16 October 2024
Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987)
97 min.
Directed by Bruce Pittman.
With Michael Ironside, Wendy Lyon, Lisa Schrage, Richard Monette, Jay Smith, Judy Mahbey, Kelly Simpson, Brock Simpson.
This is a muddled sequel to the original Prom Night (1980).

It's 1957, and Mary Lou Maloney - Hamilton High's slut par excellence - perishes in a fiery finish on prom night.

And damn if she hadn't *just* been crowned Queen too!

Flash forward thirty years later. Sweet blonde Vicki (Lyon) hopes she'll be Hamilton's new prom diva.

But someone - or something - is out to exact a long overdue revenge. Could it be the evil and restless spirit of Mary Lou?

Lackluster, in-name-only followup to the classic Jaime Lee Curtis slasher, Mary Lou is too disjointed to muster any real tension; the partially imaginative Nightmare on Elm Street-type fright setups are okay.

But the characters are too flatly drawn, and any attempts at momentum fall flat.

Best scene: the opening 1957 prom disaster with Mary Lou (think ripoff of De Palma's Carrie); the sequence is a straightforward, pre-supernatural part of the storyline, and it's nicely done.

Also known as The Haunting of Hamilton High.

Followed by yet another sequel, Prom Night III: The Last Kiss in 1989. Now that's a scary thought.

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