If you’d have told me during FIN announcements in August that one of my favourite festival films would be a schlock horror film with Nicolas Cage, I’d have cringed.

But here we are, a day removed, and Mandy stands as a visual stunning, horrifically entertaining midnight movie, and one of Cage’s best performances in a decade.

Part cult film, part revenge thriller, this zany, out-of-this-world film is rife with unsettling imagery, a beautifully haunting score, ripe with guitar riffs, and a heck of a lot of blood.

Crazy Cage is at is most madcap manic, and in this film, that’s exactly what is called for.

It follows a man with his own demons who goes on the hunt for a cult sect after they ritualistically kill his girlfriend. It’s like two films in one: The first an atmospheric, tall-tale spiritual thriller and the second a full-out blood-spattered revenge conquest.

They meld together by the end to make a perfect scary night-time flick, and a cult film that fans will revel at for midnight showings well into the future.

4/5 Stars