History Film / Mandy2018

* PreAssKickingOneLiner: As the pipe comes loose and Red uses it to beat one of the Black Skulls into the bottomless pit.

''Mandy'' is a 2018 psychedelic action horror film directed by Creator/PanosCosmatos of ''Film/BeyondTheBlackRainbow'' and starring Creator/NicolasCage, Creator/AndreaRiseborough, and Creator/LinusRoache.

* SpikesOfVillainy: Several of the Black Skulls have them. Scabs appears to be covered in [[UpToEleven literally nothing but solid steel spikes.]]

** Mandy had a psychologically abusive father. It's partly why she's too tough for Jeremiah to intimidate; because she's faced bullies like him before.

* PervertedPig: Invoked by "Fuck-Pig", a member of The Black Skulls who gruesomely murders people by raping them with a codpiece that has a knife on it that he uses as a dildo.

* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Invoked. When the Black Skulls first appear, the headlights of their motorcycles are made to look the eyes of monsters glaring through the fog.

* HeadCrushing: In the climax of the movie, the hero crushes the villain's skull with his bare hands.

* HollywoodDarkness: Averted: most of the night time scenes feature actual darkness, in which it is hard to see what is happening. Red's bathroom breakdown scene is distinctive for being brightly lit.

* ForgingScene: A [[Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982 Conan]]-eque in which Red forges his battle ax, the Beast, after visiting Caruthers.

** Fuck Pig of the Black Skulls has a bladed dildo a la ''Film/{{Seven}}'' that he uses to rape people to death.

Set in 1983, the film centers on a logger named Red Miller (Cage) who lives in the Shadow Mountains with his beloved wife Mandy Bloom (Riseborough). When she is spotted by the sadistic cult leader Jeremiah Sand (Roache), he has a demonic gang kidnap Red and Mandy, bringing their tranquil existence to a horrifying end. Now, driven by fury and vengeance, Red goes after the cult and the entities that they have brought forth.

* HateSink: Far from the "righteous man whose heart was full of love" he proclaims himself to be, Jeremiah Sand is a megalomaniac who believes that God (or perhaps Satan) granted him the right to take whatever he thinks he's entitled to. He treats his own followers like dirt, being willing to dispose of them when he sees the need and using the women for sexual gratification whether they're fully compliant or not. He hides behind the Black Skulls gang to do his dirty work for him and is more than happy to [[spoiler:torment Red by having Mandy killed in front of him before leaving him to die]].

* IAmGreatSong: "Jeremiah Sand [[BlatantLies was a righteous man, whose heart was full of love]]…"

* StylisticSuck: "The Amulet of the Weeping Maze", a song from Jeremiah Sand's failed folk musician career; what we hear of it is stereotypical Sixties-Seventies folk rock with ethereal acoustic guitars and flutes, and half-baked overly earnest New Age mysticism and mixed in with gratuitous self-praise in the awful lyrics.

* StylisticSuck: "The Amulet of the Weeping Maze", a song from Jeremiah Sand's days failed musician career; what we hear of it is stereotypical Sixties-Seventies folk rock with ethereal acoustic guitars and flutes, and half-baked overly earnest New Age mysticism and mixed in with gratuitous self-praise in the awful lyrics.

* StylisticSuck: "The Amulet of the Weeping Maze", a song from Jeremiah's days as a musician; what we hear of it is stereotypical Sixties-Seventies folk rock with ethereal acoustic guitars and flutes, and half-baked overly earnest New Age mysticism in the awful lyrics.

* MismatchedEyes: Mandy sometimes appears to have [[https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FBgOKEdfpEY/W5asKGIKGlI/AAAAAAAAIcs/AgQ6nxotxRAFEXZ4k91yWSypg9x8-11OACLcBGAs/s1600/mandy%2Bandrea%2Briseborough.jpg heterochromia.]] But sometimes her eyes appear to have the same [[https://imgur.com/ZeYcR3b colour]].

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: [[spoiler: Mandy's death by the hand of Jeremiah Sand and his cult is the main reason which drives Red into a bloodthirsty vengeance against them]].

