All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006)
It’s been quite a long time since a quality slasher film has come down the horror pipeline. There have indeed been a few of note, but there really haven’t been any that captured the spirit of the genres 80’s heyday. Slasher fans can finally rejoice however, as right from the awesome opening title card, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane captures the elusive feel of the 80’s slasher film and recreates it pretty damn impressively.
Rating: 
Mandy Lane is hot. All the boys want her, but none can ever manage to get her. After a drunken accident that left a student dead at a party a year earlier, Mandy has stopped hanging out with her “geeky” best friend Emmet, and has begun hanging out with the “cool” crowd. Mandy doesn’t exactly fit in with this crowd however, choosing not to drink, do drugs, or engage in sexual activity like the rest of them. So it comes as a surprise when she decides to accompany all of them to a secluded ranch for the weekend after much cajoling. All the boys are extremely happy about this, seeing as it as a fine opportunity to try and win Mandy Lane’s hand. Unfortunately for all of them, an uninvited guest wants to get Mandy alone as well, and this person is willing to kill everyone else to do just that.
Director Jonathan Levine obviously realizes that the “whodunit” aspect that plagues many of these films has become quite overplayed, and the killer reveals his hand quite early in the film. Because of this, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane becomes much more about the characters than about the mystery, and that definitely works in its favor. What also works is that the characters here are wonderfully realized. Most of these films feature teenage protagonists that feel like they’re written by someone who forgot what it was like being a teenager. Not so here; they want to drink and have sex, a staple of the genre, but they’re also all really insecure and have certain imperfections to their character that make them feel much more palpable than most similar fare. Having a cast full of actors that were generally 1-4 years outside of the targeted age range of their characters doesn’t hurt matters either.
The film also does a phenomenal job of taking the trials and tribulations of being a teenager and elevating them to horrific levels. Friends fall out of favor with one another every day in high school, but in All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, they literally use a knife to stab each other in the back. High school crushes here turn to uncontrollable obsessions. Not fitting into a crowd turns into eliminating that crowd by any means necessary. It’s quite an accomplishment that everything these kids are going through feels quite real, despite the horrific parallels created by the narrative.
The ending is something that I’m sure will be a point of contention for some. I personally felt it was a manipulation of the viewer more so than a twist. While you may see one point of it coming, the coldness of the actions in the final minutes are quite jarring. This may not sink in immediately, but think back to the opening sequence, and then get the gears turning in your head about how long you think this little charade has been going on in the background. Was it all spontaneous, or was it all planned so well that not even the people closest to it all could see it was happening?
Why this film has failed to get a wide theatrical release truly boggles my mind. With a cast of teenagers that actually feel like teenagers, a manipulative narrative that will get under your skin, and a feel that’s a true throwback to the glory days of the slasher, this film makes the suits look all the more idiotic for pushing advertising money the way of garbage like Prom Night. While not a masterpiece by any means, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane does tower above most modern films in the same vein, and it will certainly teach you something as well: love can be a friggin’ bitch.
That looks like one of the dumbest movies of all time!! That trailer puts it in at... - 
I must admit I’m not to sure about this casting bit, Downey seems... - 
Wow. I’m digging it. Fucking love PA movies - 
One of the first films we disagree on. I really, really disliked this film.
Well, actually, it felt like Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. In that it was overhyped, I came away disappointed, and I felt that I could have had a better ending.
Some of the things I did not like about the film was the way it was shot. I know they are trying to breathe life into what is basically just another slasher. But the camera techniques and what-not were better left for smarter movies. None of the characters were likable. Not that this really matters, I guess, but wouldn’t that be a stretch for a teen slasher…likable characters. They focused so much on the sex, drug use and back-stabbing nature of all of the characters that I wanted them to die…at the hands of a killer I disliked even more. I could expand on some of this, but I don’t want to spoil anything. But for those who have seen it, my issue is that the motivation for the killings was DUMB.
For the good. Well, the lead chick was easy on the eyes and showed a little range. The fact that the black guy was not treated like “the” black guy and was actually shown to be identical to his peers was refreshing. It looked nice. Hmmm. Other than that, it was just a slasher with one of the most predictable twists I have seen. You could tell in the first 10 minutes what was going on.
Oh, the gore. For anyone wanting a gory slasher, don’t let the few reviews out there fool you, it is NOT gory. Some of the kills are violent, but not what I would call gory.
To sum it up, I was quite bored with the movie and once again, fail to see how come it is getting high marks from horror sites, although I have my guesses. But it does get some points from me for trying to offer a bit of style to an otherwise bland slasher.
5/10
Oh yeah, maybe it is because I am older, but when they used the Go-Go’s song to show a bit of the high school, the first thing that came to mind was that I was watching an episode of Cold Case Files .
Dammit! I forgot to add how this movie could have ended BETTER!
********SPOILER WARNING********
They should have had the killer be the guy who jumped in the pool. Revenge or some shit against Mandy and her new friends. The two twists they could have used would be to make it look as if her best friend was doing the killing the entire time, but at the end, have him killed by the guy who jumped in the pool, showing that her friend had only followed to spy and make sure Mandy was ok.
Then, to further the twist, show the reason why Mandy was not into any of the boys that were after her was because she was in fact, gay. Have the final two survivors be her and another female she has had a crush on. Make slasher history as the two fall into a bloody, passionate kiss after they somehow dispatch of the jock killer, Now THAT would be an ending I would have rather seen.
Have not seen this but I saw Morbid comparing it to Behind the Mask and how that was bad. No way. Behind the Mask was a great play on the slasher stereotype and I was truly entertained the entire film. I was lucky enough to see it twice on the big screen. One of the few slashers I can still watch.
I never said either were bad as much as I stated I felt they were over-hyped and that the endings were both extremely predictable and tired…especially with the promise both films started with. Worth watching once, I guess, if you want to see stylish looking slashers that started off as if they were bringing something new to the table, but ended up sputtering out in the final acts.
As far as slashers go, give me Hatchet any day over these films. But if you liked Leslie enough to watch it twice, you will probably like this film a lot.
Really? I hated Hatchet. It was beyond generic and the parts in between the deaths were tedious and wore me out. I would close my eyes and wait to hear screaming before opening them again. It was just too much horrible acting and nothing happening. At least, in between deaths, Behind the Mask had witty dialogue and memorable characters. I think Leslie deserves a sequel.
It was an interesting concept that was satisfying in the beginning, but degenerated into a predictable, sub-par slasher worse than the films it was copying.
Hm, I thought it did a great job of becoming a generic slasher, but leaving such a little bit of time left that there was no fat and it was non-stop action. I loved the end. That’s the problem with 99% of slashers, they have too much filler and the stories suck. This one had a good story for the first 2/3 and then tons of action afterwards.
Yeah, and admittedly, both Leslie and Mandy were hyped all to hell…so I was expecting more than what I got. Maybe if I had not went in with such high expectations, I wouldn’t have been so let down.
Maybe Ill check them both out again, now that it has been a good while since I have seen them.
Too bad Morbid…but like I said, I can definitely see the ending rubbing some people the wrong way. It worked for me after thinking about it for a day. The characters worked for me too. Generally in these films I’m annoyed by half of the cast, but no one bothered me here at all. They all seemed like regular teenagers. And I liked Behind the Mask too. Hatchet was OK too, but I actually felt that was more of the “overhyped slasher” of recent memory. It is dumb fun though, I had a better time watching it a second time with a friend.
The main thing that hurts these flicks is poor distribution. The suits dick around for so long that by the time you see them, you can’t helped but be overhyped.