Thursday 11 October 2018

If You Go Down To The Woods Tonight...


...You're sure of a big surprise.

 
Cult films used to be honoured over time and thus given the status of being ‘a cult hit’. But the trend in aiming to make a film that already demands to be ‘a cult film’ has increased in the last decade, films usually involving blood, gore, killer soundtrack and a thin plot. But ‘Mandy’ is different, it has a not so subtle or secret weapon, it has Nicolas Cage.

Set in 1983, Logger Red lives in the middle of a forest with his fantasy artist girlfriend Mandy. They are content with their quiet reclusive lives until they are attacked by A sinister deformed LSD hooked biker gang and an evil hippie cult who’s leader, Jeremiah, who has become obsessed with Mandy after seeing her in the woods. After Mandy is brutally murdered, Red, left for dead, gathers weapons and goes out on a blood soaked rampage into the forest, seeking revenge on the cult and the biker gang.

  
The film exudes an unsettling atmosphere throughout and never really leaves you, not even after the film ends. The use of glowing red and purple light creates the sense that what you’re seeing, isn’t real, it’s a fantastical world where evil things happen. The use of demonic imagery grounded in reality, such as the bikers, stretches the idea that high doses of LSD made them this way when really daily doses of a high concentrated version of the drug would surely kill you. But in this fantastical world, evil creatures like the bikers exist alongside the outwardly human cult members. The feels like a novel, split into chapters with clear-cut good and evil characters. Its fantasy elements also prelude to later events, with a smell of magic in the air. The final shot of the film even resembles a cover of a book of that genre. Fierce orange toned moons looming over the desolate forest, it sends chills down your spine.

 
Nicolas Cage is on top form and has several new scenes he can add to that screaming show reel on Youtube. The character of Red is a perfect role for him to play with. With less dialogue than characters such as Jeremiah, Red is a man of few words and his actions speak volumes more than anything he says. The bloody violence is also something a grizzled actor like Cage can handle and he wields his homemade axe well. Although Andrea Riseborough’s Mandy is the film’s namesake, she only really appears in the first half of the film but with unearthly present, long hair and jet black eyes, she leaves a lasting image with Red as well as us, the audience. 


Co-written and directed by Panos Cosmatos, the film at times does feel like death metal band’s music video but throughout, the story seems to be as if it was lifted directly from the pages of a dark fantasy novel, similar to the one Mandy reads in the film. The imagery alone is enough to have a field day of analyzing what everything means, but at the same time can be rationalised that this isn’t one long LSD trip. Thanks to Park Circus, I was lucky to see the film screened in Union Chapel, with similar lighting used in the film, red and purple, it felt as if we were being immersed into the film, a perfect setting to see this story unfold.
 
Mandy is no doubt a ‘cult film’ in the making. From the font used in each chapter, the ethereal presence of Mandy after death, the demonic evil cult and deformed bikers to the soundtrack that is somewhat over powering but still manages to keep order. The film is a horror that is evokes fear and disgust but it also has a few laughs, but its Nicolas Cage so what would you expect?