Mandy (2018)

Can new life be squeezed out of tried-and-true genre tropes? History says yes and if you look the evidence is literally everywhere. One has to look no further than the horror film, whose multitude of subgenres have all been receiving its fair amount of attention due to new filmmakers overhauling the limitations and expectations of its very classification. The slasher film, famously reinvented in the 90's thanks to Wes Craven's Scream, has once again been jolted back into life thanks to films like The Guest, Hush and You're Next. The possession film has taken hold again, mostly thanks to indie stalwart The Witch and this year's incredible Hereditary. Monsters and boogeymen are still terrorizing people in films like The Babadook and It Follows. Films detailing psychological horror personified as serial killers is now best seen in television series such as True Detective and Mindhunter. But, much like trying to classify the serial killer subgenre (does it ultimately belong under horror or thriller? Is thriller an offshoot of horror?), the revenge film can fall into multiple categories. A film like Last House on the Left is undeniably considered to be a staple of the horror genre, yet at its heart it's truly a revenge film. Horror, grindhouse, cult, revenge... all these films usually get cast under the same umbrella, most likely because, at some point, you know you're going to see something grotesque, violent and probably fucked up.

Which is why trying to classify what Mandy really is... is kind of hard. Director Panos Cosmatos has crafted something totally new here, a monolithic ode to genre that utterly transcends its individual limitations (the revenge film, the cult film, the... fantasy film?) and becomes this whole new beast. At its core Mandy can be sold as a revenge film: a cult kidnaps Mandy and her husband proceeds to murder everyone who destroyed their life together. But that's boring and I'm not interested in talking about the plot of the film. I'm more fascinated in how completely transcendent the films is. Remember that YouTube show, Every Frame a Painting? Well, consider this Every Frame a Prog Metal Album Cover. Some filmmakers have to pad out their runtime to make sure their movie meets a certain length. That is not the case here, as you can tell that every single scene- no, every single frame has been meticulously crafted to serve a very particular need. Not a single second is wasted here which ultimately creates a stunning portrayal of grief that is, at the same time, serenely surreal. It's honestly a very calming film throughout its first act.

The film feels like a hallucinatory collage of cosmic wizardry, prog rock, dinged-up fantasy paperbacks, Ralph Bakshi cartoons and heavy metal. Scenes of this seem like they were lifted off the side of an 80's Chevy van depicting an epic chainsaw fight with biker demons. Or, as Cosmatos has stated here, they feel more like what one thought the contents of an off-limits VHS tape would hold. There's something about 1983... the date first stood out to me when Flying Lotus (another artist who revels in the past to create works that are absolutely and stunningly original) used it as the title for his debut album. It's also the year that saw full-length debuts from artists such as Metallica, Slayer and, most importantly, Dio. Ronnie James Dio is the grand wizard who first wove fantasy and heavy metal to such dizzying heights and his influence can absolutely be seen here.

The film literally opens with King Crimson's Starless and segues into a beautiful, ethereal score from the late Johann Johannsson with assistance from famed Sunn O))) guitarist, Stephen O'Malley. Top it off with the added guidance of producer Randall Dunn, whose work with atmospheric hard rock/metal bands like Earth, Sunn O))) and Wolves in the Throne Room (among countless others) and, well, you're left with a score that helps accentuate the action on screen to the 666th degree. It's a metal/industrial hybrid that absolutely works and sticks in your mind long after the film ends. Mandy is literally the ultimate heavy metal movie.

It's so rare that a movie you've been hyping up in your mind for well over a year not only delivers but literally tramples over any and all expectations you may have held. Upon it's release in 1970, El Topo became an immediate cult success and thus became known as the first "midnight movie". And while Mandy is a very different kind of film, it still struck a cord with its audience. A very specific cord, one that will guarantee it the cult status it deserves while also allowing it to join rank with the midnight masters who are still seen on the big screen today, decades after its original release. May Mandy live on forever.