ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE - ***

...but how does she feel about that? In this teensploitation horror flick, six teenagers head to an isolated ranch for a weekend of debauchery. Among them is the most popular, most desired girl in school, who remains aloof from her peers even as she accepts their invitations. Then, as the genre requires, The ones who stray from the pack start getting picked off one by one.

The horror elements of the movie seem kind of half-hearted. The deaths aren't very creative, the killer's identity is revealed early and without suspense, and it's just all-around not very scary. What keeps the movie compulsively watchable and often spellbinding is the titular teen queen herself. Mandy Lane speaks only when necessary, abstains from sex and drugs, and always seems like she's going along with the crowd though she never ends up doing anything she doesn't want to. Amber Heard plays the crucial role of this graceful enigma perfectly, so that when an adult tells her that she doesn't seem to fit among her friends, we know exactly what he means, In this film full of mortal danger, the question that generates the most suspense isn't "Who's the killer?" nor "Who dies next?" but simply "What's going on behind those eyes?"