Tecomogamic. Episode 5 - Mandy.

The many expectations of Mandy.

Prior thoughts.

Well, the cover of the DVD certainly makes me interested. The inspiration it draws from the Sam Raimi’s Evildead is uncanny and I like it. It also stars Nicolas Cage so that’s a bonus, the film will therefore have at least a spark of hope to it, in fact this film has my expectations higher than usual. I was actually looking forward to watching it!

Fleshed out review.

The entire movie was dream like even somewhat nightmarish. The use of colour is interesting to say the least. The colour palette is that of the cosmos with different shades of purples which does a great deal to help direct the psyche of viewer to feel as though they are indeed watching a nightmare. And for good reason.
The use of story telling is of particular quality. One story, shared earlier on in the film has a tendency to stay with you. In fact, the story is so detailed, peculiar and horrific that one has to wonder if it was indeed a fictional story or if it was perhaps something that had happened to the author of the film Pano Cosmotos as a child.

The underlying fear of cultism that existed throughout 80’s rings true within the film with many hints at satanism peppered throughout. To top off the uneasiness of the movie the villains of the film ride around in a creepy Scooby Doo van typical of the time period. The use of clever trick photography makes the films visuals trippy in places. But it’s not enough to save the film, especially earlier on.

Than as quickly as the story develops it falls short. In fact, around half an hour in I was considering pulling the pin on the entire film. After a giant yawn I decided to hang in there. As did Nicolas Cage. It should be noted that this man will do just about anything for a pay check!

After a series of insults were exchanged between the villains of the story and Cage a realisation suddenly dawned upon me. I had heard this story before. Some parts of it were drawn from actual events that took place in the heartland of the United States. The original story goes as follows. A couple of switched on fellas had built their own house in the forest. They than invited some strangers in and shared their home with them while inviting them to stay and celebrate. The strangers accepted and than turned on their good hosts, murdering them. The perpetrators were eventually caught and brought to justice.
Yes, I have a strong feeling that some of this films ideas were perhaps drawn from these actual events.
Anyways. The films heart relies on the viewers needing to harvest a strong sense of revenge. If the viewers flames of hatred are not fanned than the film doesn’t work. And the flames are only ever so briefly fanned at all.
Cage has an Evildead moment while scaunching on the toilet. That was somewhat amusing. This is followed by an awesome forging scene where Cage creates his own badass battle axe, this is than followed by another couple of evil dead inspired scenes some of which were actually quite enjoyable. Then it gets weird, real weird, than Cage powders his nose and that’s when shit gets knocked into 12th gear.... I’m not going to lie, I actually started to have fun with this film.
But in the end the films enjoyability somewhat falters. Was the film well made, yes, I would have to say that it was. Was this helped in part due to having access to Nicolas Cage, yes I would have to say so. Were there original filming techniques? Yep, there was a couple of those as well. However, did the film make a lick of sense? Nope, sadly not. Did it leave me wanting to solve the mystery of why nothing really made any sense? Nope not really. Overall it had its moments, a sword fight with chainsaws was amongst one of these highlights however it was over shadowed by the sense that perhaps the director was simply making the story up as he went. Could I have made a better film. Fuck no. I can barley make a decent cup of tea. Was the director inspired by past ideas and did he use these well. Yes, of course. The flow of the story is off, some parts could have been trimmed to pace the story better. Do my thoughts really matter? Fuck no. It is best to remember that there were tremendous amounts of work that went into making this film. I appreciate that, without question. Was it a bad film. Nope. Was it a great film. Nope. Will it become a cult classic? Possibly? Was it trying to become a manufactured cult classic? Yep. No doubt about it. And I think this is where the real problem lies. Recognising that the director loves cult classics is interesting but eating the member berries didn’t make the Evildead and it certainly didn’t make Donny Darko. These films were cult classics because they were fresh, timeless and displayed new talents. Would I have jumped at the opportunity to have Nicolas Cage in my movie if I was making one, fuck yeah, of course I would have. Should I have? Probably not. Could the lead role have been played by a rando unknown actor? Yep, no doubt about it. Would I have picked up the DVD if it did have a rando actor on it? Nope probably not. Was Pano smart about his selections for his actors and actresses, undoubtably. Can we expect big things from Panos next film?
Yes and that is the biggest expectation I got from viewing Mandy.