Customer Reviews

Urban Legends - Bloody Mary

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I was pretty psyched when I saw there was a third addition to the Urban Legends series - the first film was fantastic, and the second one was also pretty good. Then I saw that Urban Legends - Bloody Mary was a direct-to-video release that seemingly had nothing to do with the first two films. At that point, I just hoped this third film wouldn't be too awful. While the film falls far short of its predecessors, Urban Legends - Bloody Mary isn't all that bad. It has some definite weaknesses, but it also has a nice sampling of blood and gore.

There are many variations on the old Bloody Mary story, but it makes for classic urban legend fare. Look in the mirror, say Bloody Mary's name three times, and she appears - and then the fun begins. Apparently, a mirror isn't actually required after all, as young Samantha Owens (Kate Mara) apparently conjures the restless spirit without one after hearing the story of a local girl supposedly killed back in 1969. The next morning, she and her slumber party friends turn up missing. This is a real weak point in the story, as the whole missing episode is not handled well at all. Anyway, a connection seems to be established between Samantha and Mary Banner, the girl who was killed all those years ago. The only difference between the two girls is the fact that Samantha lived to tell about her disappearance (although, for unexplainable reasons, neither sets of girls ever told authorities who was responsible).

Those responsible for Samantha's disappearance start dying, in rather gruesome ways, which makes Sam and her brother David (whom some blame for the murders) exceedingly unpopular at school. By about the second murder, the whole urban legend m.o. is applied rather loosely, and the whole thing becomes basically a slasher film. Still, there's still the Bloody Mary connection, and Samantha comes to believe that the killer is the ghost of Mary and that she is killing the children of those responsible for her death.

There's no denying that Urban Legends - Bloody Mary is an exceedingly predictable little film. Mary's killer might as well have walked around with the words "I did it" on his forehead. There are some decent-sized holes in the plot, as well. As I mentioned, the disappearance of Samantha and her friends doesn't add up, and that gets the film off to a shaky start. Then there's the obvious question: why did neither of the sets of girls tell authorities who were responsible for their disappearances? That makes no sense at all. As for the climactic scene, the filmmakers decide to go crazy with visual effects for some reason, and that is another negative.

Still, I enjoyed this movie. The special effects for Bloody Mary herself are pretty good, and the deaths are reasonably gory (although we sometimes only see the aftermath of them) - if you hate spiders, I'm warning you right now that you do not want to watch this movie. You really have to judge this film on its own merits, as it really has next to nothing to do with the first two Urban Legends movies. Since the filmmakers sort of just ignore the whole urban legend m.o. for some of the later murders, it really doesn't belong in the series at all.

First you will notice a review stating that this movie stole it's theme from Candyman, actually the Urban Legend of Bloody Mary has been around a lot longer, as most people will recall.

Aside from that, this movie is strong from start to finish. While any slasher/teen horror flick will be predictible, this movie feels more thought out than the other 2 in this series.

the story follows a legend based in the 60's, where a girl dies during prom night after a prank goes wrong.

Mary has awoken thanks to the chant and the prank that's awfully similar to the one that happened over thirty-years ago. Mary Lambert, who did Pet Semetary directs, which helped this film a lot.

At their homecoming dance in 1969, Mary and two of her friends became the victims of a viscous prank. What was not a planned part of this high school prank, however, was that Mary end up dead. Declared missing by the local authorities, Mary's body was never found.

Thirty years later, Samantha (Kate Mara) and two of her friends are "black-listed" from the dance because of an article and picture published by Samantha in the school paper that was construed as demeaning to a few of the football players. After telling several urban legends to one another, Samantha chants "bloody Mary" three times into the night. Shortly thereafter, the three become the victims of another prank, one that strongly resembles the one played thirty years previous. When Samantha returns unharmed, she begins to see the ghost of Mary, and the lives of the jocks who played the prank become threatened.

I must admit that I did not have high hopes for this movie. However, this latest installment of the Urban Legends films was not as awful as I had expected. Though the plot makes a few leaps and bounds, and the ending has "cheese" written all over it, Urban Legends Bloody Mary made for a reasonably satisfying straight-to-video release. The acting was rather decent, the make-up was quite good, and there are a few inventive kills definitely worth watching. Furthermore, this film did not merely rehash the plot of the previous two installments, as many sequels often do, but rather took an entirely new direction. In fact, the only thing linking this film to the previous two are the deaths via urban legends, making this a stand-alone film.

Though not quite on par with the previous two Urban Legends films, I highly recommend this as a rental for those intrigued by the Urban Legends series, or horror flicks in general. It's probably not worth the cost of the purchase though except for die-hard fans.

Being blacklisted by the jocks on their homecoming nights, the 3 girls; Samantha, Gina and Mindy; stayed at home for the night entertaining themself with Urban legends and most of all "Bloody Mary", which followed with laughter when each of them cited it, 3 times, only to disappeared the next day, drugged and kidnapped by the jocks themselves. Samantha began having hallucinations and haunting dreams of some girl getting murdered and her body put away.

Freakish incidents such as death by tanning bed, spiders coming out from a wound, crushed by a vending machine; started happening to some of her friends and the authorities were baffled by these cases. In her school and the rest of the public however, people kept on starring at Sam like she has something to do with it after what she had published in their school newspaper. the only person who believed her was her twin brother, who kept by her even though what she's experiencing was pretty outrageous to believe. While they are sleuthing for answers, they found out all of these accidents happened before, when their parents were still at school.

This is one heck of a horror movie but isn't up to my standards of excellent horror movie cause it's more of a scary by music score instead of the actual movie being scary. But the storyline kept you watching till the end cause it's a race. I love Mary Banner's ghostly makeups and gimmicks. Reminds me of watching my favorite Asian horror movies.

