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 rban
Legends: Bloody Mary" is the third installment in the once popular
"Urban Legends" horror series, which began with "Urban
Legend" in 1998 during the sudden resurgence in genre popularity thanks to
Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson via their "Scream"
trilogy. "Urban Legend" spawned a sequel in 2000, which did so poorly
that it took another 5 years for "Bloody Mary" to get made and dumped
on video shelves. Without a doubt, the look and feel of "Bloody Mary",
especially its first half and change, owes a large debt to yet another horror
trend currently sweeping American multiplexes -- the Asian horror movies, ala
"Ring"
and "The Grudge".
By now any self-respecting fan of genre horror
knows who Bloody Mary is, or has an inkling of the legend surrounding
her. Basically, she's the female version of Candyman, minus that whole
hook for a hand deal. Our tale of murder, intrigue, and clichéd High
School teens open with three lovely lass having a slumber party where
they tell ghost stories. One such tale is that of Bloody Mary, a 1960s
schoolgirl killed in a prank (committed by jocks, of course) gone wrong.
After our modern girls fall asleep, they are discovered missing in the
morning, and it's believed foul play is involved. This turns out not to
be the case, and the girls return home, unharmed, apparently the victims
of retaliation by members of the football team, who have a grudge
against cub reporter Samantha (Kate Mara).
Samantha is steamed at what's happened to her, but
paternal twin David seems especially perturbed. (Although it could just
be that actor Robert Vito has a bit of a "rebel without a
clue" complex, judging by his one-note performance.) After a member
of the football team ends up cooked in a tanning booth, and the
girlfriend of another one has a bloody run-in with an army of spiders,
Samantha, being the hardnosed reporter that she is, suspect supernatural
forces are at play. In particular, the ghost of a young woman with long
dark hair, whose face is covered in blood, and goes by the name --
Anyone? Anyone? -- Bloody Mary.
Directed by genre vet Mary Lambert ("Pet
Sematary"), "Bloody Mary" has the makings of a decent
horror entry. Alas, a good first act is quickly ruined as soon as the
first jock gets cooked in his tanning bed. Lambert's direction has its
moments, such as whenever Bloody Mary makes an appearance, which is
unfortunately too few and far in-between. In fact, I suspect the film's
editing is the real star behind Mary's visits, as everytime the film
conjures up some decent sense of dread, Lambert invariably sinks the
whole thing by moving onto another by-the-numbers sequence involving the
impossibly boring twins Samantha and David as they skulk about town like
junior Scooby Doo detectives, only less interesting.
The script by Dougherty and Harris tries so hard to
be "hip" that it ends up being unintentionally funny. There's
a brief bit about the paternal twins decrying their home's dial up
Internet connection and running to use the school's high-speed instead.
There are also a lot of references to the previous two films that feel
as natural as two screenwriters trying very hard to connect the three
films because it was a decree from the studio that they do so. The
characters are predictably clichéd, with the Fair Hair Lead barely
registering a pulse throughout the film. If actress Kate Mara was
actually alive during the making of "Bloody Mary", I was
fooled. As for the villains, they're so clichéd that it's not even fun
to watch them die. And the less said about the marijuana smoking hippie
lady the better. What should have been a colorful character is instead
painfully forced.
Unlike the previous two, there's a very noticeable
supernatural bent to "Bloody Mary". Whenever someone is about
to die, Bloody Mary's ghost (white dress, bloody face, and long hair)
shows up to haunt them for a while. In one scene, she even climbs out
from underneath a bed just to beat the crap out of a victim. Seriously.
A ghost. Beating a victim. With her fists. No, really. I'm not kidding
here. You'd never catch Sadako doing that. Really, folks. Spirits of
dead, pissed off females shouldn't go around beating up victims. It's
just so…tactless.
One wonders why the
filmmakers didn't just go the supernatural route, and nevermind the
explanations because supernatural happenings don't require logical
explanations. (See any Japanese or Korean horror film.) Or why didn't
they just make a Slasher film like the previous two and forget about all
this ghost bit. Of course it's easy to understand why "Bloody
Mary" oftentimes veers toward "Ringu"-like
behavior -- it's precisely because films like "Ringu" and its
ilk are cleaning up at the box office. If Hollywood producers are
anything, they are creatures of little talent but big appetites for
instant success.
It's probably no surprise "Bloody Mary" feels
like such a Johnny Come Lately. The original was never all that original
(save for its urban legends hook), and this latest sequel is yet another
reminder why the 1998 original existed in the first place -- because
"Scream" made a lot of money. And now, "Bloody Mary"
exists for the same reason -- to capitalize on a currently popular
trend. Even so, there are moments in the early beginnings when you
actually anticipate that "Bloody Mary" could be good. It had
that much potential. Then again, I suppose that's the perilous nature of
being a copycat franchise from the very beginning.
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