All the Boys Love Mandy Lane

STORYLINE: The orphan Mandy Lane is a beautiful, virgin and pure teenager raised by her aunt, desired by her schoolmates and a close friend of the outcast Emmet. After the death of their high school mate in a pool party, Mandy befriends Chloe, Marlin, Red, Bird and Jake. Red invites the group for a weekend party in the isolated ranch of his family, with all the boys disputing who would succeed in having sex with Mandy Lane. They meet the henchman Garth that takes care of the ranch and he asks the group to go easy on the drugs and booze. In the middle of the night, a stranger wearing a hood attacks Marlin in the barn; when Jake seeks her out, he faces the killer, beginning a night of bloodshed and terror.

Its not exactly your typical slasher film that came out in 2006.

 You have your chance to see a beardless Anson Mount and of course a very sweet Amber Heard.

It doesn't hurt to have Luke Grimes in the cast too.

Adam Powell with Amber.

"The movie was beautifully filmed in a striking location in dry land Texas. The movie is worth seeing for the vistas alone," says one reviewer. Maybe that's why they are bringing it back to theaters this September.

In September 2006, Jonathan Levine‘s All the Boys Love Mandy Lane was part of the Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness slate alongside Bong Joon-ho’s The Host and Borat. Shortly thereafter it made the festival rounds, picking up some love and a distribution deal with Dimension Films. Then, nothing. It became a bit of an urban legend, taunting American horror audiences who wanted the Amber Heard-starring slasher roots flick to play near them. It screened in the UK in 2008, and those in the know took advantage of the Blu-ray import which propelled it toward moderate financial success. Then, nothing. In the meantime, Levine secured praise for The Wackness and went on to make the cancer comedy 50/50, and Heard broke out with Never Back Down and Pineapple Expresses, going on to a steady, eclectic career. Then, nothing. Until now. According to a press release from The Weinstein Company’s Radius outlet, Mandy Lane will (finally) hit VOD September 6th and theaters October 11th. Unless this is a Lucy-with-the-football situation, that means Levine will randomly have two films released this year (after the excellent zombie valentie Warm Bodies). The other ironic linchpin is executive producer Keith Calder (who, full disclosure style, I know personally). His long-delayed Lane will be on VOD just two weeks after another of his delayed, highly anticipated slasher movies, You’re Next, sees theaters. So after all those years, there’s a lot of delayed gratification happening all that once for a handful of filmmakers.-FSR

At first glance this seems only 'teen slasher' (but a professionally filmed and acted slasher). However on reflection, the film clearly is an 'east of eden' story of true evil. Steinbeck would have been thrilled with the treatment which may turn out to be more terrifying on reflection than most teens are prepared to handle. One wonders if the story will be developed in a sequel to evil. Although the ending is unexpected, the film is fair to its audience in providing adequate clues along the way to the source of evil rather than providing only red herrings to miss lead the audience.-BD

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