** The Black Skills are called forth using "the Horn of Abraxas," a weird looking, (and weirder sounding) musical instrument. Their appearance is barely humanoid, their voices are inhumanly guttural, and they sometimes seem to shrug off grievous injuries. However, they're explained to be a drug-running outlaw biker gang driven mad by drugs. In spite of their supernatural overtones, Red manages to kill them about as easy as humans. It's unclear whether they're supernatural or just incredibly freaky bikers too high to feel pain.

Set in 1983, a logger named Red Miller (Cage) lives in the Shadow Mountains with his beloved wife Mandy Bloom (Riseborough). When she is spotted by a sadistic cult leader named Jeremiah Sand (Roache), he has a demonic gang kidnap Red and Mandy, bringing their tranquil existence to a horrifying end. Now, driven by fury and vengeance, Red goes after the cult and the entities that they have brought forth.

** Carefully and effectively utilized with the Black Skulls. Even when they are in full view they are always lit in such a way that we can never tell exactly what they are or what is wrong with them.

* SlashedThroat: [[spoiler: Red slices Fuck Pig's throat with a rusty box cutter, causing HighPressureBlood to spew out of his neck and splatter Red]].
* SlasherSmile: The final close shot of Red we see in the film is of him with a maniacal grin pasted on his blood-soaked face.

** The passage that Mandy reads from her book is prophetic: "''Under the crimson, primordial sky, surrounded by the jagged rocks of the ancient volcanic mountain, the wretched Warlock reached into the dark embrace of the fissure until his hand touched a smooth glassy surface. Cold as ice. His fist closed around The Serpent's Eye. Slowly he withdrew it and held it before him in the fading light of the blood-red suns. It glowed from within. A ghostly emerald light. Strange and eternal''." Jeremiah seems to be the "wretched warlock," the "ancient volcanic mountain" is his quarry hideout in the Shadow Mountains. The "blood red suns" are the AlienSky that materializes in the end. The "Serpent's Eye" is Mandy herself.

* FantasticDrug: Whatever that gray sludge is that the Black Skulls are doing, in addition to the piles of cocaine. [[spoiler:Red dips ''one finger'' into the jar, tastes it, and ''immediately'' has a brief but intense acid vision that points him toward the Chemist, who in turn can point him toward Jeremiah's hideout.]]

* PeriodPiece: The film takes place in [[TheEighties 1983]]. Red hears UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan's "Evil Empire" speech on the radio. It's implied that Red is a Vietnam War veteran with PTSD. Mandy devours ''Conan''-style pulp fantasy novels, wears heavy metal shirts, and paints Frank Frazetta-style art. Both she and Red smoke.

* AuthorAppeal: If ''Film/BeyondTheBlackRainbow'' wasn't enough to show you how much Panos Cosmatos likes 70s/80s psychedelia, extreme color-tinged cinematography, and heavy metal, this film should erase all doubt.

* TheEighties: The title cards inform us that the film takes place in "1983 A.D." Red turns on the radio in his car while driving and hears UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan's "Evil Empire" speech, which was delivered on March 8th of that year.

* SmokingIsCool: In some cases. Red and Mandy, our most sympathetic characters, both smoke, and at one point Red takes it UpToEleven by lighting a cigarette on ''the flaming skull of a dead enemy''.

* FourIsDeath: There are four members of the Black Skulls: Skratch, Sis, Scabs and Fuck Pig.

-->'''Red:''' '''''[[AGodAmI I'M YOUR GOD NOW.]]'''''
* PsychopathicManchild: Jeremiah Sand. For all his claims of being a prophet who can lead his children to a better future, Sand is a petty and entitled man who flips his shit if he isn't given immediately what he wants.

* TwoActStructure: The movie's two hours are neatly divided into two halves: the first half of the movie is almost entirely quiet, almost tranquil domestic scenes exploring Red and Mandy's relationship, the second half is almost entirely gory, balls-to-the-wall action and insanity.

** Played straight with [[spoiler: Jeremiah's VillainousBreakdown at the end. When his TheReasonYouSuckSpeech against Red utterly fails and Red forces him to his knees, he pleads for his life while offering to suck Red's dick. Red just crushes his skull, though not before he becomes braver and orders Red to kneel before him]].

