Prom Night 2: Hello Mary Lou (1987)

The year? 1957. The place? Small-town U.S.A. The event? Prom Night. Well, that wasn’t as dramatic as I wanted it to sound, but you get the point. Mary Lou Mahoney, a girl of what you would call “easy virtues” is about to be named queen of the prom. Of course, as proms go in the movies something goes horribly awry, resulting in Mary Lou’s tragic death. Flash ahead to 1987 as we’re introduced to good girl Vicky who finds herself up for prom queen nomination. Vicky’s the typical “good girl” type: she won’t put out, has an overly religious mother, and is a bit on the quite side. Basically, Vicky is the polar opposite of Mary Lou, at least until Vicky opens an old chest containing Mary Lou’s prom gear, resulting in her gradual possession by Mary Lou’s evil and vengeful spirit.

“Hello Mary Lou” is a sequel in name only to the Jamie Lee Curtis flick, and in my own humble opinion is actually more fun in several ways. It’s got a great cheesy 80’s vibe to it, and is a sort of weird hybrid between “Carrie” and “The Exorcist” with a dash of “Elm Street” weirdness thrown in for good measure. What made this flick work for me was the acting of Lisa Shrage as Mary Lou and Wendy Lyon as Vicky. Both gals looked great and portrayed their roles to the fullest. Lyon even goes full frontal for us (when she’s possessed of course) even giving us an “almost” lesbian scene…can’t argue with that can we fellas? There are a couple nice little effects, just don’t come expecting tons of gore as most of it is gooey rather than gory. Yes, there is a difference. And just forget you saw the bottom of the mask during the climatic end of the film ok? Ok. The entire flick moves along nicely, the characters are all rather likable, and hell, you even get Michael “I hate me some lizard aliens” Ironside as the school principal…how cool is that? Things do get a bit convoluted at the end, and you will catch yourself saying “boy is this some stupid shit” but ah, what the hell…I enjoyed this one. You go Mary Lou.