Buddism and Black Magic, Mo became a midnight movie in the theatres in Hong Kong. An underseen delirious ride that deserved the same attention of visionary directors as Jodorowski and Lynch. Highly recommended!

• Tetsuo, the Iron Man (1989)by Shinya Tsukamoto

A cyber-erotic experimental metal-body-horror film which will make you feel like you've been suffering for severe mental psychosis. This Cronenbergian nonsensical kinetic roller-coaster is a creepy phallic nightmare.