* GainaxEnding: [[spoiler:Red kills all of those involved in Mandy's murder (save for one innocent cult member), but as he drives away from the burning church, we see a sort of hellish landscape behind him including an AlienSky, as though he's driving from some alternate dimension back toward his own.]]

* {{Gorn}}: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. While ''Mandy'' is an '''incredibly''' violent movie, it notably almost never lingers for very long on the actual carnage, with the worst details often being difficult to make out through the psychedelic cinematography.

* InelegantBlubbering: During his FreakOut in the bathroom, Red alternates between sobbing like a lost child, screaming like a wild animal, and chugging down vodka, often within seconds of each other.

* ManOnFire: Skratch goes up in flames after Red pushes him against a burning car.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane:
** The cult's biker henchmen. They are called forth using "the Horn of Abraxas": a weird looking, (and weirder sounding) musical instrument. Their appearance is barely humanoid, and they behave like demonic entities in every way. But they ride perfectly ordinary motorcycles and one even rides a 4-wheel ATV. Later, Caruthers explains that [[spoiler:they used to be a drug-running outlaw biker gang until the dealer they worked for gave them something that really messed them up.]] Even then, though, the film goes out of its way to emphasize that these things are no longer fully human, if they ever were to begin with.
** On the subject of the Black Skulls, their apparent invincibility: Are they actual demons, possibly made of solid metal, or just really strong dudes wearing heavy protective armor? Note that in real life, ingesting heavy amounts of drugs [[TruthInTelevision really can make people]] shrug off apparently lethal wounds and keep fighting.
** Then there's the issue of the Chemist. [[spoiler:He is implied to be the drug maker who turned the bikers into what they are. Is he really communicating telepathically with Red, just a really good guesser, or just plain crazy?]]

** Possibly Red, by the film's end. [[spoiler:His voice sounds distorted, like the Black Skulls, and he's become strong enough to crush Jeremiah's skull with his bare hands.]]
** Is all the [[MindScrew weird shit]] that happens in the back half of the film really supernatural in nature, or is Red just [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness insane]] with grief, shellshocked, and [[MushroomSamba high off his ass?]] [[spoiler: Is he just hallucinating Mandy in the driver's seat with him, or is that her actual ghost?]]
** The ending. [[spoiler: Is the bizarre, alien hellscape around him as he drives away from the cult's burning hideout just how his drug-drowned, [[SanitySlippage thoroughly unmoored]] mind is perceiving his surroundings, or has he really followed the Children of the New Dawn into some kind of evil alternate dimension?]]

** Red is part of the ColorMotif of the film, with all the blood and hellish ambiance. It's also the main character's name.

** The shot of [[spoiler: [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext the Cheddar Goblin]] rising out of the pot of Mac-n-Cheese]] is a deliberate take on the famous shot of Martin Sheen rising out of the water in ''Film/ApocalypseNow''.

** The weapon Red forges in his workshop, the Beast, feels like the ax-equivalent big brother of the villain's [[http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/cobra/13.gif freaky knife]] from ''Film/{{Cobra}}'' (which was directed by Panos Cosmatos' father, George.)

** Red lighting his cigarette on Skratch's burning head is probably one to a scene in ''Film/ManiacCop3BadgeOfSilence'', where the protagonist uses a burning arm to do the same thing.

''Mandy'' is a 2018 psychedelic action horror film directed by Creator/PanosCosmatos of ''Film/BeyondTheBlackRainbow'' and starring Creator/NicolasCage, Andrea Riseborough, and Creator/LinusRoache.

* AffablyEvil: The Chemist, who’s friendly, helpful, and sympathetic towards Red, and is heavily implied to have been the drug manufacturer who made the Black Skulls into what they are and the "Minister" who set Jeremiah on his current path.

Their master’s hand in everything\\

The song that’s whistling on the breeze\\

* AffablyEvil: The Chemist, who’s friendly, helpful, and sympathetic towards Red, and is heavily implied to have been the drug manufacturer who made the Black Skulls into what they are.