22/04/2022 - Mystery definitely comes first in Lynne Davison’s debut feature

One of the interesting things about Lynne Davison’s debut feature, Mandrake [+see also:
interview: Lynne Davison
film profile], is that you can watch it quite carefully and still leave the cinema not knowing exactly what happened. Which is, frankly, not entirely unpleasant. So many horror films come a cropper when it’s time to finally explain everything and name all the culprits. This time, mystery comes first.

Shown at Night Visions as part of its Folk Horror section, Mandrake mixes the familiar “there is something out there in the woods” tropes with what feels like a dose of Ken Loach’s social realism, mostly thanks to the protagonist (Deirdre Mullins), whose job is to help former convicts re-enter a society that doesn’t want or need them. Teased as a much bigger part of the film than it ultimately is, it still establishes some of its main interests: the questions of guilt and forgiveness, of whether a person can really start anew or will just resort to their usual ways. Of whether there is even a choice.

Probation officer Cathy seems to be a tad more hopeful than most locals around her, or maybe she has just got used to the work – after all, she is assaulted mere minutes into the story, so she won’t be walking around preaching that, deep down, we are all decent. She has seen it all, heard all the excuses and actually looks a bit drained. Her own baby boy (Belfast [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]’s Jude Hill) feels more comfortable around her husband’s new partner, a much more “maternal” figure and already pregnant herself. But Cathy keeps on going and doesn’t mind visiting one “Bloody” Mary Laidlaw (Derbhle Crotty), freshly released from jail back into the community that hasn’t forgotten her actions.

She is a suspicious figure, a bit wild, but Davison makes it hard to actively hate anyone here. Mary murdered her husband decades ago, but only after he had put her through hell. Is she a witch, a psychopath or just another lonely woman rejected by her neighbours? Trying to figure that out is probably part of the fun, even before the myth of the mandrake root makes an entrance. It brings back fond memories of Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], for example, with those unnatural shrieks still difficult to fully shake off.

Even if one decides to accept Mandrake’s opaqueness, it could certainly benefit from a slower pace in its second half and – it feels odd to say this – a longer running time, as well as additional lighting. It’s so damn dark that it’s almost funny sometimes, as watching this film really mirrors the experience of wandering around the forest at night, bumping into things and trying to make out strange shapes looming in the distance. Is it a tree? Is it a person? Who the hell knows.

There is no denying that the likes of The Blair Witch Project have ruined the concept of, say, stick figures forever, and Davison’s characters are probably the last in the world to still be surprised that dark secrets usually come with them. Or that brushing something off as just “stories to frighten kids” is akin to saying, “I’ll be right back” in a slasher movie. Despite these recognisable beats, Davison creates an interesting atmosphere, finding sadness in this story about evil permeating the most mundane of towns, where people don’t forget and they don’t forgive. They never do.

Mandrake was produced by Northern Irish outfit Village Films.