{"id":31256,"date":"2019-10-15T00:25:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T04:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=31256"},"modified":"2019-10-16T02:09:09","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T06:09:09","slug":"you-have-to-see-this-hello-mary-lou-prom-night-ii-1987","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/15\/you-have-to-see-this-hello-mary-lou-prom-night-ii-1987\/","title":{"rendered":"You Have to See This! Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When I was a kid, \u201cHello Mary Lou\u201d was one of my all time favorite horror movies. It was a sequel to a film I didn\u2019t see until many years later, and it was always presented in edited, cut for time versions on Channel 11 WPIX in New York, but I sure as hell loved it. It was just a wacky, occasionally creepy movie that was so much crazier than I originally thought it was. The only theme that \u201cProm Night II\u201d has in common with the original slasher movie is the overtone of revenge from days past. That is about as far as it goes, as \u201cProm Night II\u201d takes a massive departure from the original premise involving an axe murderer out for revenge stalking high schoolers leading in to a disco centric prom with Jamie Lee Curtis front and center.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Following that up with what is basically a horror movie about revenge, possession, the supernatural, and everything else allows for a weird, albeit entertaining experience. There have been a ton of instances like this throughout the eighties with studios just tagging any name brand on to a movie and calling it a sequel. There was \u201cTroll\u201d and \u201cTroll 2,\u201d there was \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d and the vastly different \u201cThe Exorcist: The Heretic,\u201d and can anyone explain why \u201cMeatballs 2\u201d features an alien? Yes I know, \u201cE.T.\u201d was popular and junk. In either case, for merely being a sequel in name only, and a horror movie that borrows heavily from \u201cA Nightmare on Elm Street,\u201d \u201cThe Exorcist,\u201d \u201cPoltergeist\u201d and \u201cCarrie,\u201d \u201cProm Night II\u201d is a shockingly good horror movie. I\u2019d even say it\u2019s better than the original.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s that pure eighties horror entry, that also doesn\u2019t mind flaunting the whole decade\u2019s obsession with the sixties. The main hook of the film is Ricky Nelson\u2019s \u201cHello Mary Lou,\u201d which is also the name of the film\u2019s cunning demonic villain. Mary Lou Maloney was a young popular girl in 1957 who, during the big prom at Hamilton High, is caught by her boyfriend Bill cheating on him with Buddy. As she\u2019s crowned prom queen, jilted lover Bill decides to get revenge by hitting her with a stink bomb during her crowning. The stink bomb accidentally sets Mary Lou\u2019s dress on fire, viciously burning her alive in front of everyone. Thirty years later, ex-boyfriend Bill (The great Michael Ironside) is now the principal of their high school (Who knows why?), and her ex-lover Buddy is a priest.<\/p>\n

Both men have committed to blaming themselves for her death. Meanwhile the 1987 Hamilton High student body is preparing for prom night and student Vicki Carpenter (Wendy Lyon, who is fantastic) is looking for a dress after being denied one by her overly religious mother. She finds an old trunk in the school attic that houses the Prom Queen crown from the past prom and Mary Lou\u2019s old dress (Why, exactly? Move along, folks, nothing to see here. Move along). She accidentally unleashes the angry spirit of Mary Lou Maloney from the chest, and soon enough the students all start dying horrific deaths. Even worse Vicki is being plagued by horrific nightmares, and slowly realizes that the spirit of Mary Lou Maloney is taking over her body.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Mary Lou is hell bent on revenge, and she begins using Vicki as a vessel to help her carry out some horrendous murders, as well as eliminating some of Vicki\u2019s own rivals. Along the way there are some gnarly deaths scenes as Mary Lou Maloney unleashes pure sadistic hell on everyone. There\u2019s even a fantastic death scene where the possessed Vicki telepathically crushes rival Monica who is hiding in a gym locker (\u201cA wop baba loo bop, wop bam–!\u201d). It\u2019s a quick, gruesome, but incredible death scene and one that just doesn\u2019t get talked about enough. While \u201cProm Night II\u201d is basically all over the map, the hodgepodge of horror movie tropes works very much in favor of the narrative and overall tone.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a possession scene, a poltergeist scene, a moment involving a demonic toy, a ton of callbacks to Brian DePalma\u2019s \u201cCarrie,\u201d and the ending is almost identical to the final scene of \u201cNightmare on Elm Street.\u201d Except it is a lot cooler and makes a lot more sense within the context of the narrative. There\u2019s just so much to enjoy with \u201cHello Mary Lou\u201d as despite its derivative premise, it takes the whole idea to new levels while embracing the inherent camp of the whole concept. Despite the film\u2019s age, the final scene involving Mary Lou\u2019s big unveiling in the prom is fantastic and the special effects are still rather gruesome. \u201cHello Mary Lou\u201d is a great bit of eighties revenge horror that deserved to be up there with \u201cNightmare on Elm Street\u201d and \u201cNight of the Demons.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of the very few horror movies from the eighties to feature a very well drawn out, ferocious, and sexy female horror villain (You have to love Lisa Schrage). “Hello Mary Lou” definitely warranted a direct follow up that branched out in to its own series. To add to the fun it can be fully appreciated as a loose follow up to the Jamie Lee Curtis slasher, or as its very own horror entry. Either way, I hope in an alternate universe we were able to get at least five \u201cHello Mary Lou\u201d sequels with Ms. Maloney raising hell on high schoolers at Hamilton High.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a kid, \u201cHello Mary Lou\u201d was one of my all time favorite horror movies. It was a sequel to a film I didn\u2019t see until many years later, and it was always presented in edited, cut for time versions on Channel 11 WPIX in New York, but I sure as hell loved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1717],"tags":[275,477,793,840,922,1008,1087],"class_list":["post-31256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halloween-horror-month","category-yhts","tag-demonic","tag-horror","tag-possession","tag-revenge","tag-sequel","tag-supernatural","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31256"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32125,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31256\/revisions\/32125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}