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I often forget what I’ve seen at the cinema after a few hours, sometimes minutes – certainly after a day or two. The morning after seeing Panos Cosmatos’s ‘Mandy’ it’s clear that it isn’t going to be the case here.

‘If the cinema had looped the film seamlessly and started it again, few people in the audience would have noticed at first and even fewer would have objected when they did – instead staying on for another trip.’

There’s so many tasty-rich visual, audio and storyline clues to its inspirations. Homages fill each shot, some obvious, others less so and it would be a task to list them all without another viewing… (maybe we will). The most obvious is an Evil Dead and Lost Highway mash-up that is stunning, trippy and gross out funny too…

A friend refused to come with us. Not because of the prospect of the heavy metal gore fest, but because they said they couldn’t stand Nick Cage’s face… ‘It’s just irritating’ – they said. However, we found Cage’s awesome expressions in this were further enhanced with beard, blood (lots of blood) and even more cocaine… he was really good at bringing out the darkness in his repertoire, delivering a genius evil comedy performance that I previously thought only Bruce Campbell could pull off.

Not any more.

There was a comments board outside the cinema on the way out. And it seemed most people seeing ‘Mandy’ before us had loved it too. Only a few looked like they’d miss-booked hoping for Captain Corelli’s Mandolin 2.

‘The film was a dark-funny trip; a sensory massage dowsed in aliens, drugs, blood and big massive chainsaws.’

Viewed at the Watershed cinema in Bristol.

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