All the Boys Love Mandy Lane film review

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ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE

The idea of a group of teens going out to the country and getting bumped off one by one by some unseen force has long been a staple diet of the horror genre, and it's become so old hat that films using this plotline are most likely to be found in the straight-to-video section of your local Blockbuster. It's refreshing then to see a new light thrown on a familiar subject as Jonathan Levine's debut directorial effort has all the hallmarks of a cult hit in the making.

Levine's portrayal of the hormonal rages that high school teens go through is reminiscent of the French erotic horror Switchblade Romance, and his blood and guts approach calls to mind Carrie - and like the 1976 horror classic it's certainly worth staying until the final scene.

Mandy Lane (Amber Heard) is an orphan raised by her aunt, and we can only assume she has been something of a plain Jane before the action of the film commences. However, she is now bursting out of her gym clothes and catches the eye of the school jocks who are all desperate to be the first to score this particular notch on their bedstead.

Cue a party in a spooky house in the middle of nowhere - so far so predictable - and when the carnage begins it all seems fairly standard. But Jacob Forman's script puts a new spin on an old story, and it's well worth the ride.

The low-budget approach and 70s feel suggests audiences are in for something along the lines of Wrong Turn or Cabin Fever, but this is much better than anything produced by Eli Roth and his cohorts. Levine's subsequent film - a drugs comedy called The Wackness starring Ben Kingsley - has just gone down a storm at Sundance, and he's clearly a director to watch.

Paul Hurley