Marshals Star Luke Grimes Made His Debut In A Cult Horror Movie That Divided Critics

"Marshals" might not be able to figure out what it's actually about, but with season 2 already green-lit, Luke Grimes looks set to portray Kayce Dutton for some time. That won't be too difficult for the "Marshals" star, seeing as he's played the character ever since "Yellowstone" season 1 debuted in 2018. Even at that point, however, Grimes was no rookie. His very first acting role was in a horror movie called "All The Boys Love Mandy Lane," which was shot back in 2006 but didn't get an official U.S. release until 2013. The film was a bit of a misfit from the jump, not only dividing critics but, as The Washington Post's Michael O'Sullivan pointed out, representing something that was "too dumb for the arthouse, but too smart for the mall multiplex."

As mentioned, Kayce Dutton isn't Grimes' first big role. In fact, it's not even the first time he played a Navy SEAL. That previously happened back in 2014 when Grimes portrayed Marc Alan Lee in Clint Eastwood's biographical war drama "American Sniper." He also played Christian Grey's younger brother, Elliot, in the "Fifty Shades of Grey" film trilogy and even had a small role in the Liam Neeson-starring sequel "Taken 2" (which Roger Ebert loved for some reason).

Before any of that, however, Grimes got his start on "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane," an odd little slasher that had an incredibly troubled path to release. When it did finally come out, it wasn't easy to categorize, either, which led to some confused reviews and likely contributed to the movie being largely overlooked and forgotten since its debut.

In an interview with Twitch Film, producer Chad Feehan once revealed how he'd begun working on "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane" alongside writer Jacob Forman and production designer Tom Hammock as his thesis at the American Film Institute. "We started working on it in 2003," he explained, "then graduated and got it financed and were able to hire our friends that we graduated with to make the movie." That film ended up being somewhat of a mashup between the scariest scenes in "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" and "Friday Night Lights," both of which director Jonathan Levine has cited as inspirations.

Levine went on to direct multiple Seth Rogan movies (including the rom-com "Long Shot"), but in 2006, he'd only directed two short films. Much like Luke Grimes, then, Levine was making his big debut with "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane."

The film stars Amber Heard as the titular high schooler, who returns from summer break having experienced what today's kids might call a "glow up." It's the classic high school movie trope of someone getting hot over the summer, and in Mandy's case, that immediately attracts the attention of her male classmates. After fellow student Chloe (Whitney Able) invites her to a retreat in the countryside at a secluded ranch house, she accepts and joins Chloe, stoner Red (Aaron Himelstein), football player Bird (Edwin Hodge), and couple Jake (Grimes) and Marlin (Melissa Price). There, they meet ranch hand Garth (Anson Mount), who thankfully doesn't have to deal with any Dutton family drama in his job. Unfortunately, he and the gang do have a murderer in their midst, and soon the bodies start dropping. There's a heck of a twist at the end, too.

"All the Boys Love Mandy Lane" did hit theaters in the United Kingdom in 2008, but rights issues meant it didn't get a United States release until seven years later. When it did finally reach theaters and video-on-demand in 2013, critics were divided. 

"All the Boys Love Mandy Lane" maintains a 47% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but that average score isn't really representative of the way in which reviewers' either praised or savaged the film. Most reviewers watched it having seen many of the projects Jonathan Levine made during the time "All the Boys" languished in the vault. Tom Long of Detroit News (via RT) opined that while Levine "has fun with the genre," he'd ultimately "found more interesting movies to make since." Still, Long described "All the Boys" as "a cut above average," while Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times agreed, writing that the film was "a strong addition to the canon of films that fuse teenage anxieties of the body and social interaction with blood-soaked storytelling."

Other critics simply dismissed the movie outright. Mike D'Angelo of the AV Club described it as "not nearly thoughtful or incisive enough to subsist on thwarted expectations alone." Elsewhere, Rex Reed of The Observer was even harsher, giving the film zero out of four stars and alleging that it ultimately "becomes the same slaughterhouse of clichés it pretends to poke fun at."

Unfortunately, for those hoping to make up their own mind about the film, rights issues seem to be stalking this movie like some sort of slasher villain. "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane" is currently unavailable to stream and only watchable via DVD or Blu-ray, but it's definitely a 21st century slasher that's worth seeking out.