History YMMV / Mandy2018

** A more subtle example: Red saying in a quiet monotone after Sis slashes him: "That was my favorite shirt." It may seem like a case of SkewedPriorities and maybe even {{Narm}}, but [[spoiler:taking into account that it was the last shirt Mandy was wearing, it's actually kind of sad.]]

-->'''Caruthers:''' Whatcha hunting?\\

** Lucy, as the sole member of the Children of the New Dawn who isn't thoroughly despicable. She is repeatedly raped by Jeremiah, almost forced to shoot herself in front of Red to prove her devotion, and [[spoiler:sheds tears when she sees Brother Swann brutally killed.]]

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Jeremiah Sand]] is the vicious, cowardly leader of the Children of the New Dawn cult. Having [[SelfMadeOrphan murdered his parents]] and moved to Los Angeles to indulge in music and drugs, Jeremiah would form countless cults centered around himself to satisfy his [[{{Narcissist}}|narcissism]]. Working with the demonic Black Skulls biker gang, he makes them his personal attack dogs and allows them to murder and rape whomever they please, holding their chemist hostage to help continue their murder sprees. Taking an obsessive liking to Mandy Bloom, he has the Black Skulls kidnap her and her husband Red Miller, sacrificing one of his men to them as thanks. With the couple in hand, he has Mandy drugged and [[AttemptedRape tries to rape her]], while he has Red hung up with barb wire and stabbed in the side, and is ForcedToWatch [[spoiler:Mandy burned alive after she]] tarnishes Jeremiah's ego by laughing at him.

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Jeremiah Sand]] is the vicious, cowardly leader of the Children of the New Dawn cult. Having [[SelfMadeOrphan murdered his parents]] and moved to Los Angeles to indulge in music and drugs, Jeremiah would form countless cults centered around himself to satisfy his [[ItsAllAboutMe narcissism]]. Working with the demonic Black Skulls biker gang, he makes them his personal attack dogs and allows them to murder and rape whomever they please, holding their chemist hostage to help continue their murder sprees. Taking an obsessive liking to Mandy Bloom, he has the Black Skulls kidnap her and her husband Red Miller, sacrificing one of his men to them as thanks. With the couple in hand, he has Mandy drugged and [[AttemptedRape tries to rape her]], while he has Red hung up with barb wire and stabbed in the side, and is ForcedToWatch [[spoiler:Mandy burned alive after she]] tarnishes Jeremiah's ego by laughing at him.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: Ronald Reagan is playing on the radio in Red's car as he drives home, criticising pornography and abortion. Red turns him off in distaste. The film can be seen as a condemnation of Reagan policies that were perceived by some as Puritanical, overly stringent and driving young people into the arms of real life Children of the New Dawn, depraved hippy cults like the Manson Family that were active in the eighties. The fact that at one point Red calls one of the villains a "snowflake", a contemporary term used by Rightists to describe far-Leftists can also be taken as this. [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And let's just leave it at that]].

* NarmCharm: The second half of the film, when all bets are off, is extremely over the top. However, the build-up, along with the CatharsisFactor and quality, make it extremely entertaining.

* CriticalDissonance: A mild case; the film has garnered critical acclaim but a more mixed reaction among audiences, likely due to its use of SurrealHorror.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: Ronald Reagan is playing on the radio in Red's car as he drives home, criticising pornography and abortion. Red turns him off in distaste. The film can be seen as a condemnation of Reagan policies that were perceived by some as Puritanical, overly stringent and driving young people into the arms of real life Children of the New Dawn, depraved hippy cults like the Manson Family that were active in the eighties. The fact that at one point Red calls one of the villains a "snowflake", a contemporary term used by Rightists to describe far-Leftists can also be taken as this. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement And let's just leave it at that]].

* TearJerker: Red's breakdown in the bathroom. He was forced to watch [[spoiler: his wife disintegrating to ashes]] and had a nightmare of [[spoiler: her flesh getting rotten afterward]]. It may seem like {{Narm}} to some, but Nicolas Cage's [[SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct performance]] and the eye-catching cinematography really sell the tragedy of the moment.

* CriticalDissonance: A mild case; the film has garnered critical acclaim but a more mixed reaction among audiences, likely due to the film's use of SurrealHorror.

* {{Squick}}: [[spoiler: When Red crushes Sand's head, we see the whole thing too. His {{eye|Scream}} even pops out!]]

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome:
** If there's a more badass expression of cinematic disrespect than lighting a cigarette off ''your enemy's burning skull'', the world has yet to see it.
** Mandy gets one, too, in the form of laughing in Jeremiah's face while he prepares to rape her, leaving his ego deeply hurt and reducing him to a masturbating wreck. [[spoiler:Sadly, this doesn't end well for her. [[KillItWithFire At all]].]]
** A chainsaw duel? Pretty cool. A chainsaw duel ending with Nicolas Cage hooking his opponent with a chain and throwing him down onto a running saw dropped on the ground? Awesome.

* NightmareFuel: Lots of it.
** The Black Skulls biker gang. They don't even qualify as human, they're monsters.
** In the scene where Mandy laughs at Jeremiah, she looks [[LaughingMad positively insane while shrieking with laughter]]. Her laughter sounding more and more demonic doesn't help.
** [[spoiler: Mandy's death, where she burns horrifically.]]

* SignatureScene: Unsurprisingly, the [[ChainsawGood chainsaw]] [[RuleOfCool duel]] has been described as an undeniable highlight of the movie and it's hard to find a critic's review that doesn't mention it.
** Red's screaming, roaring, [[InelegantBlubbering sobbing]] breakdown in the bathroom [[spoiler:after Mandy dies]], the emotional high point of the movie and a true showcase for Nic Cage's [[SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct acting skills.]]

* SpiritualAdaptation: With surreal religious imageries, demonic mooks, over-the-top violence, and highly saturated colors, this might be the closest live-action adaptation of Creator/GoNagai's ''{{Manga/Devilman}}'' series.

* {{Squick}}: [[spoiler: When Red crushes Sand's head, we see the whole thing too.]]
* TearJerker: Red's breakdown in the bathroom. He was forced to watch [[spoiler: his wife disintegrating to ashes]] and had a nightmare of [[spoiler: her flesh getting rotten afterward]]. It may seem like {{Narm}} to some, but Nicolas Cage's [[SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct performance]] and the eye-catching cinematography sell it.

** Red's screaming, roaring, [[InelegantBlubbering sobbing]] breakdown in the bathroom [[spoiler:after Mandy dies]], the emotional high point of the movie and a true showcase for Nic Cage's [[HeReallyCanAct acting skills.]]

** The Black Skulls biker gang. They don't qualify as human, they're monsters.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: If there's a more badass expression of cinematic disrespect than lighting a cigarette off ''your enemy's burning skull'', the world has yet to see it.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Some might argue that the whole film is an unbroken stream of [=BLAMs=] -- but the most deliberately absurd has to be Red, wounded and traumatized, wandering into his house to find the TV left on and being confronted by a bizarre macaroni-and-cheese commercial[[note]](made for $1000 by ''Series/TooManyCooks'' creator Caspar Kelly)[[/note]] involving [[spoiler:a mascot called the Cheddar Goblin literally vomiting streams of pasta all over two kids]].

* AwesomeMusic:

** Jóhann Jóhannsson's score (one of the last he composed before his death) has been roundly praised and does an excellent job elevating the movie's visuals into something far greater.

** Nic Cage in a movie featuring [[Film/GhostRider demonic]] [[Film/GhostRiderSpiritOfVengeance motorcyclists]]?