Before all the blood starts spurting and gurgling, Mandy offers an epigraph, its letters bloody red:
When I die
Bury me deep
Lay two speakers at my feet
Wrap some headphones
Around my head
And rock and roll me
When I’m dead.
The words go uncredited (they are, turns out, the last words of murderer and kidnapper Douglas Roberts, who was executed in 2005), but as they appear, over fiddly electric guitar and fuzzy synth, they set Mandy’s tone. This is a movie that’s kind of sad, kind of lyrical, and kind of rock ’n’ roll; its first half is an earnest, artsy character study, and its second is a greasy, sordid revenge flick. It also features one of Nicolas Cage’s most bugfuck crazy performances, so: Mandy isn’t for everyone. But for those it is for? It’s a hell of a thing.
