"On a prom-night dare, a trio of high school friends chant an incantation, unleashing an evil spirit from the past with deadly consequences."
Review by Kelly
As a huge fan of the first film in the Urban Legend series, I was excited to pick up the trilogy on DVD recently while I was in Ottawa visiting Jess. I have a strong feeling of nostalgia for Urban Legend and I found it amusing that there were sequels that I still hadn't seen. Honestly, I hadn't heard great things about the sequels but wanted to give them a chance.
Directed by a genre favorite, Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary 1&2) and co-written by another genre favorite, Michael Dougherty (Trick r Treat, Krampus). Urban Legend: Bloody Mary is a classic story of a violent death with the ghost coming back to enact revenge on those who wronged her. Mary Banner and her friends were drugged by high school footballers as a joke. Mary accidentally gets killed and shoved into a locked chest. These boys are scum and unfortunately Mary ends up only going after the children of the men and women who helped the prank happen. Considering the genre heavy weights behind this film, I had high hopes.
But oh boy, goodness me, I was unpleasantly disappointed. Upon conducting some research, I discovered that Urban Legends: Bloody Mary was a straight to video release and it sure as hell looks and sounds like it. The CGI is terrible and the acting is almost just as bad. The protagonist, Sam, played by Kate Mara, whose work I generally enjoy, couldn't save this film. Even the scrambled TV porn has terrible acting!
The kills are pretty lame and Mary's "ghost" is pure cheese. I say "ghost" because there is absolutely no ethereal quality to her at all. However, the spider death was a bit cringe worthy. Those with arachnophobia beware! My favorite quote of the movie was "Look! This guy's dick is smoking!"
I do have a serious question to ask; why do women stop having sleepovers? I ask this as one of the first scenes of the movie is of the main girls at a sleepover at Sam’s house. There is cold pizza sitting around and sleeping bags on the floor. They are chatting and end up discussing the legend of Bloody Mary (albeit very briefly) and they start creeping each other out. It reminds me of when I was young and used to organize these epic sleepovers with my girlfriends. I would rent six horror movies and we would pull the ever popular “all-nighter”. As girls, we had so much fun at these sleepovers bonding over movies, gossip and food. But as we grow older, we stop having them. We become so wrapped up in the daily stressful responsibilities of being an adult that I think we lose touch of ways to deepen friendships and maintain them. I miss sleepovers and giggle fits with friends and think we should re-start them. Who's with me?
After seeing all three of the Urban Legend films, I would rank them in this order: 1,1,1.
