Resurrection Mary

If it wasn't for my mother (Irmgard,Ritter, not Ingrid) having a small part in this movie as Sophie's aunt, I would have easily passed over this movie. I saw it on its premier night at the Pickwick Theater in Park Ridge, Illinois. The editing was poor with loud music over-powering the actors, couldn't understand what was being said, it was like being at a concert where you hear music and see lips moving but nothing coming out. The movie had lots of dead spots as if the actors were trying to remember their lines. The movie was difficult to follow, bouncing all over the place. I wouldn't waste my time with this movie unless you want to use it for background noise.

I watched only some of the film and gave up. Too much annoying flashbacks, and clips of whats going on the characters head. The main character is miserable from the very beginning. I don't know what Mary the strange woman in white saw in him. It seems she's surrounded by maggots and flies. There is an actual legend about a ghost called Resurrection Mary but this film is bad, and an excuse to make a silly soap opera with grumpy faces. I've seen more exciting docudramas than this. None of the characters appear to like each other, and the acting is wooden. I've seen better actors doing pantomimes than this.

I saw "Resurrection Mary" at The Chicago Horror Film Fest. It was the best feature of the weekend. It reminded me of the kind of show that Alfred Hitchcook use to make. The movie began with a short sparse wedding scene wherein the main characters were introduced. Soon thereafter the story got going and kept me spellbound until the end.

The movie is based on the legend of the ghost that haunts Resurrection Cemetery and Archer Av. in Chicago. As the legend goes, a beautiful young girl,engaged to be married, becomes involved in a dalliance at a dance hall with someone other than her fiancée.When this suitor is done with her, he leaves her in the way that all men leave women who give up their love too easily, ashamed and heartbroken. She is killed on her way home that night by a hit and run driver. By dying before making amends for her transgression, Mary becomes an agent for the devil, reborn with a new purpose. She appears at certain places finding and ferrying souls to the devil, souls who like her's, "have sin still clinging to them."

Decades later Shawn, an emotionally conflicted young man, encounters Mary at the same dance hall where years earlier Mary's lapse in judgement condemned her to a perpetual partnering with the devil. In a torrid public bathroom scene, an engaged Shawn, the male lead in the movie, acting on lustful impulse,instigates a replay of the passionate embrace of years earlier,this time with an ironic twist.It's Shawn who betrays his betrothal and is left to pay Mary the price of this "one night stand". Shawn discovers through Mary that guilt,denial and regret are the wages of sin.

This movie explores issues of sin and it's physical and emotional consequence as well as moral restitution and redemption. It occurred to me that the moral of "Resurrection Mary" is delineated concisely in a 5 word dialogue between the main characters at the end of the movie. They are the 5 words, when uttered by the truly contrite, have the power to absolve the soul of sin and guilt and set a spirit free.

The movie is worth a look whenever it is released.

I know that it's hard to make a movie, and I truly believe that the director and producer put a lot of effort into this one, but it's got to be depressing to look at a finished film and see something like RM. Forget the acting (which is, coincidentally, quite forgettable) and just look at the plot. I watched this film for about 45 minutes, then backed it up because I figured that I must have fallen asleep. Nope. I did it again about 20 minutes later. I was absolutely convinced that I had missed some important plot points. The story just doesn't make any sense. It certainly doesn't bear any resemblance to the "vanishing hitchhiker" urban legend that we all associate with RM. All good horror stories have to have some sort of rules, even if the rules get broken as part of the plot. Not this movie. I truly don't understand what was going on and why things were happening. I didn't understand why certain people were killed and others weren't. I didn't even understand why the fiancée got so mad at the guy...and that took place in the first ten minutes. (And I shudder to think what would happen if my wife or GF decided to get mad at me about thoughts in my head that I had never even expressed.) Not recommended.

Almost forgot. With all due respect to the current "most helpful" reviewer, there is no way that he/she could really mean what was written. Don't believe me? Watch the film, read the review again, and then let me know what YOU think.

BTW, there are at least four different "Resurrection Mary" movies that have been released in the last ten years. Do not confuse them! None of them are good, but the one with Sally Kirkland is better than this one. Remember, go for Kirkland, not Estevez. I don't know about the other two.

You're welcome.

Resurrection Mary is a real ghost - as far as any ghost is real. Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night wrote a song about her the year after this film was released, so unfortunately, "I Guess It Doesn't Matter Anymore" is not included on the soundtrack. All the same, the music wants for nothing, but when you've said that, you've said it all.

Films about the supernatural are often confusing: flashbacks, dream sequences and so on, but this one is ultra-confusing. Our hero encounters Mary at a party, and she wants his fiancée, but when the car crashes, things don't turn out the way they should. This is also one feisty spirit who packs a hell of a punch. There is a resolution, but if you want something less challenging, buy a Rubik cube.