Not another teen slasher?

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006)

Didn't have my hopes up for this one as I thought it would just be another teen slasher. Well a teen slasher it was, but I have to say I was a bit surprised, in a positive way. The plot is the same story we've seen in hundreds of these kind of movies, group of teenages go to a remote location, drink, do drugs, have sex and die. Of course there's a little twist at the end, but otherwise it didn't bring anything to the old story. I guess that's not even the point, the plot is what it is and the horror is the driving force of these kind of movies. And that's what surprised me, the horror worked rather well in this one. Loved the idea of showing less but using sound effects to increase the terror. These days when you've seen pretty much every horrible thing on movies, your own imagination still creates the most terrible images. Even thou it's not exactly used as effective as it could have, it still works quite well on those few scenes. Don't get me wrong, it's still a bloody movie, but it's not a gorefest. Also liked some of the camera tricks, some of them worked really well and gave a fresh breath of air to the stereotypes. Then again others were a bit out of context and thus didn't work too well. The cast was ok, not really a triumph of the art of acting, but still they didn't make you laugh unintentionally. All in all a positive surprise, but sadly in the end it's just another teen slasher.
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