Mary Lou

Though this movie often gets skewered on the message boards it is a delight for those who appreciate the high school horror films of the 80's. The acting is stale, the story is one we've all heard before but this film had some memorable touches. The locker room scene is one of my all-time favorite death scenes and this film used the art class paper cutter as a weapon way before Josh Hartnett wielded one in "The Faculty". The "living rocking horse" is definitely something viewers wont easily forget and that scene reminds me of horrors historical roots in cinema: that scene screams German Expressionism as much as the title sequence in "Nightmare on Elm Street". If you don't like camp, this movie will be hard to swallow, but if you're a fan of the B movies you rented as a kid just because the cover art looked creepy: bon apetit.

Clever, inventive, and funny totally non-related sequel to Prom Night takes various elements from just about every horror film and blends them together with successful results. The story deals with a murdered prom queen possessing a young girl thirty years later to avenge her death. Lisa Schrage is funny, scary, and sexy as Mary Lou. Pretty good effects for the most part too. Rated R; Nudity, Sexual Situations, Graphic Violence, and Profanity.

Hello Mary Lou isn't the most entertaining horror I've seen but it's fairly decent and something always seems to be happening. There's no gore at all but there's plenty of silliness. There seems to be a weird religious edge to it as well, as the girl possessed by Mary Lou asks the priest: "Will you pray for me?...Will you f**k me?" There's a hilarious line from the priest during a funeral, when he comments that the death should remind everyone of violence seen every day in life, on TV, and in films. Other funny scenes include a girl being pulped in between two lockers, Mary Lou's corpse bursting out of Vicki's body, and an exploding grave. These are not as cool as they sound, but will still bring a smile to your face.

I would give this a watch if you enjoy 80's horror films. It's not the best, but it's got enough wholesome cheesiness to pass the time.

This one is simply too much devilish fun! An unrelated, stand-alone sequel much more in the supernatural slasher vein of the at the time very popular "A Nightmare On Elm Street" movies. There's some black humor & genre references present (the film winks at "The Exorcist" and "Carrie"), but it does deliver in the creepy horror department also. Lisa Schrage is delicious as the evil Mary Lou Maloney and Michael Ironside is running around in it also as the principal of Hamilton High (always a nice bonus in any movie, this man). Wendy Lyon (as the possessed Vicky Carpenter) provides some very unexpected full frontal nudity, resulting in a scene featuring the best kill of the movie. This is a fine example of how much crazy fun an '80s slasher movie can get.

A hedonistic prom queen is accidentally killed on stage in 1957. When her spirit is inadvertently released thirty years later, she wreaks havoc on prom night seeking to be queen again, not to mention obtaining revenge. Michael Ironside plays the principal of the school, the man responsible for the girl's death decades earlier.

Sometimes subtitled "Hello Mary Lou," "Prom Night II" (1987) is disconnected from the original 1980 film with Jamie Lee Curtis, although there are some trivial links. This one discards the disco dancing while upping the ante with the "Carrie" (1976) elements and mixing in components from the first two "A Nightmare on Elm Street" flicks (1984/1985), like the illusions and possession.

The original was more of a coming-of-age drama/whodunit with a masked assailant appearing in the last act whereas this sequel is actually a little better in that it adds creative horror pizazz, which some might say makes it "cheesy." In any case, Wendy Lyon stands out as the winsome protagonist who's shown totally nude on a few occasions in the second half which ties-in with the possession angle.

If you favor any of those other horror films noted above, "Prom Night II" is arguably on par, although I suppose "Carrie" is superior on a technical level.

The movie runs 1 hour, 37 minutes and was shot in Edmonton, Alberta, with other stuff (post-production) done in Toronto.

GRADE: B