ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE (2006)

Studio:       Anchor Bay
Director:    Jonathan Levine
Writer:       Jacob Forman
Producer:  Felipe Marino, Joe Neurauter, Chad Feehan
Stars:     Amber Heard, Michael Welch, Whitney Able, Edwin Hodge, Aaron Himelstein, Luke Grimes, Melissa Price, Anson Mount

Review Score: 

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Summary:

A high school party weekend turns into a nightmare when Mandy Lane’s friends and suitors begin disappearing one by one. 

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Mandy Lane is the most desired girl in high school. Her best friend is social outcast Emmet. Mandy is invited to a pool party at Dylan’s house and she insists on bringing Emmet. Emmet interrupts Dylan’s flirting with Mandy, which prompts a fight. Dylan later finds Emmet on the roof. Emmet convinces Dylan to jump from the roof to the pool while drunk in order to impress Mandy. Dylan busts his skull on the pavement and dies.

Nine Months Later – Mandy ignores Emmet at school. Red is planning a weekend party at his ranch with friends Bird, Jake, Marlin, and Chloe. Mandy is also invited. Marlin shows Chloe her navel piercing. Mandy, who lives with her cousin Jen, convinces Aunt Jo to let her go to the ranch.

On the drive to the ranch, the six teens steal a beer keg from a man at a gas station. At the ranch entrance, Bird and Mandy elect to walk the rest of the way. They hold hands and Bird kisses Mandy on the cheek. Ranch hand Garth arrives in a jeep to take the pair up to the house. The teens go swimming. Garth shoots a snake in the water, which startles the group.

In the evening, the friends play Truth or Dare. Mandy is dared to invite Garth inside to drink with them. She and Garth speak outside, but he turns down the offer to join them because he is employed by Red’s father. Jake storms off when the girls joke about his penis size. Marlin follows Jake to the barn and goes down on him. He refuses to return the favor and leaves Marlin alone in the dark. Someone attacks Marlin and forcibly rams a shotgun into her mouth.

Jake returns to the house and the power goes out. Bird is convinced to go start the generator. Red helps Chloe who is caught in the darkened bathroom. Outside, Garth tells Bird that the generator has nothing to do with the house power. Bird realizes he was played and Jake removed a fuse so he could be alone with Mandy. Jake tries to get with Mandy while they are alone, but she deflects his advances. When the power is restored, Jake takes a gun and drives away in the truck. Jake finds Marlin by the water and realizes she is near dead. Emmet then appears and attacks Jake.

The group at the house hears gunshots from the water. Garth warns Red that he will call Red’s father if there are any more gunshots. Chloe thinks she sees someone covered in blood in the window. She and Mandy share a moment in the bathroom. While the group is on the porch, the truck pulls up and shoots fireworks at the teens before driving off. Bird chases the truck. Garth decides to stay with the other three teens at the house. Bird and Emmet fight, but Emmet is able to kill Bird.

In the morning, Emmet enters the house and touches Mandy with his bloody hand as she sleeps. Garth discovers Mandy with blood in her hair. The message “wake up” is found on the refrigerator. Garth recommends that they escape, but he is shot when he opens the front door. Red and Chloe escape while Mandy tends to Garth’s wound. Red and Chloe find Jake and Marlin’s bodies tied to a barbwire fence. Emmet shoots Red and chases Chloe. Chloe runs back to the house. When she embraces Mandy, Mandy thrusts a knife into Chloe’s stomach. A murder-suicide pact between Emmet and Mandy is revealed. However, Mandy refuses to take the pills that will kill her. Emmet points his gun at Mandy. Garth arrives and fights with Emmet. Mandy runs. Emmet chases Mandy into a pit of slaughtered animals. Mandy eventually kills Emmet and later drives away with Garth.

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Review:

All the boys do indeed love Mandy Lane.  And so do some of the ladies, as well.  As the most desired girl at her high school, Mandy is to die for.  Unfortunately for everyone who shares that lustful attraction, she is even the type of girl that someone is willing to kill for, too.

Truth be told, not exactly everyone loves Mandy Lane.  Immune to her irresistible charms are the studio executives and distributors who have allowed the film to languish in unreleased purgatory since it was completed in 2006.  Seven years later, The Weinstein Company at last has the film on tap for a 2013 theatrical debut.  Experience has it that this is never a good sign.  After all, why would anyone bottle up a must-see moneymaker so it can collect dust instead of ticket sales?

The success or failure of “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane” comes down to timing.  The movie is an intentional retread of typical teen slasher tropes.  Appreciation for what the film wants to do is dependent upon the viewer’s willingness to wade through familiar territory.  Released in a window where 1980’s-style high school killer on the loose thrillers are few and far between, “Mandy Lane” can be entertaining for a spell, even if it is derivative.  Watch it after a “Friday the 13th” marathon, however, and one is liable to grow bored very quickly.

After a stunt intended to garner Mandy’s affection turns deadly for the would-be suitor, life eventually goes on for Mandy and her circle of assorted friends and hangers-on.  Classmate Red’s father owns a ranch that makes for a perfect weekend getaway and party hotspot where he can finally put the moves on Mandy.  Red will have to be quick about it, though.  His friends Bird and Jake have their own designs on bedding Miss Lane.  But fighting over Mandy is soon to be the least of their problems.  Complicating matters further is an unknown maniac who would rather butcher the kids one at a time than worry about teenage lust and high school crushes.

Equal parts cute and sexy, as well as wholesome and seductive, Amber Heard has the perfect cross-gender appeal to sell Mandy Lane as the girl that everyone wants a piece of.  The premise would be DOA if Mandy were portrayed as anything less than everything Heard embodies in the role.  Mandy’s personality could use some fine-tuning, as she is far from being the most interesting girl of all time, but her character is of an age when hormones are more apt to buy physical attraction than anything truly substantial.

Her friends have the expected disparate personalities.  The adjectives are not as clearly delineated as is usual for this style of film, but there is still the requisite mixture of jock, nerd, stoner, and slut.  Before passing this assemblage off as completely stereotypical, know that “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane” depicts these characters in a more realistic and relatable light than most other films of the kind.  What is unusually different about this grouping is that they are believable as a real circle of friends, even with their sometimes-clashing personas.

Whereas “Scream” was a pastiche of teen-centric horror films, “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane” is a celebration of the sub-genre.  In his feature debut, director Jonathan Levine eschews breaking new ground to focus on taking a proven formula and simply doing it well.  For the most part, his film accomplishes its intention of slotting itself as a throwback slasher about high school revelry plagued by a serial killer.  It is not necessarily a notable standout, but it is not a failure, either.

The production is solid.  The photography looks good, particularly the high contrast daytime exteriors that evoke a touch of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”  The acting is on par for the characterizations and the kills are suitably bloody.  It may not be difficult to see why the film has been in a perpetual limbo between 2006 and 2013.  It is easy to push to one side and pass “Mandy Lane” off as just another teen horror film.  And in a way, it is.  But at the same time, it can be an entertaining spin inside the sub-genre, even if it is not wholly original.

Review Score:  70

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