All the Boys Love Mandy Lane

Better than your average slasher-horror, which doesn't say much. Is a bit deeper than normal in that it has a serious drama angle, in that it tackles the subject of obsession. All this is secondary to the slasher theme, unfortunately. However, a good, unexpected twist at the end lifts this from mediocre to decent.

A frustrating experience, because so many elements are just right. Amber Heard is absolutely perfect in the title role, with a well-balanced mix of class, innocence, beauty and a great sense of mystery, which is absolutely essential to this film. You always feel that there's more to her than meets the eye, and so the film does indeed succeed in holding your interest. Darren Genet's cinematography applies many subtle effects to create an atmosphere of wonder and suspense. A feeling which is strengthened by a soundtrack, consisting mostly of melancholic adaptations of sometimes almost unrecognizable classics.

As a psychological thriller this might have made a very effective movie, but unfortunately there is a pointless prologue which explains too much of what we are about to witness. 'Mandy Lane' gives the impression of an intelligent psychological drama, which the production company felt wouldn't be a commercial success, and was therefore turned into a rather mediocre - and minor - gorefest for the yahoo-crowd. This could have been - and probably should have been - one of this year's best films, but it's ruined by extreme violence and a rather silly finale.

Famous for its circuitous route to a wide theater release (it made its film festival premiere in 2006 but didn't debut in theaters until 2013), 'Mandy Lane' became stale before it ever had a chance to be fresh.

It plays to the tropes of many classic horror films, such as, a mysterious killer stalking teens at a party, characters wandering off on their own only to be killed, characters dying after having sex, characters falling down while being chased, etc. The setting and gleaming shots lit by sunlight in the background are reminiscent of 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.' While it's clear that these tropes of intentionally included, it's unclear what statement they are trying to make.

Are these moments of satirical self-awareness? Are they admiring homages? The film is either playing dumb, or perhaps it's just dumb.

I lean toward believing the latter because of how the filmmakers use Mandy Lane, who is, herself, a horror movie cliche-the American virgin, who is pursued but never caught by horny high school dudes or the killer.

She never becomes more than an idea. We hardly learn anything about her, about why all the boys love her, other than because she's attractive. I suppose that's enough for these teen boy doofuses.

Mandy's character remains partially formed, which might have worked fine if not for the reveal in the third act that doesn't wind up making any sense because there's zero exposition on the motivation. Nevertheless, Amber Heard is the quintessential surrogate for Mandy Lane. She looks the part and (mostly) acts it too.

The rest of the acting is atrocious. They actors certainly play exaggerated versions of dumb drunk high school kids, who are obsessed with sex and are startlingly mean to each other. This should be easy to pull off, but somehow none of it feels believable. The worst offenses occur when the characters transition between drunk/high to stone cold sober in seconds. One guy literally smokes weed for two hours straight and still manages to become instantly sober when needed.

There is also an abundance of continuity issues and logical flaws. The teens steal a keg from a dumpy gas station but drink bottles of beer throughout the night of partying. Plenty of other instances will become obvious when watching.

In addition to these other many flaws, the film's biggest issue is that it fails to ever be scary. Sure, its kills are gory and gruesome, but those moments are nothing but plainly gross. They're too straightforward to be scary. The killer plays a role in this boring, non-scary problem too-no one will remember this killer as the next Michael Myers.

Overall, this is a bland and generic teen horror film. It's suited for an audience that isn't playing close attention and won't question any of the many issues.

Before renting "All the boys love Mandy Lane", I saw its trailer in the YouTube to check it out. Good cameras, interesting story and there were some good reviews in IMDb. Well, maybe I was in for a surprise. You never know. So I took the risk and rented the film. But in the first moments of the film, I noticed that this one was not different at all - it was just another brick in the wall.

To begin with, apart from the differences of sex and looks there's nothing to really differentiate the characters in this film. Other films are able to provide simple characters (even if one-dimensional ones) with whom we can identify with. This film gives us a very superficial glimpse of the characters, their relationships, conflicts.. What we see in "All the boys love Mandy Lane" is just a bunch of stereotyped American teenagers like we've seen so many times before.

And how is Mandy Lane? Mandy Lane, as portrayed by Amber Heard, is just your typical high school girl. There are many girls like her - in any high school there are dozens of Mandy Lanes. Amber Heard has nothing really distinctive about her. She's pretty, that's all. Then, why do all the boys love Mandy Lane? This is a film, that's why.

That said, let's go to the film. As you well know, all the guys are mad about Mandy Lane. The boys (with the help of the girls) prepare a party. Mandy Lane is invited to this party. The party is to take place in an isolated ranch. No one had succeeded till now in scoring Mandy. The objective of this party is to ease things out. A girl in the group wants to make it with a guy, there are rivalries, frustrations, and last but not least, there's someone that loves Mandy so much that he/she is ready to kill for her. But make no mistake, anyone will guess from the beginning who the killer is, but prepare yourself for a wild twist that will put everything upside down.

If the script had managed to give us flesh and body characters and describe in more detail the relationship among the characters (their emotions, their conflicts...), this film could have been a memorable slasher teen flick. Had the film been done in the right way, there would be in it a growing sense of fear, of encirclement. Conflicts, fights, suspicion, and death advancing on and on.. outside just the empty fields... but the film is unable to build up the suspense.

"All the boys love Mandy Lane" is just a passable entertainment and nothing more. If you want to see a film with more substance try "High Tension" (Haute Tension), a very good french slasher flick.

"Mandy Lane" (Amber Heard) is the most beautiful and desired person at her high school and all of the guys lust after her. But while she is nice to everyone she only has one person she considers a friend and he is the social outcast named "Emmet" (Michael Welch). Then one day she surprisingly accepts an invitation to go to a pool party at the house of another student named "Dylan" (Adam Powell) with one provision-that Emmet is allowed to go too. Since Dylan is obsessed with Mandy he reluctantly agrees. Once there Dylan tries to get Mandy to take off her clothes and Emmet interferes. Dylan punches Emmet who then goes onto the roof to get away from the crowd. Eventually Dylan goes up to the roof to try to get Emmet down. Since Dylan is quite drunk Emmet convinces him that Mandy would be very impressed if he jumped from the roof into the pool. Dylan does and bangs his head on the concrete which kills him instantly. Everybody, including Mandy, rightfully blames Emmet. Because of this Mandy decides to start hanging out with some of the more popular students and eventually accepts a weekend invitation out in the country with 3 guys and 2 other girls. What Mandy doesn't know is that the intent of the vacation is to drink and have sex and she is the primary target of the guys. But things begin to take a turn for the worse once they get out there. Anyway, rather than reveal the rest of the story and possibly ruin the film for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was a decent slasher film for the most part. Although some scenes were definitely slow it had more depth than most films of this type. It also had 3 very attractive actresses in Whitney Able (as "Chloe"), Melissa Price ("Marlin") and the aforementioned Amber Heard. The ending is also quite wicked. All things considered then I rate this movie as slightly above average.