| ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE (2006) : J.Levine : 6/10 |
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 Given that one of the film's themes relates to split personality, it's rather appropriate that All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is aimed at two very different target-audiences. Most obviously, there's the lucrative teenage-to-25 market, constantly seeking a decently-made horror-thriller in which unfeasibly-attractive examples of their age-group meet grisly ends. Though some viewers may find that the picture's character-establishing early sections are paced just a little too gently, thrill-seeking youngsters will find plenty to divert them in this tale of virginal, sixteenish Mandy (Amber Heard) - a quiety-spoken orphan who combines kittenish seductiveness with wholesome innocence, and is persuaded to join various pals on a weekend jaunt to a remote, secluded (but surprisingly palatial) mansion. The gang soon realise they have an unwelcome visitor with homicidal intent in their midst - and the body-count quickly rises as said interloper goes about his bloody business, seemingly motivated by a desire to get Mandy all to himself. Which is where the film's second, much smaller target-audience will take particular notice: All the Girls Love Mandy Lane is an intriguing variant on the 'Final Girl' concept as famously first defined by Dr Carol Clover in 1985 ("her smartness, gravity... and sexual reluctance set her apart from the other girls") It's surely no spoiler to reveal Mandy as her eponymous movie's Final Girl - but her apparent similarities with (say) Halloween's Laurie Strode prove most deceptive. Hats off to debutant scriptwriter Jacob Forman for providing academe with such a fertile subject for analysis. Indeed, if this had been a more self-referentially post-modern enterprise, it might even have been called 'Final Girl' - rather than the mouthful with which it's been lumbered. In the present climate, however, it's refreshing to find a teen-oriented chiller which doesn't rely on nudge-nudge in-jokes, tension-sapping smart-aleckery or lazy references to genre classics. And while director Levine has clearly seen all the key slasher antecedents, he avoids tired hommage: indeed, his picture's mellow mood, the saturated, colour-heightened cinematography, the agile steadycam work and the adroit use of music cues suggest he's at least as familiar with Boogie Nights and Dazed and Confused as Friday the 13th and He Knows You're Alone. That said, the picture doesn't quite live up to its (relatively) lofty ambitions - nor, it has to be said, to the brilliance of its UK trailer (by John Piedot of The EditPool): a deft, tightly concise trompe-l'oeil that makes particularly fine use of two key tracks from the film's sharp soundtrack - 'Sealed With a Kiss' (Bobby Vinton version) and 'In Anticipation of Your Suicide' by Bedroom Walls. In Mandy Lane itself, however, the film-makers betray their inexperience with an increasing reliance on gratuitous, intrusive visual trickery (juddery frame-manipulation, etc) - and while their final-act twist is undeniably audacious, it manages to be simultaneously both wittily clever (unexpected, rug-pulling) and thuddingly idiotic (contrived, implausible). This means that, while they may have found some newish ways to wield horror's storytelling 'knife', the resultant wounds are seldom more than skin-deep. Neil Young 21.Feb.08 -------------------------------------------------------------------- USA 90m (BBFC timing) director : Jonathan Levine (debut) editor : Josh Noyes (Between.) seen 17.Feb.08 Sunderland (Empire cinema : £5.80)
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