A couple years ago I found out about the film I have for review here, at that time there seemed to be alot of hype about the film and that caught my interest. It seemed to of been shelved here in the United States, but did get a Region 2 release. At the time of the Region 2 release I had no way to play the DVD so I just passed it up and waited until now to finally be able to see it on it's US home video debut. The only question left is does it live up to the hype that has surrounded it and was it worth the wait or is it just another over-hyped film that got shelved because it was bad? Let the autopsy begin!
This film follows a beautiful cheerleader who seems to be the desire of all the guys at her school. One night at a party one of her admirers ends up dead after try to do a stunt to impress her. Nine months later she is getting back to normal and she is ready to go out and have a party at a ranch with her friends. At first things seem to be fine and they all are having fun. Things go from good to worse when one by one they end up dead. Is this a ghost from her past that is out to pay them back or is it something much more sinister that is going on?!
The plot of this film is what I like to call a "paint by numbers" slasher and really does nothing new or ground breaking. Now in some cases that is fine because it can be done that way and still be a good and fun film. In the case of Mandy Lane this film fell flat on it's face from the start. There really is nothing redeeming about this film! The characters are quite annoying and have no character development in the least bit, the plot in ways is quite a rip-off of a film I will not mention due to spoiling it for those who want to see this film. To top it off when it comes to the twist which could of been good they completely dropped the ball and made the twist lame. I really wish that I could say there was something redeeming about it, but I simply can't.
Now I do know that this was the director's earlier film and it could of been a learning curve for him, because he did go on to a do a good job on the film "Warm Bodies". This film was just way over-hyped and really does not deserve the hype it got. Now if you are a fan of bland and boring slashers that have nothing appealing then pick this one up, but those sick of crappy wanna-be slasher films do yourself a favor and avoid this film like the plague! I have watched this film and suffered through it so you don't have to!
I will say the picture quality on this release is quite good and is very clean. The audio is great as well. If you can make it through the film without falling alseep of boredom then you can watch it a second time and listen to the audio commentary by the director which is the only special feature on the release. In the end it is an overall good presentation of such a horrible movie.
I give this film 0 out of 5 scalpels!
-Daniel "Damnation" Lee
Director: Jonathan Levine
Lead Actor/Actress: Amber Heard
Genre: Horror
Blu-ray Release Year: 2013
Theatrical Release Year: 2006
Time Length: 90 mins.
Rating: R
Region Code: Region A
Release Company:Anchor Bay Entertainment
Website:
www.anchorbayent.com
A couple years ago I found out about the film I have for review here, at that time there seemed to be alot of hype about the film and that caught my interest. It seemed to of been shelved here in the United States, but did get a Region 2 release. At the time of the Region 2 release I had no way to play the DVD so I just passed it up and waited until now to finally be able to see it on it's US home video debut. The only question left is does it live up to the hype that has surrounded it and was it worth the wait or is it just another over-hyped film that got shelved because it was bad? Let the autopsy begin!
