All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is getting a Blu-ray release. Lionsgate is releasing it on Blu-ray plus Digital on 15 December, under its Vestron Video label, according to a report from Bloody Disgusting.
If you collect slashers and like a proper disc on the shelf, put the date in your diary. If you have never heard of the film, keep reading, because it is a very good one to arrive at with a clear head.
What is All the Boys Love Mandy Lane?
It is a cult slasher about a popular girl and a party weekend that goes badly wrong. That is all I will say about the story, because this is a film that works best when you do not know where it is heading, and I am not going to be the person who ruins it.
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It was directed by Jonathan Levine and first appeared in 2006. For years it had a reputation as the slasher people kept mentioning but could not easily watch, which is how plenty of cult films get their following. Word of mouth did the job that a big marketing push never did. It reached the US years after it first appeared. I would still call it a lovely bit of news, because discs of cult films have a habit of going out of print and then costing silly money.
The slasher is a genre built on a simple promise: a group of young people, a remote spot, something nasty on the way. The ones that last tend to do something a little different with that promise. Mandy Lane is the sort people argue about afterwards, and I like that in a film. A slasher that gets a group chat going on the walk to the kitchen has done something right.
What has actually been announced?
The facts, as reported, are short. Lionsgate is behind the release. It is a Blu-ray with a Digital copy. The date is 15 December. It sits under the Vestron Video name, which is the label Lionsgate uses for its catalogue horror and cult releases.
That is the part I am confident about. For the full details, including anything about the packaging, Bloody Disgusting's report is the place to read it. I am pointing you to them rather than repeating them, because they did the reporting.
What I have not seen is a confirmed list of extras, and I am not going to guess at one. With a label release like this, the extras are often what separate a disc worth buying from one you already own in another form. So my plan is to wait for the full specs before getting excited about the extras. I will happily be excited about the film in the meantime.
Why does a physical copy matter for a film like this?
Because cult films are the ones that vanish. A big franchise slasher will turn up on a streaming service every October without fail. A film that people love in a smaller, more devoted way can disappear from every platform for a year and then come back, or not come back.
I keep a small horror collection, and the discs in it are there for exactly that reason. A shelf does not have licensing windows. It does not ask whether I still have the right subscription, and it does not remove a film because a contract ended on a Tuesday. When I want to watch something odd at eleven at night, with a coffee that is already too strong, I would like it to be right there.
The Digital copy in the package is a sensible extra. A disc is lovely for a proper evening in. A digital copy is for the moment you want to show a friend one scene on a laptop and prove you were right. I will take both.
It also helps that this lands in the middle of December, when I am already thinking about what to watch between the festive things. A cult slasher is not exactly Christmas viewing, but a few days after the big meal, when everyone is a bit worn out and the biscuit tin is empty, it feels like the right sort of mischief.
Should you pick it up?
If you like slashers with a bit of bite and a bit to say, I think yes. If you prefer your horror gentle and ghostly, this is a bolder, nastier evening than most of what I recommend on this site, so check how much of that you want before you press play. It is not a cosy ghost story. It is a slasher, and it behaves like one.
My advice is to go in knowing as little as possible. Avoid the plot summaries that give away too much, and avoid the loud opinions in the comments. Watch it once cold, then argue about it after.
So here is my question for you. Are you a collector who buys the disc the day it is announced, or a wait-and-see person who checks the extras first? I am firmly in the second camp, with a pencil hovering over the calendar. Tell me which one you are, and tell me which cult slasher you think deserves the next shelf-worthy release. I am always keen to add to the list.
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