Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II is a 1987 Canadian supernaturalslasher film[5] directed by Bruce Pittman, and starring Michael Ironside, Wendy Lyon, Louis Ferreira, and Lisa Schrage. It follows a high school student who becomes possessed by Mary Lou Maloney, a student who died at her high school prom in 1957. A sequel to the slasher film Prom Night (1980), it was originally intended to be a standalone film titled The Haunting of Hamilton High, but was retitled in order to capitalize on the success of the original Prom Night. The only story connection between the two films is that they are set at the same high school. However, both films were executive produced by Peter R. Simpson.
Filmed in Edmonton, Alberta in 1986, the film was retitled Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II by its Canadian distributor, Alliance Films. It was released theatrically in the United States by The Samuel Goldwyn Company in October 1987, and grossed nearly $3 million at the U.S. box office. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with many drawing stylistic comparisons to various other films of the era, ranging from David Lynch's Blue Velvet to its horror contemporaries Carrie and A Nightmare on Elm Street.
In 1957, at a high school senior prom, student Billy Nordham discovers his date Mary Lou Maloney making out with another boy named Buddy Cooper. Mary Lou breaks up with Billy and infuriates him when she reveals that she was just using him. Shortly after, Mary Lou is announced prom queen, and Billy, looking for revenge, throws a stink bomb onto the stage as a prank. However, the fuse of the bomb accidentally ignites Mary Lou's dress, and she burns to death in front of the horrified students.
30 years later, student Vicki Carpenter goes looking for a dress in the school prop room after being denied a new dress by her overly religious mother. There, Vicki finds an old trunk containing the cape and crown that Mary Lou was supposed to wear during the crowning process. She takes the accessories and leaves them in the school overnight, inadvertently releasing Mary Lou's spirit in the process. That night, Vicki's friend Jess is killed by Mary Lou's ghost after she tries to remove the jewels from her crown. Jess's death is ruled as a suicide brought on by an unexpected pregnancy.
Vicki begins experiencing surreal, nightmarish hallucinations involving Mary Lou and informs Buddy, who is now a priest. The following night, Buddy's bible spontaneously combusts after he attempts to bless Mary Lou's grave. Worried, Buddy approaches Billy, who is now the high school principal. He tries to warn Billy that Mary Lou has come back from the grave, but is dismissed as crazy. Later, Vicki winds up in detention after she inadvertently slaps her rival Kelly Henenlotter during another hallucination. There, Vicki is possessed by Mary Lou after she pulls her through a blackboard that transforms into a whirlpool. That night, Vicki confronts Buddy at the church and murders him after revealing her possession.
The next day, Vicki's friends notice that her personality and fashion style have suddenly changed drastically. One of Vicki's friends, Monica, privately confronts Vicki in the locker room, but is killed quickly after doing so. Vicki then reveals her possession to Billy and taunts him. That night, Billy finds Mary Lou's corpse missing from her grave, with Buddy's corpse in its place.
At the prom, Kelly, desperate to become prom queen, fellates her classmate Josh since he is in charge of the voting results. When Josh changes the outcome to make Kelly the winner, Vicki electrocutes him to death through his computer and reverses his changes. Once announced as prom queen, Vicki goes up on stage and eagerly waits for her crown. Before she can get it, Billy shoots her multiple times to the horror of the crowd. Shortly after, the now-fully resurrected Mary Lou bursts out of Vicki's body, and uses her powers to wreak havoc on the prom, killing Kelly in the process. Billy tries to shoot the undead Mary Lou, but falls and injures himself.
Mary Lou sets her sights on Billy's son and Vicki's boyfriend Craig, whom she chases into the prop room. She attempts to use the trunk that held her spirit to open a vortex to suck Craig into the Underworld, but before she can, Billy arrives with her crown and finally gives it to Mary Lou, seemingly bringing an end to her murderous wrath. Vicki, now free of possession, comes out of the trunk and reunites with Craig, and Billy offers to drive them both home after making sure they are both okay. After they all get into his car, however, Billy reveals that he is now possessed by Mary Lou, before driving off with the terrified Vicki and Craig.
