Classic Horrors Club

During the Countdown to Halloween, there’s usually one movie that catches me by surprise. This year, it’s one I would never have imagined, one I can hardly believe I enjoyed so much: Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II. No, it’s not really a sequel to Prom Night (1980.) In fact, I think branding it as such hurts the movie. That’s why I’ve never watched it all these years.

The tale is that it was originally called The Haunting of Hamilton High, but when The Samuel Goldwyn Company acquired it for distribution, they reshot “half” the film with a different director and changed the name to capitalize on Prom Night’s success. Oddly, none of the re-shoots added anything to tie it to its predecessor. Therefore, no comparison is needed.

If they were going to rename it, I might have suggested Hello Mary Lou: Carrie Part 2. With a zealot mother, gratuitous locker room scene, and psychic mayhem at a dance, that’s the movie it most often evokes. However, there are several nods to A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and the second director, Ron Oliver, supposedly called West Craven for advice.

Oliver also wrote it, which may be why the reshoots didn’t turn it into a botched Frankenstein monster of a movie. I’d like to know what footage is his and what is the original director’s, Bruce Pittman. One of them has some style. Many scenes are energetic and kinetic. With its sense of humor, it’s also just shy of being a teen horror film spoof.

Someone certainly had love for the genre. Let’s assume it’s Oliver because he places characters into the story with familiar last names like Carpenter, Hennenlotter, Waters, Browning, Craven, Dante, King, and Romero. You may be able to find other horror references as well; many people recognize a nod to The Exorcist. I found one to The Evil Dead (1981.)

Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II opens with a shot of the high school that, with the camera changing positions, moves closer and closer, until we’re inside its empty hallways, accompanied by a glorious 1980’s synth pop score. Inside the theater prop room, we get so close to a big trunk that when it pops open and the title flies out, we’re truly startled.

Mary Lou Maloney (Lisa Schrage) enters a confessional and tells the priest next door her laundry list of sins, after which she says, “I loved every minute of it.” Before exiting, she writes, “For a good time call…” on the inside wall with her lipstick. She’s a bad girl all right, and it’s no surprise that when accidentally killed, her spirit is going to one day seek revenge.

Fast-forward to penniless Vicki Carpenter (Wendy Lyon), who searches the prop room for a dress to wear to prom since her religious mother, Virginia (Judy Mahoney), won’t let doting father, Walt (Wendell Smith), pony up the dough for a new one. She unwittingly releases Mary Lou’s spirit and gradually becomes possessed by it.

Spoiler alert! You may want to skip the next paragraph.

Leading to a modern day repeat of a disaster when Vicki was merely a twinkle in Walt and Virginia’s eye, the plot is somewhat predictable. What raises it a level for me are the connection between the two eras. For example, the troubled teens of the past are now the tormented adults of the present. And it’s not obvious; I figured it out as a nice surprise.

My only real disappointment with Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II is its climax. Up until then, the special effects have been good and the gore plentiful. This prom night is none of those things and therefore forgettable. Luckily, though, Vicki/Mary Lou is soon out of the gym creating havoc elsewhere and we have other things to remember when we think of it.