Nicolas Cage Stars In A Bloody Revenge Movie You Can Stream For Free Right Now

Nicolas Cage's bloody revenge movie Mandy is available to stream for free on Tubi.

By Jessica Scott | Updated

Nic Cage

Nicolas Cage is working on becoming the king of direct-to-streaming movies. To make it even better, some of those movies are available for free, like Mandy, which is available to watch right now on Tubi. According to FlixPatrol, the film takes place in the Shadow Mountains in 1983. Red (Nicolas Cage) and Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) live a nice, peaceful life until their forest haven is torn apart, and Red is “catapulted into a phantasmagoric journey” of revenge.

To describe it in a bit less fantastical way, the film is about Nicolas Cage’s character, Red Miller, a recovering alcoholic/lumberjack who lives with his girlfriend Mandy Bloom, who is a gentle artist and author. One night, on her way home from her day job as a gas station cashier, Mandy is noticed by members of a religious cult. Its leader is taken by Mandy’s beauty and decides that he must have her.

He and other cult members break into Mandy and Red’s house, and the leader tries to seduce Mandy, to no effect. He then stabs Nicolas Cage’s character and burns Mandy alive, sending the former on a mission to avenge the death of his beloved girlfriend. 

Mandy premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018, after which it received a lot of praise from audiences and critics alike. While it then went to streaming services instead of theaters, it still made it onto Esquire magazine’s list of the “25 Best Movies of 2018 So Far.” Critics agreed that it played to Nicolas Cage’s strengths, among which is a “feral” quality and a sense of eccentricity

Perhaps contributing to his powerful performance were the feelings Nicolas Cage put into it. In 2018, the Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent actor told a UK magazine that his inspiration for his character came from the shocking and sudden end of his marriage to Alice Kim Cage. He hadn’t seen the end of their 14-year marriage coming, and he used the movie as a way to channel his feelings and work through the pain.

Andrea Riseborough in Mandy

The film won many awards, including a Best Actor Award for Nicolas Cage from the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, an awards ceremony that caters to horror and thriller movies. It also won a Saturn Award for Best Independent Film, a Seattle Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Score, and the award for Best Director for Panos Cosmatos at the Sitges Film Festival. 

Aside from Nicolas Cage, the film also stars Linus Roache as Jeremiah Sand, the cult leader who kills Mandy. The film was produced by Daniel Noah, Elijah Wood, Josh C. Waller, Adrian Politowski, Nate Bolotin, and Martin Metz.

Director Panos Cosmatos is said to have based the story on the death of his parents. The character of Jeremiah Sand is also obviously loosely based on one of the most famous cult leaders in history, Charles Manson, who, like Sand, was a musician who couldn’t make it in his chosen field and was highly sensitive to criticism about his musical talent (or lack thereof). They both also used psychedelic drugs to fuel their violent acts, and they both called their victims “pigs.”

According to the film’s IMDb page, there are also other, less noticeable references in the film. At one point, Mandy refers to “Crystal Lake,” which, as any good horror movie fan can tell you, is where Jason Voorhees killed his victims in the infamous Friday the 13th series. Nicolas Cage’s character also says at one point that Saturn is his favorite planet, which is a pretty interesting coincidence, seeing as his production company is called Saturn Films.

Nicolas Cage has been taking multiple roles in video-on-demand (VOD) films as of late, which, as The Independent reports, was initially to keep from having to file for bankruptcy. While he may have made a name for himself in blockbuster hits like Face/Off, Ghost Rider, and National Treasure, the actor says that these often-ridiculed, straight-to-streaming movies are some of the best work he has done in his entire career. 

In spite of the stigma around it, Nicolas Cage also sees VOD as a great way to “get your movie out there” and have a lot more people watch and enjoy it which, after all, is kind of the point, isn’t it?