Urban Legends: Bloody Mary Year: 2005 Director: Mary Lambert Written by: Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris Threat: Ghost Weapon of Choice: Electric Fence Based upon: none IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
Urban Legend
Urban Legends: Final Cut

The tyranist's thoughts
I always find it delightful to watch movies and TV shows filmed in places that I'm very familiar with. It gives me a, possibly false, sense of intimacy with the movie. In the case of movies that aren't very good, that sense of intimacy makes the duller parts of the movie more fun to watch. This movie was pretty mediocre, but was probably just above average for me simply because I recognized the locations.
A bad high school prank occurs. For the first fifteen minutes of the movie, this is very important but gradually, it isn't anymore. Rather, a 30 year old crime is the important thing. The main characters (all involved in the prank) happen to be the children of the evil people who committed the crime, and now the ghost of the victim is reaping vengeance on the parents by killing the children.
Anyway, this is pretty typical of the direct-to-video, descended-from-Scream stuff that is being produced these days. The cast is sort of pretty. The script is adequate. The effects are about average. There isn't really much to recommend this one, but it manages to avoid being dreadful.
If you want to see this one because you enjoyed the first two movies in the series, be warned that there isn't really any connection at all to the other movies. In fact, in all likelihood, they had a script they liked and then retro-fitted it a little to try to make it part of the franchise. Still, there are lots worse movies and thise one is enjoyable in spots. I may be biased here. You may find nothing redeeming about this movie at all.
Posted: January 21, 2006

Rish Outfield's reviews
I have very little to add to what tyranist said, frankly, because we watched the movie so damn long ago. I really only remember a couple of tiny details and that the film was pretty mediocre.
While I'm no fan of the first two Urban Legendses, I was annoyed that this movie had a) nothing to do with the two previous films, which tied together cutely in the second one; and b) had nothing to do with urban legends. Hmm.
Writers Michael Doherty and Dan Harris also wrote X-men 2 and Superman Returns, so maybe this was a pet screenplay they had from their college days. Director Lambert, famous for her Madonna videos, actually directed one of the scariest films I've ever seen, Pet Sematary. This one, however, is not at all scary.
And you'd think it was, just by looking at the DVD cover. Yes, the makeup on "Bloody Mary" is quite frightening (just any use of coloured contacts tends to creep me out), but the way we are introduced to her makes us pity poor Mary (Lilith Fields), not fear her. And when she is in human form, she's SO MUCH better looking than any other member of the cast, that I couldn't help but want to see more of her. She could've triumphed, and I would've been fine with it.
Posted: January 26, 2006

Total Skulls: 18

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film		Prom Night 2
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?