Mandrake

When I was given the opportunity to sit down and watch the 2022 horror movie "Mandrake", of course I did so. I had not heard about the movie prior to watching it, so I didn't know what I was in for, aside from the obvious deduction about it being a witchcraft movie of sorts, given the title of the movie and the movie's cover.

Writer Matt Harvey put together an entertaining enough script for the movie, however I have to say that I didn't really fully understand the meaning of the storyline. But it made for an adequate enough viewing experience, as the movie was genuinely mysterious and somewhat of a movie that slightly dug its way under the skin.

I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in "Mandrake", but they had some good actors and actresses on the cast list. And I will say that Derbhle Crotty, playing Mary Laidlaw, really carried the movie quite well with her performance.

Visually then "Mandrake" is low-key, but it works so well, because the effects are realistic, dark, brooding and have a somewhat ominous feel to them. And that works quite well in favor of the movie, adding a lot of atmosphere in the scenes.

While the movie's storyline was somewhat going above my head, then "Mandrake" was an interesting movie. Though I doubt that I will ever return to watch it a second time. But I will say that it is definitely a horror movie well-worth checking out.

My rating of director Lynne Davison's 2022 horror movie "Mandrake" lands on a five out of ten stars.

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.

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!

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.

Great collective performances of the Mandrake's cast sets the movie's standard high. Great dialogues not even the slightest overdoing. It's a unique story with an equally unique northern Irish setup. The remoteness and it's culture is fitting very well with the damp gloomy woods of witches. Cinematography is excellent intensifying the this folk horror story. Great visuals rich with the cold misty colour of the surroundings. Mandrake is a story involving a infamous criminal out of prison and a demon figure roaming marshland so that's a pretty good mix and it's all about people who become naive due to great expectations.