Cinema review
Directed by Jonathan Levine
Starring Amber Heard, Anson Mount, Whitney Able, Michael Welch
Release date 15 February 2008 (UK)

A group of high school friends invite the beautiful but unattainable Mandy Lane (Heard) to join them for a weekend away at a country ranch. But soon the group are being picked off one by one…

Jonathan Levine’s contemporary spin on the slasher formula has as much in common with a Sofia Coppola picture as it does Friday the 13th. The director is clearly aiming for something a little more profound than your average stalk ‘n’ slash - there’s even a mysterious whispered line of dialogue à la Lost in Translation. But for all its beautiful cinematography and washed out colours, Levine and writer Jacob Forman forget that a slasher needs to have sympathetic characters if it’s going to work.

As the mysterious, sought-after good girl of the title, Amber Heard exudes a quiet sexiness that manages to convince us why all the boys are so intoxicated by the character. But the rest of the teens are a collection of dull, rather obnoxious stock characters that it’s difficult to muster up much sympathy for.

A shame really, because Levine displays an impressive skill for bending genre conventions and he isn’t afraid to take the slasher movie seriously for a change. James Skipp

VERDICT: 6/10
Good-looking, if slightly pretentious, slasher that is let down by thinly sketched characters.

Click here to view the All the Boys Love Mandy Lane trailer.