11 HORRIFYING Films About Cults
6. Mandy
Mandy is best described as a
psychedelic action horror. The film is heavily stylised - its world is painted
in bright purples and pinks, mirroring the fantasy art the title character
Mandy draws. In both tone and art direction the movie is like a heavy-metal
album cover adapted into a feature film.
Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) and Red (Nicolas Cage), live a secluded life together. It’s hinted they both have troubled pasts, but in each other, they’ve found a soul mate.
That peace is shattered when cult leader, Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache), takes an unhealthy interest in Mandy, and demands his followers kidnap her. The cultists team up with a group named The Black Skulls (imagine Hellraiser’s Cenobites if they formed a biker gang) to subdue Red and abduct Mandy.
There’s no effort in Mandy to explain the cult’s motivations as anything other than pure evil; it’s another example of the cultist-as-monster.
The cult members all give wonderfully villainous scene-chewing performances. Especially the Charles-Manson-inspired Jeremiah Sand, who spends much of his screen time spouting barely coherent, scary nonsense.