Mandrake

In the past few years there has been a slew of psuedo-horror movies coming out if the U. K. Some of them have a comdey element to them, generally with zombies involved and others are just straight horror.

This one falls into the latter category and it follows the same exact format as all the others. Same atmosphere, same country setting, same slow build to nowhere.

It's just not original and becomes rather tedious to watch very early on.

As an example of the mindless boredom, there is a scene right at the beginning where a woman stares at another woman drinking tea for literally 5 minutes.

We get to watch her drink an entire cup. And not the little 6 ounce cups that are regular servings. This is a mug of tea.

Pouring mollasses is faster than the pace of this movie. And makes more sense. At least the mollasses goes somewhere.

The music is very inappropriate too. It's all mystical when nothing is happening!

It all boils down to this -- the actors arent the problem. They are relatively competent. It's the writing and the horrible directing.

We've seen this all before and it's been done better.

It seemed like there was much potential to be had here but it just slipped away somehow. The film quality and scene locations were great, seeming to set everything up for a dark, twisted and impactful little folk horror movie. But it just never materialized.

Stereotypical characters followed a stereotypical plot and ended up at a stereotypical ending... if they had focused more on the woods and the mandrake and the evil magic at work, it could have been a great movie, I think.

This is a good "ten o'clock Saturday morning movie to pass the time." But I wouldn't recommend caring about it after 6PM.

Too bad, it felt like there was a lot of missed potential...

I truly do not understand the lower rating here. Regardless if you 'liked' the film, I think just about anyone can easily tell that it is very well done. The mood and atmosphere, which I feel is of UTMOST importance in a Folk Horror film, is done quite well and builds a nice, creepy tone. That is only enhanced by excellent cinematography and very competent writing and acting.

I wouldn't say that this movie is among the VERY best of this type. Ben Wheatley's 'IN THE EARTH' and the family produced film 'THE DEEPER YOU DIG' are superiour, especially the fantastic mood/atmosphere created in the Wheatley film. But, to me the quality in the way it was conceived and executed is certainly far above average in my lowly and wretched opinion.

If you like creepy Folk Horror, I really think that you cannot miss in watching this film. Some have thought the 2nd half of the story was somewhat 'Muddled' and unclear, but to me I felt that specifically in the 2nd half, the motivations of Mary and what and why she was doing what she was doing were very clear. Also, without any spoilers, the ending I feel is definitely showing us what MAY happen and why.

I very much enjoyed this movie and for those who like this type of Folk Horror I would indeed recommend it!

Cathy Madden is a divorced mom to a young son and a probation officer. She volunteers to take on Mary Laidlaw. According to the locals, Mary is a witch to be feared although Cathy refuses to believe in any superstition. When two kids go missing, suspicion immediately falls on Mary.

This is a British indie horror. The pacing is slow for the most part, but it has good solid spookiness especially from Mary Laidlaw. Cathy is an interesting and underneath troubled character. I was hoping for supernatural. This is fine. The ending is a bit muddled and I wanted a bigger fight. This is fine especially for a lower budget horror.

MANDRAKE tells the story of a probation officer who is supposed to oversee the rehabilitation into a rural community of a woman who killed her husband and went to prison for 20 years. The locals think she is a witch, and indeed when the probation officer visits her home, there are unsettling signs everywhere: her house is full of occult objects, she behaves rather strangely, and she somehow knows things, like that the officer has a son (who in the film displays symptoms consistent with cystic fibrosis) and that the father, her ex-husband, is the local police officer. Soon two local kids go missing and everyone suspects the "witch".

The biggest problem with this movie is that it does not make the motivations of the villain clear. What was the reason for the kids' fate? What did the villain ultimately want? What were the plans for the "mandrake baby"? If the two victims in the first part of the movie were meant as a sacrifice, how did the villain not consider the immediate consequences?

Some possibilities are hinted at, but the film does not rally explore them, so they end up being little more than suggestions for a guess. As the movie has a sort of open end, the lack of sense in the motivations of the villain becomes quite annoying. I feel like I spent nearly 1.5 hours watching a a sequence of events play out without understanding what drove it.

I like my villains well-motivated, so to me this is a fairly significant drawback. On the other hand, the film does a good job of going into unpredictable directions, and it is undeniably atmospheric. Fans of horror films which put a premium on atmosphere will like this film, but those who like to understand character motivations will likely feel frustrated.