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What’s up Sorry State readers, I hope wherever you’re reading this, the fall weather has come around like it has here in Raleigh. With it being October and Halloween approaching, I wanted to switch things up and write about a movie this week for my staff pick. When it comes to horror, I like the older, campy stuff like the Evil Dead series or psychological thrillers like The Shining. The movie I’d like to talk about today is a bit of both, the 2018 psychedelic action-horror film, Mandy, directed by Panos Cosmatos and starring Nicolas Cage and Andrea Riseborough. I love when movies are completely out of left field and this movie is exactly that. It’s hard to describe why I like this movie so much, but I can start with the fact that it’s different from any other movie I’ve seen before. Nicolas Cage is fully unleashed in this one in the best way possible, and when his performance is on point, he’s one of my favorite actors. I don’t want to spoil too much of the movie here, but I want to talk about at least the first part of it, so if you want to go into this movie completely blind, stop reading here.
The film takes place in 1983 near the Shadow Mountains of the Mojave Desert in California. The main character, Red (Nicolas Cage), works as a logger and shares a (really cool) cabin in the middle of the woods with his girlfriend, Mandy (Andrea Riseborough), who works as a gas station cashier but in her free time is also an artist and author. Between the conversations the two have and Mandy’s writings, you can tell they’re both a little out there and seem to have been through a fair share of shit in their lives. One day when Mandy is out on a walk, a van full of some very strange looking individuals drives by her and she catches the attention of the man sitting in the passenger seat, who happens to be Jeremiah, the leader of the cult these people are a part of. Side note but the cinematography and some of the shots and the effects they use on them are so well done and this scene, paired with the incredible and haunting score, is one of my favorite examples. It really fills you with a sense of dread and anxiety. It later cuts to a scene of Jeremiah telling one of his loyal disciples that he “needs” the girl he saw today on the side of the road. That night, a couple of the members drive out in the van to an empty field and one of them gets out and blows an ancient looking ocarina which fills the air with red smoke and summons the Black Skulls, a demonic biker gang. One of the cult members offers up a human sacrifice and a jar full of highly potent liquid LSD, in exchange for capturing Mandy and bringing her to the leader. A member of the Black Skulls accepts the offer, and the scene is set from there. I’m gonna stop talking about it there and let you watch the movie if you want to find out what happens, but if this sounds like it may be interesting to you and up your alley, I promise you won’t be disappointed. It definitely might not be for everyone, but if you love a weird, original, and creative movie, I highly recommend it.