Horror Movie Review: Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2 (1987)

The original Prom Night was a classic 80’s slasher movie that had a decent ‘guess the killer’ plot. Many of our modern slasher films were clearly inspired by Prom Night such as I Know What You Did Last Summer & Scream.

Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II is best thought of as a stand-alone movie though as it shares nothing in common with the original beyond the Prom setting.

In 1957 Mary Lou Maloney attends confession where she spills all to a priest before announcing her enjoyment of it & leaving her number in the confessional booth alongside the message ‘for a good time call Mary Lou’. Yep, Mary Lou is a bad girl & she just doesn’t care…

That night at prom she sends her date, Billy off to get some punch & starts messing around with another boy called Buddy. Billy sees them & is humiliated by Mary Lou. Angry, he decides to play a prank on her & as she is receiving her prom queen crown he drops a stink bomb on her head that accidently ignites her dress. She goes up in flames & dies…

30 years later Vicki is searching the school prop room for a dress as her religious mother won’t get her one when she comes across several of Mary Lou’s prom queen stuff locked away & unwittingly releases her spirit when she takes them.

It’s not long before the spirit takes over Vicki’s body & sets about getting revenge on those who killed her 30 years ago.

Now this is a fun film…

There a number of stand-out scenes & visual effects that really make it special, the earliest being Mary Lou’s death scene – any burning scene done well will always get the nod of approval from me.

The scene where Vicki is taken over by Mary Lou’s malevolent spirit sees her dragged into a watery chalk-board is pretty cool & with Mary Lou in charge the actor really gets to strut her stuff (which she does in the nude as well).

Going from the nice & quiet Vicki to the loud & confident Mary Lou is a hell of a transformation. Some of the following deaths are well-done & none more so then the locker room splat. Mary Lou, after having tried to get it on with her friend in the school showers, who is angry with her change in character, stalks her around the locker room. Eventually she hides in a locker so Mary Lou squishes it together resulting in her bloody bits pouring through the holes. Nice…

A movie like this all about the big ending….the payoff & it is a good one with a crispy looking Mary Lou bursting out of Vicki’s body & going all Carrie on the prom guests. It is brilliant but it does have an unnecessary sequel baiting final scene.

Oh & Michael Ironside is in it which is always a winner in my books.

 

Prom Night 2 isn’t a family film…what with the sexual undertones, the full-frontal nudity & the gory bits which really impress. It seems like the kind of film that wouldn’t take itself seriously but it does…dead serious & it’s better for it.