All The Boys Love Mandy Lane

Ah, just what’s required in cinemas during the lull between Saw 9, Hostel 6 and the latest 70's horror remake... All The Boys Love Mandy Lane was made in 2005 and was hawked around film festivals the following year. The Weinsteins got involved, dragged their heels for the longest time and finally unleashed this tame slasher amidst press quotes that suggest it is the most original and edgy teen-slash film for years. It isn't.

Stop me if you've heard this one before... Mandy Lane is an untouchable high school virgin who (guess what?!) all the boys love. A group of students, with Mandy reluctantly in tow, head off to the middle of nowhere for vicarious sex and lots of "Truth or Dare" and "Spin The Bottle". As the trip continues, the teenagers are butchered one by one with lashings of ketchup accompanying the (relatively tame) viciousness, until the final reel denouement and inevitable twist.

What's hard to understand is just why this movie has been singled out for such drooling fanboy attention (the brief boobshots aside), since as a plot the premise is paper-thin and as a film there is little to raise it above the typical bargain bucket direct-to-video fare. The infuriating underscoring of certain scenes (one hopes the skinny-dipping moment underpinned by Beethoven is tongue-in-cheek) only further lengthen a light-weight movie. All the boys may love her - the men can look elsewhere.

Released on 15th February 2008 by Optimum Releasing.

Written by Simon Cole.