Forgotten Sequels: Urban Legends- Bloody Mary

Can a good Director elevate Direct-to-Video Horror?  Today's Film is Urban Legends: Bloody Mary, a 2005 DTV Sequel.  It comes to us from Director Mary Lambert, a person Horror Fans know quite well.  For you, she's the Director of both Pet Sematary Films.  For everyone else (especially around my age), she's the Director of a number of classic Music Videos.  Like a Virgin- her.  Borderline and Control by Janet Jackson- also her.  She also Directed Mega-Python vs. Gatoroid- just to be 100.  You may scoff at that Film, but it did apparently make her the first Female Director of a Syfy Channel Film.  Thanks, IMDB!  

Keeping with the 'explain the credits' bit, this was written by the guys behind X-Men, X-Men 2 and Superman Returns!  Can it get any stranger?  Yes.  One of those Writers is the Director of Godzilla: King of Monsters.  Barely more than a Decade after writing this, he was given $200 million (a guess, mind you) to create a hit!  

To actually talk about the Film directly, it is a Sequel to Urban Legend and Urban Legends: The Final Cut- kind of.  They mention off-hand that the events happened, but otherwise this is not connected.  In fact, they use Footage from the 2nd Film as Stock Footage!  Is this the Halloween 3 of this Franchise?  The Plot involves a High School incident gone wrong, the vengeful ghost and a whodunnit tale that is not that deep.  Oh, so this is actually the Prom Night 2 of the Franchise!  Can a pre-fame Kate Mara solve the mystery?  To find out, read on...

The Film begins with a prolonged flashback disguised as an Urban Legend.  A girl named Mary is attacked while resisting a guy and her seemingly-dead body is dumped in a trunk at School.

This happened after she caught the other guys with her friends, whom they had drugged at the Prom.

FYI this happened in Utah, so I'm pretty sure that this is like a super-double Felony there.

This was all being told at a Slumber Party held by three girls, all of whom skipped Prom.

Sometime that night, they all go missing and disappear for 3 days.  We are later told that they were drugged and locked in a Warehouse...but never shown.

Important Scenes- who needs them?!?

This turned out to be a 'prank' by the Football Team, whom Mara had posted a drunken Photo of.

After that, mysterious, Final Destination-style deaths occur to Players.  For instance, one literally from Final Destination 3!

A conspirator- and former friend of Mara's- is killed by some freaky spiders and some glass, while a guy is killed by peeing on an Electric Fence.

Oh and since I felt the need to Google if that could kill you, I now have a very odd Search History!

Mary continues to target the people related to the incident, including this creepy-ass shot just for me!

So the Plot hinges upon two things.  Skip the next bit to avoid any SPOILERS...

- Mary was trapped in a chest at School for over 30 years.  Nobody smelled that or checked, huh?
- Mary was actually targeting the descendants of those in the original incident.  They just *happened* to also be the ones behind the new incident.

In the End, Mary claims her final victim- the man who left her for dead.  I won't SPOIL the reveal, but you can probably guess.

All's well that ends well...except for all of the dead people, the traumatized people and mourners.  The End.

Not the most surprising or creative Film, but still pretty darn good.  Let's be clear- my bar for Direct-to-Video Sequels is pretty low.  In the past, I've done 'Sequels' to White Noise, Wrong Turn, Stir of Echoes, The Butterfly Effect and others.  None of them were very good, to varying degrees.  With that in mind, it is nice to see one of these that is competent and well-put-together.  It helped that they had an experienced Director at the helm and good Writers behind it all.  It's still funny to think that Dougherty went from Writing this to making Trick 'r Treat to Godzilla in just over a Decade.  The Plot here has a hiccup or two- the missing Scene noted earlier- and it hinges upon some big coincidences.  They *try* to connect the incidents, with the Leader claiming that his Dad gave him the idea (since he was in the original group).  That said, I'm still clear why Mary kills only the descendants until the end.  You had a pattern, ghost lady!  Urban Legends: Bloody Mary is better than it needs to be and, to be honest, is a decent-enough Horror Film for you to seek out if you haven't seen it.  I got my copy for $1, so I'm happy.  Speaking of happy, I'm happy to be the 1,342nd person to point out this Cameo from Kate's Sister Rooney in the Film (and her first on-screen Role)...

Next time, another random Film to cover.  Assuming I don't buy anything else (like this), it should be easy to decide.  Stay tuned...