The film was shot on location in Edmonton, Alberta at Westmount Jr. High School, on a budget of approximately CA$2.5 million.[3] Other portions of the film were shot inside an abandoned furniture store.[9] The Toronto-based Simcom Limited produced the film,[1][10] while the media company Allarcom also co-funded its production.[3] Filming began in early August 1986.[3][10] The production chose Edmonton due to the local school board's enthusiasm about shooting a film in the city, as well as the fact that the local schools had the neo-Gothic architecture the producers had envisioned.[3]
Jim Doyle, a special effects designer based in Los Angeles, served as the effects coordinator on the film.[1] Doyle had previously worked on Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and Francis Ford Coppola's One from the Heart (1982), and WarGames (1983).[1] Some sequences required elaborate set-ups to film, such as the surrealistic sequence in which Vicki collapses into the chalkboard, which becomes a metallic liquid: Though only a 45-second sequence,[1] the production crew scheduled five days to complete the scene, at an estimated cost of $2,000 per hour.[3] Doyle designed the set with the blackboard lying flat on the floor, and filmed it so as to appear that it was standing on end.[1]
Producer Peter Simpson and The Samuel Goldwyn Company reshot half of the film before it completed production, with writer Ron Oliver directing the new scenes himself. The film was subsequently rebranded as a sequel to the slasher Prom Night and retitled Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II by its Canadian production company, Simcom, peripherally connecting the films.[11] Simpson later stated that he felt branding the film a continuation of Prom Night damaged its reception.[12]
Release
The film was released theatrically in October 1987, and later expanded to a wide release on November 13, 1987. It grossed $911,351 in its opening weekend, and ended up making $2,683,519 at the U.S. box office.[4] The film was more of a success on home video.[8]
Critical response
Contemporaneous
Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review, praising Lyon's performance and drawing comparisons to Blue Velvet, adding: "You don't ... have to take Hello Mary Lou at all seriously, and it probably would be a mistake to do so. Certainly, it's not on the deeply personal, highly idiosyncratic artistic level of the David Lynch film, but it is a splendid example of what imagination can do with formula genre material."[13]Vincent Canby of The New York Times described the film's extended "grand guignol" finale, writing: "Bruce Pittman, the director, and Ron Oliver, who wrote the screenplay, have constructed the movie as if it were a gourmet banquet for toddlers. From the first course to the last, it's all ice cream."[7] Bill Cosford from The Arizona Republic called it "a badly made film, as awkward as can be, and long stretches of it make no sense whatsoever. Nor does it manage, as the better slasher films do, to re-create a high-school milieu of even passing authenticity."[14]
Betsy Sherman of The Boston Globe deemed the film a "miserly slice-and-dicer: Carrie without the bucket of blood," though she conceded it is "somewhat livened by the presence of Michael Ironside."[15] The Philadelphia Daily News's Ben Yagoda panned the film, writing that it "can be credited with nothing other than providing temporary employment for a group of untalented individuals," and drawing comparisons between Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) and The Exorcist (1973).[16] Richard Harrington of The Washington Post drew similar comparisons, writing that the film "may be derivative, but for the most part it's clever enough to trade on its sources with humor and class. It's Peggy Sue Lives on Elm Street, with dollops of Carrie, The Exorcist and a half dozen other genre stalwarts."[17]
Stephen Hunter of The Baltimore Sun criticized what he described as a "rudimentary" script as well as the "waste" of Ironside.[18]The Atlanta Constitution's Eleanor Ringel wrote: "for all its rip-offs, Hello Mary Lou is never a total chore to sit through. As vengeance-minded females go, Ms. Schrage makes Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction come off like a Girl Scout leader," adding that it serves as a "black-comic commentary on the whole notion of prom queens."[19] Juan Carlos Coto of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reviewed the film favorably, writing that "despite its lack of original material, this film is well-scripted, directed, and acted–and surprisingly entertaining."[20] A review in TV Guide awarded the film one out of five stars, praising the special effects and Pittman's direction, but ultimately deemed the film "all too predictable."[21]
