Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2 (1987)
Starring: Michael Ironside, Wendy Lyon, Louis Ferreira, Richard Monette
Category: (I guess) new classic, boxes that scared me as a kid
Plot Tags: possession, revenge, goofy
Original release: October 1987
Format viewed: DVD - rented from Vulcan of course
Directed by: Bruce Pittman
Written by: Ron Oliver
Produced by: Peter R Simpson
Distributed by: Norstar Releasing
So my plan was to watch the original Prom Night (1980 with Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Neilsen) and then this one in succession. However, it is October and playoff and World Series baseball is played in October so time management has become a minor issue. Sleep being the primary issue really. Mainly because I keep falling my ass asleep on the couch towards the end of, or right after movies end. It is a confounding thing to wake up on the couch in the middle of the night and wonder if you actually finished Maximum Overdrive or not. I guess it's a universal problem. Getting off track, so that was my plan but I settled for just sticking with the one that fit into the 'scary VHS box group'. I'm not 100% on why it was that this one freaked me out beyond the fact she is looking right freaking at you! Yeesh. Plus the back, as I recall, is all manner of ucky. Anyway, it fits.
This is a goofy movie. It is legitimately tense in a couple parts but from the onset you know what will happen in the next scene. This is the thing with movies about possession. You know that it ramps up bit by bit until the stuff hits the proverbial fan. There are few examples of a possession movie that involves a demon or entity that decides mid movie that he'd rather go play a round of golf or shop for curtains and just leaves everyone alone. So, once you get the gist of what is going on, the next step or five steps are pretty much layed out. However, this might then explain the abject strangeness of many of the scenes. This strangeness comes from the rhythm of them, or just odd stuff that happens but I get this feeling that because of the relatively cookie-cutter map of the script they opted to amp up the odd.
The story is basically this, in 1957 a harlot/hussy type character (introduced initially in a church confessional) is at the senior prom with her date Bill (played later by Michael Ironside - Top Gun, Total Recall) and, upon sending him off for punch, sneaks off behind the stage for a roll in the hay with Buddy. Upon discovering this, Bill is a bit put out and storms off. He discovers two guys working on a stink bomb in the bathroom but before they finish they have to abandon it in the trash can before an incoming teacher can discover it. Bill takes it and heads up onto the scaffolding above the stage. Mary Lou is crowned Prom Queen and while she accepts her crown, Bill throws the stink bomb down onto the stage. Instead of blowing up and causing a stink, it catches her dress on fire and burns her alive - not before she sees it was him that did it. Buddy starts to run towards her with his jacket to help put out the flame but backs away. She dies.
Fast forward to today and we're introduced to Vicki, a seemingly nice girl with friends at the school, a nice dad, an overbearing religious mom type character. Why? Who really knows. They dress in 80s clothes, she dresses like an extra in Inherit the Wind. Anyway, discussing the prom and not being able to buy a dress, Vicki's friend suggests checking out the prop room for something. She does and happens upon an old trunk with Mary Lou's dress, crown, sash and other assorted stuff. This unleashes her spirit - I think. From this point forward many things make no damned sense. The initial impression is that putting on the dress or clothing allows her spirit to take over the person, but almost nearly immediately, Vicki's friend is left alone in the art room with Mary Lou's crown and cape and doesn't actually put them on but is set upon, attacked and ultimately hung from the light fixture. People assume this is a suicide because it was revealed she was pregnant. Now, I would have known this ahead of time but the sound mastering in the 'reveal' scene for this was so darn lousy that after rewinding twice I just gave up. Okay, so back to when things stop making any amount of freaking sense. If Mary Lou's spirit can just up and fling a girl around a room, control objects and cause all manner of craziness, why on earth does she need to inhabit a person's body? Seems like a wholy unnessessary step in the process of terrorizing a bunch of people. Well anyway...
Poor Vicki is beset by weird visions involving stuff in gym class, stuff with the cheerleader jerk character and other random stuff - to the point where the rocking horse in her room goes all red eyed and talks - well, sort of talks. Kind of just goes 'blllleeehhh' or something like that. These things continue until Vicki is completely taken over and starts the killing bit in earnest. Some creative ones here (crushing someone in a locker, electrocution via a power cord) but again, none of this stuff needed to be done while inhabiting someone! Makes no damned sense. We get to the final act and Bill (now the school principal) tries to intervene and stop everything. I realize now that the actress who played Mary Lou looks a ton like Regina Spektor - sheeesh, that has been driving me nuts since last night. a bunch of people get killed (sadly, the school cheerleader jerk gets it in a very uninspiring way - disappointed by that) and we careen into the last of the movie. There are a couple twists there towards the end but, unless you plan to sit down and watch all four at once, the continuation of the story isn't all that critical.
Overall, I was hoping for more an abject massacre of a thing (a la Dead Alive) but instead you get a few good set pieces, some goofy-ass dialogue and puns and a lot of roundly confusing things. I guess all in all it was a fun way to spend an hour and a half but there certainly was a chance to make it a cult classic that they missed.
No comments:
Post a Comment