[All The Boys Love Mandy Lane]
Plot:Plot:Involves a girl who every boy in town wants, and who's life is put in danger when a rejected admirer begins to eliminate the competition.

Cast:Amber Heard, Anson Mount, Michael Welch, Aaron Himelstein, Edwin Hodge, Whitney Able, Luke Grimes, Melissa Price, Adam Powell, Robert Earl Keen, Peyton Hayslip, Brooke Bloom.

My Thoughts:Not much there, but oh what an ending.

Review:Lots of people have tried to do something new and different with the slasher genre. Many have tried, and many have failed. But now we get "All The Boys Love Mandy Lane"...a slasher film which slips into what I like to call the "Heartbreak Horror" subgenre. A subgenre where rejected, scorned lovers seek bloody and gruesome retribution...at the expense of many. Such films of this genre include "Valentine", and "Carrie 2" can even be tossed in there as well. "All The Boys Love Mandy Lane" follows a girl who every guy at school adores, and is trying to score with. Many have tried, and all have been shut down.

After a jock, who's interested in Mandy...makes an attempt to impress her, which results in him getting killed accidentally, we fast-forward to later on where a group of teens are headed up to one of their relatives place for the usual hangout gathering. Mandy Lane is invited along, but of course...the boys all have less than honorable intentions for Mandy, as they are planning to "get lucky" with her, and hoping the quiet...country setting will be just the trick to get what they want. This film plays out in an unusual fashion, not really letting us know there's any danger present until about...the middle portion of the film, which is where the first victim is disposed of.

It's not a slasher movie which uses a death or two as it's take off point, but instead spaces out the killings quite far apart, but that's not necessarily a good thing. The characters are not really that interesting, and the dialogue runs along the lines of the typical teen dialogue you'd expect to hear in a film like this. So keeping the deaths 15 to 20 minutes apart each time kind of hurts the movie, considering there's nothing else really to gravitate to here. Amber Heard, who plays Mandy Lane is not exactly that interesting on the surface...and really just seems like a generic blonde type who really seems disinterested with all the male attention she receives from the boys at school.

This is a constant in the film, and doesn't change at any point. So just why is she so disinterested? This is a question that never gets answered...but once the film moves along nearing it's conclusion, Mandy begins to open up a bit more...a scenario sparred by the vicious murders which begin to take place and thin out the heard little by little. The deaths are nothing to speak of in any amazing fashion, and mostly come from a gun and a few stabbing weapons. They aren't spectacular, but do have a certain classic, more realistic edge to them.

I mean...you could look at it that maybe it's nice to have a film where the killer is more concerned with getting the job done, over how he gets the job done, and how he looks doing it. The films third act plays out like the typical slasher film fare, with the kids realizing danger is at their door a little too late, and by the time they prepare to flee...the killer has taken the necessary steps and precautions to prevent that from happening. However, the ending is really where this film was apparently hoping to make it's money, as a whopper of a twist is tossed into the mix, and it's a sensible twist...however despite it's kind of disappointing and shameful undertones.

This twist is then followed by a series of twists which emerge up until the very end, where for once...you actually feel sorry for the survivor of the massacre, considering the situation they now have to face. "All The Boys Love Mandy Lane" follows too many of the typical slasher movie rules, laws, and bi-laws to be anything special, satisfying, or visually stunning...but it does pack a wallop of an ending, which I guess allows it some bonus points from me. If you like generic slashers that do generic things, but smarten up at the end...then check this flick out.

Positives:Good acting by Amber Heard, great twists at the end.

Negatives:Beyond Mandy Lane, everyone else is a carbon copy of the typical slasher film teenager. Bad dialogue, lame deaths, and too many slasher movie cliches.

Overall:Decent slasher film.





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