Mandrake
(Lionsgate DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: C Extras: D Feature: B+
When
expedition is sent out to the jungle recover a legendary dagger of a
conquistador, the last thing ex-soldier Darren McCall and his team expected to
find was an ancient legendary monster, part plant, part creature, and hungry
for human blood in Mandrake. On top of that the natives are hunting them
down to feed them to creature to satisfy its hunger. Now they must find away to escape this
creature and it's wrath, but how can you escape a creature when it is part of
the jungle?
It was suppose to be an easy expedition, easy money, Sgt. McCall duty was to
secure wealthy megalomaniac Harry Vargas's treasure and bring it home, but
little did they know they were the second team sent in, the first team (unknown
to them) was completely massacred by a tribe that was supposed to be extinct. Even after the warning of a curse, they
pulled the dagger from an ancient burial ground they awakened plant-like
monster, and now is hunting them down one by one...
The mandrake of legend (not to be confused with the magician) is a mythological
plant when dug up said to scream and kill whoever pulled it up. An annoying point about the film was whenever
the creature appeared any female characters were in immediate hysterics. The film mixed Indian legends of some
plant-like forest guardian summoned stop invaders in the jungle, but when it
goes out of control and starts indiscriminating killing, both the
(remaining) expedition team and the Indians must find some way to stop
this horror. The film is like an Indian
version of a mummy movie, an evil Ent movie so to say... hunting those who
would be foolish enough to ignore its curse.
- Ricky Chiang