In a retrospective assessment, film scholar and critic John Kenneth Muir wrote, "In the annals of unnecessary sequels, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II rates high. Contrarily, in the ranks of 1980s horror movies, it's merely a mediocre effort."[23] Film scholar Mike Mayo said the film is only a Prom Night sequel by title, and that it in fact bears more similarity to A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).[24] Writing for Syfy in 2017, Rebecca Pahle praised the film's special effects and acting, and deemed it a "slasher masterwork."[25] Jacob Knight of ComingSoon.net similarly praised the film in a 2015 retrospective, writing: "It's a shame Hello Mary Lou never became a bigger hit, because it's an oft-forgotten gem of the horror genre, standing the test of time nearly thirty years on. An amalgamation of national tax shelter weirdness, brazen borrowing from better films, and the tossing of creative caution to the wind, Pittman's picture evokes numerous classics while indubitably carving its own identity."[26]
A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic term for any horror film involving murder, film analysts cite an established set of characteristics which set slasher films apart from other horror subgenres, such as monster movies, splatter films, supernatural and psychological horror films.
Heather Elizabeth Langenkamp is an American actress, director, disc jockey, and producer. Langenkamp played Nancy Thompson in Wes Craven's slasher film A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), which earned her recognition as a scream queen and in popular culture. She reprised the role in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) and played a fictionalized version of herself in the meta film Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994). In 1995, she was inducted into the Fangoria Chainsaw Hall of Fame.
Just One of the Guys is a 1985 American teen comedy film directed by Lisa Gottlieb and co-written by Dennis Feldman and Jeff Franklin. It is a loose adaptation of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The film stars Joyce Hyser, Clayton Rohner, Billy Jacoby, Toni Hudson, and William Zabka.
The final girl is a trope in horror films. It refers to the last girl(s) or woman alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story. The final girl has been observed in many films, including Psycho, Voices of Desire, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween, Alien, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, and Train to Busan. The term was coined by Carol J. Clover in her article "Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film" (1987). Clover suggested that in these films, the viewer began by sharing the perspective of the killer, but experienced a shift in identification to the final girl partway through the film.
Prom Night is a 1980 slasher film directed by Paul Lynch and written by William Gray. Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Nielsen star. The film's plot follows a group of high school seniors who are targeted at their prom by a masked killer, seeking vengeance for the accidental death of a young girl. The film features supporting performances from Casey Stevens, Eddie Benton, Mary Beth Rubens and Michael Tough.
Terri Hawkes is a Canadian actress and writer, known for playing Kelly Hennenlotter in the horror film, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II, Adrienne in Beverly Hills 90210, Wendy Masters in General Hospital, and for being the second English dub voice actress of the title character of the Japanese anime Sailor Moon. She is the daughter of politician Jim Hawkes.
Happy Birthday to Me is a 1981 slasher film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Melissa Sue Anderson and Glenn Ford. Its plot revolves around six brutal murders occurring around a popular high school senior's birthday.
Carrie is a 1976 American supernatural horror film directed by Brian De Palma from a screenplay written by Lawrence D. Cohen, adapted from Stephen King's 1974 epistolary novel of the same name. The film stars Sissy Spacek as Carrie White, a shy teenage girl who is constantly mocked and bullied at her school. The film also features Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, William Katt, P. J. Soles, Betty Buckley, and John Travolta in supporting roles. It is the first film in the Carrie franchise.
Camp Blood is a 1999 American direct-to-video slasher film, written and directed by Brad Sykes. It was followed by seven official sequels, one official spin-off entitled "Ghost of Camp Blood" and one unofficial film entitled Within the Woods. Camp Blood stars Jennifer Ritchkoff as a young woman who travels to a deserted camp with her friends, only to find themselves at the mercies of a killer clown. The film had a home video release on April 4, 2000, and was released to DVD in 2002.
