All the Boys Love Mandy Lane

Screened at the SXSW Film Festival

There is one moment in the opening minutes of All the Boys Love Mandy Lane that I will never forget as long as I live. It involves a peripheral character leaping off of a roof, aiming for the pool. (Why he does this I leave for you to discover.) He misses, hitting the concrete before tumbling into the water, covered in blood. We do not see the impact — the camera angelically floats down to the pool, and we see the poor guy as he falls in. But we hear the sound, and I swear the foley artists must have actually recorded someone’s body smashing against the ground. It’s more brutal than any effects image the filmmakers could have come up with. The entire audience gasped as one. It haunts me.

The film goes on to offer some similar visceral thrills, mostly of the gruesome variety — Mandy Lane is not yet rated, but I can promise that it won’t be a PG-13 throwaway. What distinguishes it from the slasher flock, however, isn’t its kills, but its smarts: the extent to which it taps into the high school psyche and recontextualizes its usual sex-alcohol-and-drugs temptations. For a while, the crazy killer who is after Mandy and her friends seems like a natural extension of everything else that pursues Mandy, and that she’s managed to resist: the innumerable advances of high school boys, the avalanches of cocaine, the pills, the liquor. Heck, high school can sometimes seem like you’re trying to evade a murderous psychopath.

Alas, Mandy Lane imploded this theory in the final minutes, as a hollowly nifty twist redefined what we’ve been watching, and left me without a coherent theory of the film. But what does remain is the sharp dialogue, playful dismantling of high school stereotypes, and top-notch production values — director Jonathan Levine maintains an atmosphere of persistent nervousness, without the frantic ups-and-downs of many horror films; the dread is there even in the early scenes, as bright music plays over generally placid high school goings-on. Later, Levine somehow manages to make the song “Sister Golden Hair Surprise” creepy.

Amber Heard is a beautiful mystery in a star-making turn, though the film’s discovery might be Michael Welch, who has the least screen time but makes the biggest impression. But really, Mandy Lane is itself a discovery. Earlier in the festival, the director of an inferior film was introduced as a “new voice in horror.” That description should have been reserved for Levine.

-- Eugene Novikov

Released:	2007
Starring:	Edwin Hodge, Aaron Himelstein, Luke Grimes, Anson Mount, Whitney Able, Michael Welch, Amber Heard
Directed by:	Jonathan Levine
Rated:	NR