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Panos Cosmatos

Mandy – Panos Cosmatos (2018)

  • horror

This film had been on my wish list for a while. A horror of Panos “Beyond The Black Rainbow” Cosmatos.

Mandy and lumberjack Red (Nicholas Cage) live in a remote wooden cabin. When a sinister sect moves into a building close by, the leader lets his eye fall on Mandy. His henchman kidnap Mandy at night, while leaving Red nailed to a tree in their garden. Mandy does not conform to the leader’s wishes and the sect set Mandy on fire while Red is watching. Red sets out for revenge.

The first part of the film is a surreal hippy type film with bright colours and a psychedelic rock score not entirely unlike “Beyond The Black Rainbow”. It looks quite nice. The sect brings a bit of an occult tone.

Especially after the kidnap, the film turns into a slasher horror. The tone gets darker, less psychedelic and Cage is allowed to do ‘his thing’. This is not the most interesting part of the film, but all in all “Mandy reminds me that I should perhaps not leave aside the horror genre entirely.

Beyond The Black Rainbow * Panos Cosmatos (2010)

Somewhere between David Lynch, early David Cronenberg, 80’ies scifi and “The Cube” comes this so far the only film of Cosmatos. I heard about it a while ago but it took some time before I had the chance to see it. Some people complain about the lack of story, but the way I see it, the film is about doctor Barry Nyle who has an elaborate psychological hospital in which one patient has his special interest: Elena. There is something about Elena and Nyle found a way to control her. Not entirely though…

The first three quarters are brilliant. The film is very minimalistic and is more like a visual soundscape with a great soundtrack than a film. Weird colourly overflowing scenes, almost no dialogue, just an overlighted videoclip. Not for the average filmwatcher for sure. In the last quarter the level drops somewhat as new elements are brought into the film, but overall “Beyond The Black Rainbow” is a very interesting psychedelic experience.