Mandy Lane is the most popular girl in school, at least in the sense that all the guys want to get inside her panties. Obviously, no one has even come close to this, and simply managing to get her to go on a date or to a party has to be considered an achievement. This makes the guys even more frustrated, which in turn means that they try even harder. Now she has agreed to go to another party at a ranch owned by one of the guys’ parents, and the time is planned around all kinds of enjoyable activities, such as alcohol, drugs, and plenty of sex. The guys, of course, continue to hit on Mandy Lane even though there are other, more promiscuous girls in the group. Everyone wants her, but then someone takes things a step further and suddenly the partygoers begin to get murdered one by one…
To begin with, one could say that this movie contains a list of all the clichés that are customary in the slasher genre. It is the lustful teenagers who are murdered, while the innocent, wholesome girl Mandy Lane survives, or is even the motivation for the killer. Add to this the fact that Mandy Lane may not be the prettiest girl in school, but because she is so innocent, she is an especially desirable target for the lustful boys. She is blonde, as is customary, and she doesn’t seem to care about the alcohol and drugs. However, she does participate when the group plays truth or dare, which is perhaps a little unexpected, and at times you get the feeling that she wants more than she allows herself to do.
At other times, on the other hand, you are convinced that she is actually a lesbian and therefore completely uninterested in the guys.
Overall, there is a great deal of sexual fixation, which of course is also customary in the genre, and it can involve anything from the size of the guys’ genitals to the girls’ body hair in the corresponding areas. I don’t see this as a problem, but rather as the filmmakers embracing the genre’s particular ingredients and making use of them, perhaps partly to poke a little fun at them, but it never becomes as silly and ridiculous as it can when you parody something.
The murder sequences are, at least to begin with, quite inventive, and there are several methods that I have never seen before. There is also quite extensive use of firearms, which perhaps is not as consistent with the genre’s traditional mainstays as knives and axes are. I don’t really think this matters, though; the important thing is that the atmosphere and suspense hold up, which I feel they do.
Something that may be more negative for the movie is that, in my opinion, you find out who the killer is at far too early a stage. Nor is it a matter of some masked killer, as you are otherwise accustomed to in the genre, but actually an ordinary human being who, at least not yet, has risen from the dead (I am thinking of the genre’s great icon Jason Voorhees). In the movie’s defense, I would point to the final twist, which really turns things upside down. It is hardly surprising that there is a final twist, since that has become quite common nowadays, but here it gives an otherwise fairly simple movie an additional dimension. By that I don’t necessarily mean that I like the solution generated by the twist, but rather that I am glad that things were not quite as simple as they had seemed for a long time.
Overall, a fairly mediocre neo-slasher, but with some highlights, recommended for fans of the genre.
