"All the Boys Love Mandy Lane" isn't your typical Ambercrombie catalogue list of CW rejects and cliched stalk and slash kills. It's a smart, well written, well directed film that could literally revive the slump that horror has been in as of late. But, with the troubled release of the film, my fear is that it will wind up on the video store shelf next to The "Grudge 3" and "Boogeyman 2". Lets hope not, because it is seriously one of the best horror films of the last ten years.

In the film, a group of high schoolers invite Mandy Lane (Amber Heard), a good girl who became quite hot over the summer, to a weekend party on a secluded ranch. While the festivities rage on, the number of revelers begins to drop quite mysteriously.

Cheekily thumbing its nose at the conventional horror movie, "Mandy Lane" runs the danger of being too clever for its own good. Although it's strength is that it flatters the audience into being in on the joke, it doesn't shy away from the nasty suspense sequences, but if you're at an ironic distance from the characters who are equally sardonic about their predicament, you don't care much about whether they live or die, it's all about the sensational kills. Fortunately, Mandy doesn't find the situation as exciting as her contemporaries as she's the only level-headed center of the action. Given the nasty bunch of people Mandy decides to hang out with, I found myself rooting the killer on.

Indeed, most of us would be driven crazy by the sheer boredom of these rich kids' indolent existence, but Levine keeps you guessing until the end. Mandy has sufficient poise and presence, but most everyone else is merely a type rather than an individual, but there are some pretty stand out sequences. One in particular involves a jaw being removed with the business end of a shotgun. OUCH!

It seems obvious that director Jonathan Levine was trying to make a movie in the vein of the 80s (my favorite era for slasher films), and for that reason I give the film 100% Pit approval. Hopefully you will be able to see it on the big screen before it gets lost of the dusty shelves at Blockbuster.

'ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE A Film by JONATHAN LEVINE
Starring AMBER HEARD - ANSON MOUNT - WHITNEY ABLE - MICHAEL WELCH - EDWIN HODGE & AARON HIMELSTEIN
Written by Jacob Forman. Directed by Jonathan Levine.

[DISCUSS ON OUR FORUMS] [Review By John Gray]