All the Boys Love Mandy Lane premiered on September 10, 2006, at the
2006 Toronto International Film Festival, followed by screenings at the
Sitges Film Festival,
South by Southwest,
London FrightFest Film Festival, the
IFI Horrorthon, at the
Cinémathèque Française.
Distribution Upon the film's premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2006, film executive
Harvey Weinstein, "in characteristically aggressive deal-making mode," sought to purchase distribution rights after its screening ended around 1:30 am. However, due to the subsequent financial failure of the studio's
Grindhouse, among other horror films, the Weinstein Company instead sold the film to Senator Entertainment US. Senator, a German company who had acquired distribution rights for the film in Germany and Austria, had recently established a U.S. branch. Between 2008 and 2010, it continued to open in various foreign markets, receiving theatrical releases in Germany and Austria (through Senator), In the spring of 2013, it was reported that The Weinstein Company had re-acquired distribution rights to the film. Several months later, the film was released
on demand in North American markets through The Weinstein Company subsidiary,
Radius-TWC, on September 6, 2013, and given a
limited theatrical release on October 11, 2013, in the United States—over seven years after its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Box office Upon its release in the United Kingdom in February 2008, the film grossed a total of
US$400,851. It garnered an additional $482,500 in Germany upon its June 2008 release there.
Critical response The film received mixed reviews upon its initial festival screenings and subsequent European theatrical release in 2008. On the
review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 46% based on 67 reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The website's critics consensus states, "
Mandy Lane has enough wit and craft to spark the horror fans' interest, but is not sufficiently original for mainstream audiences." On the website
Metacritic, the film received a score of 44 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. It received a favorable review from
The Globe and Mail, who wrote that it "displays an intelligence lacking in most teen slasher pics," and
Film Threat called the film "a well-shot, [...] semi-cerebral horror film."
eFilmCritic wrote that the film's writing of its titular character is flawed, but it "evokes the rich landscapes of early
Terrence Malick and the grimy grindhouse tales of the '70s, converging poetically into its heartmashing climax. This is a film where the blood and carnage doesn’t feel like corn syrup or
CGI and each death grows in sadness, not quality."
Bloody Disgusting called it "a solid entry into the slasher genre and a pretty damn good teen thriller to boot." Other critics gave the film less flattering reviews, with
The Guardian calling it "bogus and compromised: an unreconstructed horror romp in the guise of a nerdish intellectual."
Slant Magazine said the film "flaunts its knowledge of classic genre fundamentals but fails to do anything very clever or surprising with them," and later compared its cinematography and aesthetic mood to
The Virgin Suicides (1999). Tim Robey of
The Daily Telegraph called the film "arrestingly well shot for a low-budget horror," but noted that it had an "
anorexic plot." The film continued to receive mixed reviews upon its theatrical release in the United States in October 2013. Nicholas Rapold of
The New York Times praised the film, noting that "cinematographer Darren Genet draws from
long shots of pursuits and a vaguely 1970s look, which wasn’t cutting-edge during the film’s making but suits the real-time nostalgia of high school activities, even murderous ones," and Scott Weinberg of
FEARnet said the film "[brings] a quietly artistic taste of teen-aged sexual politics to a subgenre that's generally disinterested in anything resembling brains, wit, or subtext." The
Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review as well, calling it "a small, tightly coiled spellbinder," and praised Heard's performance, referring to it as her most "definitive [performance] to date." The
New York Post gave the film a less favorable review, calling it "A slightly artsy attempt to revive the teen slasher movie [that] drifts awkwardly between popcorn entertainment and angsty mood piece." Christy Lemire of the
Chicago Sun-Times wrote that "[With the opening scene], Levine promisingly sets a dark and disturbing tone. But the vast majority of the film, which takes place nine months later, is a rather standard depiction of the bad kids trying to corrupt the last American virgin." Lemire also commented on the film's delayed release history, stating: "Its attempts at examining and subverting the well-worn conventions of the genre in the script from Jacob Forman might have seemed more novel seven years ago. But by now we've seen this approach executed much more effectively—and thrillingly."
The Washington Post, however, praised the film's acting and thematics, writing: "Thoughtful viewers may detect thematic whiffs of
Columbine, blended with
Carrie that darken and complicate the film’s aroma of stale blood. Thoughtful viewers? What kind of teen slasher movie is this? Too dumb for the arthouse, but too smart for the mall multiplex, the movie satisfies, paradoxically, precisely because it doesn’t deliver on expectations." In his book
Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s, film scholar
Kim Newman likened the film's teenage characters to the troubled youth in works by
Richard Linklater or
Larry Clark.
Home media All the Boys Love Mandy Lane was released on
Blu-ray and
DVD in the United Kingdom in a
Region 2 format on July 21, 2008, by
Optimum Home Entertainment. It was released in North America on Blu-ray and DVD in
Region 1 format on December 3, 2013, through
Anchor Bay Entertainment. ==Soundtrack==