With its doomy, synth-driven soundtrack and vintage heavy metal aesthetics, Mandy has quickly become a popular go-to film for 'heads who love horror this season. The movie stars Nicolas Cage as Red, a man who seeks bloody vengeance after witnessing the brutal murder of his girlfriend Mandy. His impassioned performance is the crux of the story, and in a recent interview with Metal Hammer, Cage discussed taking inspiration from old-school metal superstars to mold his role.
"For me, all art is inspired by music on some level. Even when I come up with ways of speaking dialogue it has a musical intent to it," he told the magazine, continuing, "There's one example in Mandy where I say, 'Did you rip my shirt?' I knew I was going to go there with the melody and vocalization, and even though I'm a 'film person' and not a singer, I can still hear some of the dialogue as if I'm singing, almost like a metal singer."
Expounding on those direct influences from metal singers, Cage cites, "I think there is some influence there, from Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, or sometimes Axl Rose's vocalizations come into the process by virtue of osmosis, by being around it."
