“Mandy” is a seriously strange film because it has a very simple premise yet somehow meanders along and takes us into some very weird territory. It’s like a David Lynch film crossed with “Evil Dead II”, “Hellraiser” and the “Mad Max” movies. Every shot in every scene is uncomfortable as it lingers for too long.

Red Miller (Nicolas Cage “Lord Of War”, “Kill Chain”) is a lumberjack living in a secluded cabin with Mandy (Andrea Riseborough “Oblivion”). Their peaceful life together is destroyed when a hippie cult and a biker gang kidnap and kill Mandy. Now, Red is out for revenge and he will not stop until he has annihilated all those that took everything from him.

Nicolas Cage is a great actor but his performance is shrouded in the film’s weirdness. His crazy antics take a backseat to the excessive use of colour filters, random animated sequences, extreme gore and nonsensical philosophical babble. Andrea Riseborough barely gets anything to do. The main villain is a cult leader (Linus Roache “Batman Begins”), who becomes obsessed with Mandy. He’s just absolutely atrocious. Many of the other bad guys talk with synthesised voices and it makes no sense whatsoever. Bill Duke (“Predator”, “Commando”) has a small role.

Every part of this movie is unpleasant and unexplainable. Some people seem to love this picture but this is a movie like “Eraserhead”, “Videodrome”, “Blade Runner” or “Naked Lunch” where you can either be sucked into it and adore it or feel totally alienated and despise it. I had mixed expectations going into this but I never imagined I would dislike it this much. Every vaguely interesting moment is stretched out for so long that all the energy and life is drained from it. Films can be saved or killed in the editing room. Maybe there was a good 80-minute film here but at two hours, this is an unbearable marathon.