Urban Legend: Bloody Mary

(2005) Urban Legends: Bloody Mary HORROR

Straight-to-rental third movie of the series that has nothing to do with the other two, which looks like nothing but a poor carbon copy of "Ju-On" or "The Grudge". Story starts with the year of 1969 involving three teenage jocks using the date rape drug on three different girls upon going to a prom dance, except that one of the girls, who happens to be Mary didn't take her drink and upon running away with one of them chasing her to bring her back. He eventually catches up with her and accidentally kills her by punching her with his fist on the head onto a hard table before landing to the ground and decides to dispose her body to a trunk so no one wouldn't even know about it. Jump to many years later, showcasing three teenage girls who accidentally wake up the Nancy ghoulish spirit, with some of those same students turning 30 years older and right off the get-go viewers should be able to find out the culprit who tried to conceal what this film calls a urban legend whose trying to prevent her son-in-law and daughter from exposing! Stupid, lame, clice and for the narrow minded, like the "Mary" girl never had any parents or friends. Police are never involved and are absent nor were Mary's parents.

These days the game in horror is a horrible business. Pity the poor filmmaker: she has to have enough formula to give the viewer something to rely on. After all, in a horror film, most of the work is done by the audience. We willingly supply all the imaginative components that thrill us. All the movie does is provide cues based on, derived from milestones in the genre.

But at the same time, that beleaguered filmmaker has to be novel enough to engage so far as the story and the metaphysical logic behind it. Usually, that is a matter of just mixing existing elements in a slightly new way and that's what we have here.

It is part ghost story, after the manner of recent much better films. It is part traditional slasher where an unknown human seems to be always in the right place to exact revenge (usually revenge, here a cover-up). And it is part that twist on the ghost story that kicked off the series: the notion that urban legends have a power of their own to invade the world and become real — the spectre that just thinking of hearing a story will have it land on you.

That novel notion wasn't fully exploited, but it is an intelligent a device as the movie within the movie of "The Ring."

And we have it here, dimly.

These three elements are mixed together with a bit more success than you would guess. It is still weak. But then, it has an appealing redheaded heroine.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Samantha Owens (Mara) is the editor of the high school newspaper and was blacklisted with her two friends, Gina (Haley McCormick) and Mindy (Olesya Rulin), by the football players after an article about them, so they do not go to a high school party. Samantha tells to the other girls an urban legend told by her mother: in 1969, in Salt Lake City, the two girlfriends of Mary Banner (Lilith Fields) are drugged by their dates in a prom, but she understands the situation and runs from her date, who kills her and hide her body in a trunk in the basement of the school. Like the Candyman, Samantha speaks "Bloody Mary" three times, evoking the evil spirit of Mary. Along the night, the three girls are drugged and kidnapped in a prank of the players, but Samantha has visions and premonitions about Mary. When her school mates are killed, Mary visits Grace Taylor (Tina Lifford), one of the girls abused in 1969, and finds that the victims are the descendants of the trio that killed Mary and harmed her friends, and that Mary spirit is seeking for revenge.

I bought this DVD full of good expectations, based on the name of director Mary Lambert, since "Pet Sematary" is one of my favorite horror movies ever. Unfortunately, the predictable and forgettable story of "Urban Legends: Bloody Mary" is very bad and full of clichés. Mary crawling from the bottom of the bed is a rip-off of Samara in "The Ring". It seems that there is only some care with the gore deaths, but the same does not happen with the characters. For example, Samantha's mother Pam (Nancy Everhard), who told the story of Mary to Samantha, vanishes and Samantha and David never ask for additional information about Mary to her. David is stupidly killed and Samantha in the end of the story with Grace does not miss or even mention him. The death of Heather Thompson, attacked by spiders, is the best moment of this disappointing flick. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Lendas Urbanas 3: A Vingança de Mary" ("Urban Legends 3: Mary's Revenge")

Samantha Owens (Kate Mara) have her two girlfriends for a sleepover. They are interrupted by Sam's brother David. They are all outcasts after Sam published a school news story denouncing the football players. The girls recount a story about the murder of Mary Banner in 1969. She and two other girls were drugged by the football players. Sam also talk about the urban legend of Bloody Mary. Next day, the girls are gone and David accuses the football players of foul play. Sam and her friends reappear later that afternoon disheveled and suffering from the after-effects of a drugging. Soon, the jocks and the captain's girlfriend Heather Thompson are showing up dead in unusual circumstances. Sam and David track down one of the girls from the 1969 incident, Grace Taylor.

The biggest name here is Kate Mara. It's odd that Sam's two friends aren't actually main characters. It doesn't help that they are limited actors. David isn't much better but at least, he's functional. Quite frankly, his role is unnecessary and Kate Mara should have been the only protagonist. The story should follow Sam and her two friends from the drugging onwards. The only good kill is the spiders and the CGI is cheap anyways. It's still creepy good. The other kills are either boring or silly or both. There are other issues and this never had a chance to be better than a B-horror.

Mary Lambert, who brought us "Pet Sematary" and "Pet Sematary II" brings us this unrelated sequel into the "Urban Legend" series. The movie starts out on prom night, years ago. A prank-gone-wrong takes place in the attic of a high school involving a girl named Mary. The guys responsible for the prank assume her dead, and lock her body in a trunk. Cut to present day. A group of teenage girls are spending the night, having a slumber party, telling urban legends to pass the time, all leading up to the infamous "Bloody Mary" legend. On their third and final bloody Mary chant, the girls end up getting kidnapped by some jocks who are performing a revenge prank mainly on a girl named Samantha. They all return safely, a little shaken and confused after the bizarre event. But our main character, Samantha, begins having visions after the prank, mainly of Bloody Mary - and people start to die off. Is it all a joke, or is Bloody Mary back to take revenge? It's up to Samantha to uncover Mary's origins and stop the vengeful spirit.

When I heard about this sequel, I was thinking "Okay, okay - this might be decent". And for the most part, it was. I saw the DVD at a local retail store and decided to buy it because I was curious. This film has nothing to do with the other two films at all, this one is much more supernatural rather than a slasher mystery. The acting was decent, not perfect but it passed. I enjoyed Lambert's "Pet Sematary" and I (unlike most people) enjoyed the sequel as well. The script for this film is predictable, the audience pretty much knows what actions the characters will take before they actually do it. The camera-work/cinematography was alright for a straight-to-video release, and the special effects were just okay, they unfortunately come off as a little bit corny in some of the sequences (especially the sequence that took place between Mary and the teenage boy at the motel). But hey, I wasn't expecting this movie to be perfect. The spider scene was actually pretty creepy looking, if not a little cheesy too. The deaths were quite creative and original, I'll give it that.

To sum things up, "Urban Legends: Bloody Mary" is a mediocre but semi-fun horror sequel. It's not great, it's really not bad. It's just somewhere right in the middle. I suppose it could've been worse. If you enjoy supernatural revenge movies (along the lines of "Pet Sematary"), or if you like Lambert's previous work, you may want to check this out. It's flawed and predictable, but overall entertaining. There's no need to see the other two films though, because this one has nothing to do with them. 5/10.