By Geno McGahee
In the late 80s, horror was putting out some incredibly successful productions and the most notable were the franchise films. FRIDAY THE 13TH and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET were making big money and this did not go unnoticed. If those franchises worked, others would work too, and that is why HELLO MARY LOU: PROM NIGHT II was created with incredible A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET influence all over the place. A completely unrelated film to the 1980 PROM NIGHT, this sequel is an interesting and fun movie…even if it’s not that original.
The setting is the 1950s…to begin with. Mary Lou Maloney (Lisa Schrage) is a firecracker. She is a free spirit that really only cares about herself and she finds much joy in teasing men. She even found amusement in going to confessional and telling the priest that she loves every second of her life. The priest was quite offended, especially with all the sex talk.
Mary Lou goes to the prom and notes that “it’s not who brings you. It’s who you go home with.” That line was in the first PROM NIGHT. So, there is a connection. She lives the statement by leaving Billy Nordham (Steve Atkinson) and going with another guy. This doesn’t go well with Billy. He climbs up to the rafting as Mary Lou is being declared prom queen, CARRIE style, and drops a stink bomb down to disrupt things, but the flame catches Mary Lou’s dress on fire and she burns in front of the crowd. Nobody really helps. They just look on in horror. Now, we have a person burned coming back for revenge…sound familiar?
Fast forward thirty years, and now Bill Nordham (Michael Ironside) is the principal of the high school, but the Mary Lou incident still haunts him. Reserved high school senior, Vicki (Wendy Lyon), is not the most popular girl in class, but a connection with the spirit of Mary Lou begins to change that. At first, she has a lot of experiences similar to those of Nancy from A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. She falls into dreams where she encounters the history and world of Mary Lou. At one point, she is sucked into a chalkboard and the spirit consumes her and Mary Lou is back!
Vicki begins walking around with a new persona and even lets Bill know that Mary Lou is back. He flips and plans to kill her, which I found odd. He already killed her once and now he wants to do it again? Why? He’s still not over the fact that she cheated on him? Damn you Ironside! Get over it.
After being declared prom queen, Bill shoots Vicki down. What if he wasn’t right? What if Vicki was just joking with him? Thankfully for him, she was spot on and the burned corpse of Mary Lou climbs out of the dead body of Vicki, much like Freddy did in the second entry of that series. She raises hell at the prom and the people scatter. It was a pretty cool visual.
HELLO MARY LOU: PROM NIGHT II was remarkably fun. It is totally different than the 1980 film with no real connection. It was a re-launch of the series with the idea to capitalize on the current trends. It was a little too influenced, but it was entertaining and the crazy Ironside ending was very funny. As much as the original PROM NIGHT is a better film, this one is more entertaining and is probably one that you’d watch with more regularity. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 7/10