Let's face it, we horror fans have to be picky nowadays. A lot of horror films these days are just downright annoying or silly. I know this, and that is why my horror collection is not too wide. Yet, for a film that hardly has gotten any reviews, I must say this is probably one of the better horror films that has come out recently.

I myself was critical to see no reviews on the back of the film, but I thought it would be fun to see the story of Bloody Mary into film. I was really just curious how they would play it out, since there are so many versions of Bloody Mary from the medieval queen to a girl with a horrible disease, etc. it goes on and on. They made this story different though, making it a poor woman who was the victim of a prank gone fatally wrong. Now she has come back as a vengeful spirit, awakened by one girl's summoning supposedly, prepared to kill the children of the people who had caused her fatality. And she does it in the most gruesome ways, but that is what a good horror flick does, frightens and grosses you out, and that is what this film does actually well.
Bloody Mary herself was a beautiful young lady, but as a vengeful spirit she is just downright creepy and her eyes are ones you don't want to look directly into. Basically, she is a cool figure to see. Some parts of the film are B movie material, but nothing that bothered me too much. The acting was all right as well, one or two actors were kind of fake, but there were other actors, especially the lead girl who summoned Bloody Mary in the first place, that strengthened that area. I myself thought this film would be kind of dumb in the beginning because girls in their underwear, throwing pillows at each other, is corny and silly, but don't let that throw you off. The movie gets a lot more better and realistic in the next few minutes.
Overall, despite the negative reviews on this site, I would recommend this movie. It is an interesting twist of the old tale of Bloody Mary, with a few good supporting actors and just an entertaining horror film to watch.

If I had to either get this, or some of the recently viewed horror films I have seen that came out of the actual theater, you can bet I would get this instead.

This movie was pretty darn scary. It's a movie that you'll want to watch on one of those dark stormy nights with a bunch of friends. The special effects are phenominal and it keeps you on the edge of your seat. I recommend anyone who loves horror movies to watch it!

This movie is by far the worse of the Urban Legends movies. This is another movie I purchased without renting it first. Had I rented it first, I would not have bought this movie even though I did save money by buying it previously viewed. A group of high school friends start talking about the legend of Bloody Mary. Chanting her name will make her rise from the dead! Oh Boy. The whole movie boils down to the fact that Mary was murdered many years ago and her body put away where no one would ever find it. When Mary comes back to life, she seeks revenge on fellow classmates and kills them off. Not a good horror movie. No gore, no suspense. I would definetly recommend anyone rent this movie before buying it!

I couldn't believe when I heard there was yet another Urban Legends movie! The first one was the best slasher film of the day, better than Scream in my opinion. While Scream was more interested in making fun of the slasher horror genre, the first Urban Legend was only concerned with suspense. Not to mention the setting was much darker with its gothic architecture. The second wasn't great, but it still had a somewhat interesting storyline and some tense moments.

Then there's the UL movie dubbed "Bloody Mary". As soon as I read the envelope that came with the movie and saw it was a direct to video, I cringed. Then the film opened with giggling girls pillow fighting in underwear. That was when I threw out my last shred of hope.

Good thing too. This movie is nothing at all like its previous counterparts. First of all, it's not a murder mystery....well, sort of not. Some girl named Mary gets accidentally killed by someone some years ago. To someone who's watched a lot of horror movies and knows that "B" movies don't usually go for involved, surprising plots, this one wasn't a hard one to figure out. I had it nailed pretty much from the begining of the movie.

Another problem I had was the ghost itself. They tried really hard to rip off "The Ring" and other recently popular Asian remakes. Unfortunately for them (and the viewing audience) they failed from the get go. I know she killed one person (in a gruesome, spider zit scene that was almost too much for ME to take!) with an Urban Legend but then I think they kind of dissolved into "Let's just kill this person in some way." or they completely rehash deaths from the first two films.

At least they tried to tie this film into the previous one. They briefly mention the killings at Aspen College (the film school from the second one if I remember correctly. I watched it right before watching this one and I still don't remember!). But it doesn't live up to even that film, the first film leaving this one in an embittered cloud of dust.

Too many changes made this movie suck. It looked horrible, sounded horrible, and tasted horrible. But maybe this movie won't drive you as insane as it did me and you'll leave out the part where you try to eat this dvd out of existance.

This latest entry in the URBAN LEGENDS collection is a lot better than I thought it would be. Director Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary) gives us a creepy little thriller that's more of a mystery than an out and out horror film. Mary Banner and her friends back in 1969 were drugged and seduced by a rowdy bunch of football jocks. When Mary is accidentally killed, the jock locks her body in a trunk and hides it away. Switch to current day and a young girl and her friends are given a drug and undergo a similar experience, only this time they all manage to survive. But seems like Bloody Mary is seeking revenge on the children of the boys who did her in. Filmed with a cast of unknowns (except for HILL STREET BLUES Ed Marinaro and feisty Tina Lifford), the movie has some creepy moments, most notably a creepy segment featuring some deadly spiders. Whether more sequels abound remains to be seen, but this is a fairly decent thriller nonetheless.

This movie has nothing to do with the original Bloody Mary story, it had nothing to do with saying her name in the mirror, and when you say her name three times she doesn't kill you, but kills the children of the people that killed her.

Well, the movie starts out 3 girls at a slumber party telling the story of Bloody Marry. Later one girl says Bloody Marry 3 times just joking around and awakens the spirt of Bloody Marry.

Soon after she said Bloody Marry 3 times, day after day the childern of the people that killed her start dieing. One girl died by poping a huge zit and hundreds of bugs start pouring out of the zit!