Slasher Blog

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane

The film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane follows the story of a group of what seems like typical teenagers who decide to take a getaway to a secluded ranch. Although it may seem like a harmless little vacation, things turn bad quick when Emmet, a high school outcast starts taking the members of the group out one by one. Five of the teens seem to be unaware of what is happening and continue to participate in the sexual activities along with drugs and alcohol while simultaneously getting murdered. However, the sixth one in the group, Mandy Lane, shows to be different as she holds back from partaking in any of the activities with the rest of the teens. After everyone in the group except Chloe is dead, thanks to Emmet, the viewers see that Mandy was in on the plot with him to kill everyone as she stabs Chloe in the stomach. After this, another plot twist comes when Mandy backs out on the plan with Emmet to kill themselves, and instead murders Emmet and runs away from the ranch with the ranch watcher Garth.

Mandy trying to protect Garth from Emmet

A topic from Clover's categories that was shown throughout the film was the idea of the final girl. The final girl is shown to typically be a virgin who is pure in nature and does not partake in any illegal or sexual activities. The final girl is also usually shown to have more of a masculine mindset although their looks are very feminie. This idea was clearly shown in the film with the main character Mandy Lane. Within the group of teenagers, the girls Chloe and Marlin had no problem showing their boobs or getting drunk in order to get the boys attention. The boys in the group, Jake, Bird, and Red, highly enjoyed drinking and getting laid. On this particular trip all the boys called dibs on wanting to get with Mandy first. Mandy on the other hand, resists all of the guys attempts to get with her and seems to be the more masculine one in the group by doing things like comforting Chloe when she was upset which would usually be done by a male and also taking care of Garth after he is shot in the arm. The group of teens begins to get killed off one by one leaving only Mandy left to face Emmet. The idea of the final girl is she outsmarts the killer and ends up on top. In the film Mandy did just so, she outsmarted Emmet by kissing him until Garth showed up and then acted like she needed help leading Garth to shoot him. After, Mandy chased Emmet and ultimately ended up killing him by beating him to death. Mandy, the pure virgin girl, was the only one in the group left, the movie ended with her and Garth driving off the ranch leaving the whole story behind them.

Jake, Red, and Bird all at the Ranch

Although this movie does leave the image of the final girl, it has twists that take it off the track of the normal horror film sequence. In the end, the final girl ends up to be part of the plan to kill the rest of the teens. There are many aspects of gender thrown into the mix that make the viewer more sympathetic towards Mandy after finding out she wanted to kill them. The men in the film were very sexist and looked at woman as more of an object rather than a human being making comments like "you got hot over the summer" and "I call dibs". While walking down the road Bird tried to convince Mandy he was not like other guys and thought that was an excuse to put himself on her. He proceeded to try to kiss Mandy even after she turned her head away the first time he tried. Next, Jake purposely cut the power so he could have a chance to be alone with Mandy. He tried to seduce her and sexually assulted her when it was obvious she wanted nothing to do with him. After she got away from him he got angry and acted like she was in the wrong for not wanting to do stuff with him. Jake also showed to be very sexist when he allowed Marlin to give him sexual pleasure but refused reciprocate the feelings then left her alone in the barn. Red, only invited Mandy to the ranch because he thought she was hot, after finding out she was coming he made the comment "I call dibs" meaning he was going to get in her pants first which was a very sexist and inappropriate comment to make. Throughout the movie the men are shown to believe that they are at a higher standard than woman and feel as though the girls owe them something. The girls Marlin and Chloe were also shown as mean girls throughout the movie. The idea of woman building up other woman was completely thrown out the window in this movie. Chloe made numerous comments about Marlin being fat and in return Marlin made comments about Chloe's personal hygiene. If Mandy was not as pretty as she was and attract the guys, the girls would definitely not want to be friends with her let alone take her on their get away. They both allowed the guys to treat them poorly and still gave into sexual temptation whenever the men wanted it. Although a killing plot is never an okay thing to do, making the men commit acts of sexual assault and the making the girls mean and popular allowed the viewer to understand why Emmet and Mandy had the feelings they did towards the group.

Chloe after getting stabbed.

Another topic that the movie hit on that fell into one of Clover's categories was deaths of the different genders. The reading talked about how many times the deaths of the female characters will be more up close and graphic where as the male deaths will be watched from a distance and less gruesome. The first death of the group was Marlin, her death was a longer scene and showed very graphic images of Emmet shoving the barrel of the gun down her throat and ripping her jaw open with it. Blood was splattered everywhere and they showed her struggle up close. On the other hand, when Emmet killed Jake and Red, it was just a simple gun shot with no struggle or vivid images. Next was Bird, when Emmet killed him it was from stabbing him with a knife. When he began to actually stab Bird, the camera view backed up and it was only shown from a distance. When Chloe was killed, she was actually killed by Mandy but before that she was shown running for her life screaming while getting chased by Emmet. The death itself was also shown very graphically and up close, blood was running out of her body as she seized on the group with the knife in her stomach. The producers also left Chloe dressed in little pink pajamas that portrayed her as helpless and more feminine. The differences in the death scenes is something to look at gender wise because it does go along with gender roles. It is believed that when females get hurt they scream and make a scene out of it while men on the other hand will try to act tough and make it seem like it didn't hurt. The deaths make the woman struggle and show them screaming or panicking while the men just get shot or stabbed and that is the end of it.

The film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane portrayed many different aspects that were mentioned in the Her Body, Himself reading including the idea of the final girl and the differences between male and female deaths. The male characters throughout the film showed themselves as sexist and abusive towards woman which made the viewer understand why Mandy wanted to kill them. The girls were portrayed as whores who only cared about themselves again making them seem like bad people who had a reason to be killed by Emmet and Mandy. Although this movie took many turns off the typical path, it still incorporated many aspects from the typical Slasher films.