Prom Night III: The Last Kiss is a 1989 Canadian black comedy slasher film and the third in the Prom Night film series, continuing the storyline involving the murderous female ghost named Mary Lou Maloney. This is the only entry to depart from the horror genre, and is instead a spoof of the previous films.
Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker is a 1981 American exploitation horror film directed by William Asher, and starring Susan Tyrrell, Jimmy McNichol, Julia Duffy, and Bo Svenson. Framed as a contemporary Oedipus tale, the plot focuses on a teenager who, raised by his neurotic aunt, finds himself at the center of a murder investigation after she stabs a man to death in their house. The boy's sexually repressed aunt secretly harbors incestuous feelings for him, while a detective investigating the crime irrationally believes the murder to be a result of a homosexual love triangle.
Prom Night is a 2008 slasher film directed by Nelson McCormick. It is a reboot of the Prom Night film series and its fifth installment, mainly taking inspiration from the original 1980 film. The film stars an ensemble cast including Brittany Snow, Scott Porter, Jessica Stroup, Dana Davis, Collins Pennie, Kelly Blatz, James Ransone, Brianne Davis, Johnathon Schaech, and Idris Elba.
Paul Zaza is a Canadian Genie Award-winning film score and songwriter who worked frequently with director Bob Clark and with fellow composer Carl Zittrer. He has composed scores for more than 100 films.
Lisa Schrage is a retired Canadian film and television actress. She is best known for her role as Mary Lou Maloney in the 1987 Canadian horror film Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II.
A Night to Dismember is a 1983 American slasher horror film, produced and directed by Doris Wishman. The film stars pornographic actress Samantha Fox as a psychotic young woman, recently released from a psychiatric institution, who is driven to kill by an ancestral curse. It was the first and only foray into the horror genre for Wishman, who mainly directed and produced sexploitation films.
Ronald Bruce Pittman is a Canadian television and film director best known for directing the 1987 slasher Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II. He also directed the 1989 film Where the Spirit Lives, which won the Gemini Award for Best TV movie and numerous international awards.
The Final Girls is a 2015 American comedy slasher film directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson and written by M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller. The film stars Taissa Farmiga and Malin Åkerman, with supporting performances from Adam DeVine, Thomas Middleditch, Alia Shawkat, Alexander Ludwig, and Nina Dobrev. The plot follows a group of high school students who are transported into a 1986 slasher film called Camp Bloodbath.
Wendy Lyon is a Canadian film and television actress. She began her career in television, appearing on the miniseries Anne of Green Gables (1985) before having a recurring role on the Canadian series The Campbells (1986–1990). She made her feature film debut in a leading role in the supernatural horror film Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987).
Prom Night is a Canadian slasher film franchise that comprises a total of five feature films, the first four of which are centered around events at the fictional Hamilton High School. The first film, Prom Night (1980), was a slasher film directed by Paul Lynch and produced by Peter R. Simpson, focusing on teenagers being stalked and murdered by a masked killer at their prom. The film was a box-office success, grossing nearly $15 million. The following sequel, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987), was envisioned as a standalone film, but producer Simpson and his company, Simcom, refitted it as a sequel to the original Prom Night. Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II, a supernatural-themed slasher film, introduced the character of Mary Lou Maloney, a vengeful young woman who died on her prom night in 1957; its only connection to the first film was that both films take place in the same high school.
Mary Elizabeth Rubens is a Canadian film, stage, and television actress, who made her feature film debut in Paul Lynch's slasher film Prom Night (1980). She subsequently appeared in Firebird 2015 AD (1981). She worked throughout the 1980s in television, guest-starring on Night Heat (1985–1987) and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1987–1988). From 1989 to 1993, she had a leading role on the series E.N.G., for which she was nominated for a Gemini Award.
1 2 Pecchia, David (August 3, 1986). "High Hopes". Los Angeles Times. p.30. Archived from the original on October 13, 2019. Retrieved October 13, 2019– via Newspapers.com.
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