Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary

Mary is a vampire, but her reflection shows in the mirror completely normal. She also carelessly walks around during the daylight, and although it's not explicitly mentioned, I'm pretty sure that she can resist the effects of garlic and crucifixes as well. This all just to say that "Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary" (got to love title!) is a very unconventional vampire movie, but also one that is strangely absorbing and intriguing in spite of the ultra-thin story lines and the obvious budgetary restrictions. The film was directed by the Mexican born Juan López Moctezuma, who also made the '70s cult/exploitation highlights "Alucarda" and "The Mansion of Madness". Those who have seen these brilliant – in my humble opinion, at least – flicks know they can expect anything from Moctezuma. "Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary" is less flamboyant and bizarre than the other two, but still a uniquely compelling tale about a reluctant condition, hunger for love and the search for roots (bloody roots!). Mary is a successful painter, traveling around in Mexico with a handsome drifter that she met in an abandoned mansion where she was forced to spend the night. She desperately tries to hide it from Ben, but Mary needs to drink human blood in order to survive. So she occasionally drugs an unsuspecting victim and slits his (or her) throat with a hairpin. A duo of police inspectors follows the trail of beastly murders, but there's another mysterious figure pursuing Mary. Someone who also kills and drains all the blood from the bodies. "Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary" is full of odd little details that makes me cheerful, like the fact that the opening credits appear very late and totally randomly into the film, or the brief but very recognizable supportive role for cult-monument John Carradine. What makes me slightly less cheerful is the totally redundant and gratuitous animal cruelty (I sincerely doubt that the shark and turtles were fake). Lead actress Cristina Ferrare is a natural beauty and she gives away a powerfully integer performance, but the film mostly benefices from that typically mid-70s ominous atmosphere and the non-stop sexual tension. Recommended to cult fanatics!

MARY, MARY, BLOODY MARY stars Cristina Ferrare as the serial exsanguinator of the title. All is well with her thirst-quenching endeavor, until she happens upon Ben (David Young), who sets her heart aflutter. Thankfully, romance doesn't slow her down one bit. The police are on the case, but there might also be a copycat on the prowl.

Director Juan Lopez Moctezuma presents us with a unique twist on the modern vampire tale. Instead of the usual trappings and tropes, he gives us a bizarre story of true bloodlust. This was a perfect Drive-In movie in its day, and still holds up well for Late-Night viewing. The grisly finale is a real grabber!

Watch for John Carradine in a small, but important role...

This one was surprisingly good. A night, a woman's VW van breaks down near an apparently deserted house. She's grabbed by someone and runs, but then ends up staying the night. There's a flashback to her having seduced and killed a computer operator who worked at the American embassy in Mexico who bought one of her strange paintings. She kills by removing a hairpin from her ponytail, then drinking all the blood.

She meets a young guy she likes, while continuing to kill other people. Meanwhile, a man in giallo garb (black trenchcoat, black gloves, black broad-brimmed hat, plus a black handkerchief over the face kills a morgue attendant to get a look at one of her victims, killing him in the same way.

Regrettably, the videotape I rented blacked out during a couple of the seductions scenes! What the heck!

Carradine has a small role, but a good one.

Of all the films that my buddy and i rented (back in our high school days) for our late night horror movie marathons, this one stands out as the most memorable.

To this day we still discuss the bath scene, the chase-scene set to bongo music where the characters run in entirely opposite directions yet meet each other, and the classic (and i mean CLASSIC) scene where the two main characters are walking along the beach, and a bunch of mexicans can be seen kicking the hell out of a SHARK in the background..

Was it a fake shark? Was it real? What the heck was it doing there?

Who knows...But it WAS there.. My friend and i rewound and watched it about 27 times.

Mysteriously, after we rented this film, it disappeared from our videostore.. I had been worried that we had dreamt the whole thing.. Nice to know there are others who have seen it!

It was OK. The lead actress is beautiful. The story was a little hard to follow but at the end it all makes sense. Is she a vampire? what the heck is she? Are there more like her? What is the background? These questions were never answered. To me because the story just didn't have enough substance, I have to rate it low. I was asking questions the entire time and never got answers. The last 10 minutes pretty much sums up the entire movie, the rest of the movie is a lot of drama with some bloody scenes. Its really funny how the 70's treated bisexuality, there was one scene that kind of explained the bisexual summary but in today's time, its just laughable. The actors were OK, the direction was good, there was some nudity which added to the score. The story was short and lacked any substance. Just overall an OK movie in my book.