Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II

Your attitude going into Prom Night II will determine how much joy you take away from the film. If you're expecting a horror masterpiece, look elsewhere. If you like campy movies that are rather fun to watch unfold, you'll like this. Lisa Schrage has the time of her life playing an over the top Mary Lou and Wendy Loyd channels Schrage's rage perfectly during her time "possessed".

Not classic cinema but a fun way to kill a couple of hours with a wicked ending.

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.

The Prom Night series probably takes the cake as one of horror's more negligible series due to its lack of continuity, trite plots, and severe emphasis on Christianity. However, I think Mary Lou is probably the best installment in this series. Vicki Carpenter is the quintessential goody two shoes who's raised by strict and deeply religious parents who've done a fine job at making her feel guilty for having "sinful" thoughts about her boyfriend and using the Lord's name in vain. But with her interest in the prom queen who died thirty years earlier, it's obvious that she's torn between a her own world and one that can be considered more sinful. The spirit of Mary Lou does a helluva job at corrupting this little Miss Perfect by exposing her to violence, revenge, lust, and even homosexuality that she's pondered for years. While the film bears no major relevance to its predecessor much like the subsequent two films, it provides a reflection of what teenagers have been going through for years while they were trying break free from the parents who drove them crazy, discover more about themselves, or just try, by any means necessary, to be the most popular person in their school. After all, weren't those the elements that John Hughes filled his 80s teen movies with?

If there was ever a vote for THE prototypical 80s horror film, I'd be hard pressed to vote for anything other than this. The look, style, pace and vibe of Bruce Pittman's delirious non-sequel to the routine slasher PROM NIGHT are the very epitome of the period. For this reason, those touched by nostalgia will find it hard not to like but HELLO MARY LOU: PROM NIGHT II has a little more in it's locker (literally as it happens!) to enjoy than just an appreciation of it's era.

Right from the opening scene, there is a wonderfully odd vibe throughout that propels the movie along nicely and although it openly borrows from CARRIE, ELM STREET and THE EXORCIST, it makes no apologies for this and goes about the task with real zest and energy. Much credit belongs to veteran Canadian composer Paul Zaza, whose queasy score here adds immeasurably to the off kilter mood that works so much in this movie's favour.

The cast have fun and are game for the ride with the ever-reliable Michael Ironside thrown into the mix. As for Lisa Schrage.........given her limited screen time (her character spends most of the movie in the guise of a possessed Wendy Lyon), I thought she was mesmerizing as Mary Lou, giving us a truly memorable and delightfully twisted character whose beauty can't be ignored and whose evil can't be escaped!

Mary Lou is a vengeful 50s Prom Queen back from the grave with a score to settle. Most of all, she wants back the crown she was cruelly denied and will stop at nothing to get it.

As the possessed Vicky, she kills and toys with victims - sometimes on a warped sexual level........at one point coming onto her Dad(!), her headmaster (in his office!) and even her best friend in a shower.........the latter in a sequence culminating in a protracted and utterly unexpected full-frontal nude scene, stalking her prey around the changing room with a payoff kill that's not easily forgotten.

Well staged and imaginative dream sequences and hallucinations abound such as the liquid blackboard and a possessed rocking horse that comes off very creepy and not nearly as silly as it could have been. With little to boast of in budget, the SPFX here are all the more ballsy and impressive.

Sharp, quirky and with a wicked sense of humour, there's not a dull moment here!

The film centers around the ghost of one Mary Lou Maloney, a girl who was accidentally killed during her prom queen crowning in the 50s. Her spirit is accidentally released by a girl named Vicki when she finds her supposed prom queen regalia in the school's prop room. Mary Lou possesses her, and sets out to get revenge on those responsible for her death and become the prom queen once more.

I usually prefer Hammer horror films or 80's horror with light gore and an emphasis on atmosphere and story and this 1987 sequel has plenty of atmosphere, moments that make you jump, builds progressively to the climax and the gore isn't too heavy - it's more special effect-laden like the Nightmare on Elm street series. Has some inventive effects and the characterisation is good, though it gets a little longwinded and tedious towards the end. The interesting aspect is that the would-be victim or the one vulnerable is the male - usually in horror film it's the female who is either the final girl or in the dangerous situation.